Marijuana cultureAs high holiday, known as 4/20, falls this year on Easter Sunday, as well as the last day of Passover, meaning cannabis fans can celebrate in some unusual ways, including an oEaster nug hunto in Los
Angeles, kosher-style THC gummies in New York and a oblaze and praiseo
drag brunch in Portland, Oregon.

oIt seemed appropriate with egg prices today that weAd be searching for something else,o said Brett Davis, who runs the marijuana tour company
Weed Bus Los Angeles and organized the oEaster nug hunt.o

HereAs a look at 4/20As history and how itAs being celebrated this year:

Why 4/20?
The origins of the date, and the term o420o generally, were long murky.

Some claimed it referred to a police code for marijuana possession or was derived from Bob DylanAs oRainy Day Women No. 12 & 35,o with its refrain
of oEverybody must get stoned,o 420 being the product of 12 times 35.

But the prevailing explanation is that it started in the 1970s with a
group of bell-bottomed buddies from San Rafael High School, in
CaliforniaAs Marin County north of San Francisco, who called themselves
othe Waldos.o

A friendAs brother was afraid of getting busted for a patch of cannabis he
was growing in the woods at nearby Point Reyes, so he drew a map and gave
the teens permission to harvest the crop, the story goes.

During fall 1971, at 4:20 p.m., just after classes and football practice,
the group would meet up at the schoolAs statue of chemist Louis Pasteur,
smoke a joint and head out to search for the weed patch. They never did
find it, but their private lexicon u o420 Louieo and later just o420o u
would take on a life of its own.

The Waldos saved postmarked letters and other artifacts from the 1970s referencing o420,o which they now keep in a bank vault, and when the
Oxford English Dictionary added the term in 2017, it cited some of those documents as the earliest recorded uses.

How did 4/20 spread?
A brother of one of the Waldos was a close friend of Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, as Lesh once confirmed in an interview with the Huffington
Post, now HuffPost. The Waldos began hanging out in the bandAs circle, and
the slang term spread.

Fast-forward to the early 1990s: Steve Bloom, a reporter for the cannabis magazine High Times, was at a Dead show when he was handed a flyer urging people to omeet at 4:20 on 4/20 for 420-ing in Marin County at the Bolinas Ridge sunset spot on Mt. Tamalpais.o High Times published it.

oItAs a phenomenon,o one of the Waldos, Steve Capper, now 69, once told
The Associated Press. oMost things die within a couple years, but this
just goes on and on. ItAs not like someday somebodyAs going to say, aOK, Cannabis New YearAs is on June 23rd now.Ao

While the Waldos came up with the term, the people who made the flier that
was distributed at the Dead show u effectively turning 4/20 into a holiday
u remain unknown.

How is it celebrated?
With weed, naturally.

In New York City, the cannabis brand TokinA Jew is advertising a kosher-
style THC gummy line, oTokinA Chews,o designed to meet dietary
restrictions for Passover.

Davis said he expected 300 people to partake in the West Hollywood Easter
nug scavenger hunt this weekend, aided by a mobile app leading them
through participating dispensaries, trivia challenges and ostoner
activities.o There is a $500 cash prize.

In Portland, Bar Carlo is hosting the oblaze and praiseo drag brunch.
Cannabis consumption isnAt allowed onsite u oPlease blaze before you
arrive or go for a walk in the neighborhood in between performances,o the event listing reads u but there will be a door-prize gift basket from a
local dispensary.

Bar owner Melinda Archuleta said the brunch is a dry run for hosting Pride month events in June. She herself doesnAt care much for marijuana, but as
a Mexican American who has been influenced by Catholicism, she is
interested in seeing the two cultures melded oin a cheeky way.o

oIAm really looking forward to seeing how the queens do it,o Archuleta
said. oWeAve obviously given them carte blanche to do whatever they want u itAs 21 and up u so it doesnAt matter if itAs sacrilegious or borderline offensive.o

There are bigger celebrations, too, including the Mile High 420 Festival
in Denver and one put on by SweetWater Brewing in Atlanta. Hippie Hill in
San FranciscoAs Golden Gate Park historically has attracted massive
crowds, but the gathering was canceled for a second straight year, with organizers citing a lack of financial sponsorship and city budget cuts.

Just north of the Bay Area, Lagunitas Brewing in Petaluma, California, releases its oWaldosA Special Aleo every year on 4/20 in partnership with
the termAs coiners.

4/20 also has become a big industry event, with vendors gathering to try
each otherAs wares.

What about the politics?
There are 24 states that allow recreational marijuana and 14 others
allowing it for medical purposes. But the movement recently has suffered
some setbacks, with voters in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota
deciding not to adopt legalization measures last November.

Several states also have cracked down on intoxicating products derived
from hemp, which have been widely sold even in prohibition states thanks
to a loophole in the federal Farm Bill.

Marijuana remains illegal under federal law. As a candidate, President
Donald Trump said he would vote for FloridaAs amendment and signaled
support for reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug, a process started by the Biden administration.

But his administration has not indicated cannabis policy is a priority. A
fact sheet released by the White House last month complained that
marijuana decriminalization in Washington, D.C., was an example of ofailed policieso that oopened the door to disorder.o

A bipartisan group of senators last week reintroduced legislation that
would ensure states can adopt their own cannabis policies and remove
certain financial hurdles for the industry, such as letting entities
deduct business expenses on their taxes.

Charles Alovisetti, a lawyer with the cannabis industry law firm Vicente
LLP, said he hopes the administration will push forward with marijuana
reform at the federal level, saying oit does align with some of their
policy objectives u namely reducing criminal activity, or cartel
activity.o

He also encouraged advocates to keep pushing, noting some measures such as improving banking access for marijuana businesses might pass as part of
larger legislative packages.

oYou continue speaking up, even if the political momentum isnAt there,o Alovisetti said. oItAs only possible if you stay in everyoneAs ear.o

https://ktla.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-marijuana-holiday-4-20- coincides-with-easter-and-passover-this-year-heres-what-to-know/