Marijuana culture's high holiday, 420, falls on Saturday this year, an occasion celebrated by pot enthusiasts around the globe who gather under the haze of cannabis smoke by sharing joints in camaraderie.But why is April 20 the day to light up? The origins stem from a group of five Marin County men, now in their 60s, who coined the slang term in 1971 while students at San Rafael High School.
"There were no dispensaries back then, as widely seen across California now, after the state legalized recreational marijuana use in 2016. In those days, the Waldos got their cannabis from acquaintances or dealers."You never knew what kind of weed or what the THC percentage was. So every single time you smoked, it was Russian roulette," joked Capper, who said that back then, purchasing weed was a gamble. "Sometimes, it's pretty astonishing.