Akwesasne Celebrated 420 in Akwesasne Style

First and foremost – what is 420 and how did it start. There are a few stories and now legends on how 420 started and also a few falsehoods. Before we start with the legends, lets dispel some of the falsehoods – rumors...

Some people claim the number 420 was used as a police code for announcing illicit marijuana-related activities in progress. As in, an officer would notice a group of reefer heads and grab his walkie talkie to call out: "Hey, we have a 420 in progress at the Old Mill! Send backup!"

When in fact, there was never any such police shorthand associated with pot and the number 420. It does makes for good TV and conversation though.

Another dubious explanation holds that there are 420 distinct chemical compounds found in the actual cannabis plant. That, too, is rumor – false. And really, there's only one chemical compound found in pot that's of real interest, and that's tetrahydrocannabinol, more commonly known as THC. This is the psychoactive metabolite that gets you baked, to use the medical terminology. There's also cannabidiol, aka CBD.

And lastly, there is no legitimate association between marijuana and the fact that the history's most evil villain, Adolf Hitler, was born on 4/20/1889. Nor that the numbers in the Bob Dylan song "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" can be multiplied together to get the number 420. Fun facts for trivia night, but there's little truth beyond that.

So how did 420 Day start?

It is thought that 420 originated in California in 1971, of course, when high school students would meet every day at 4.20pm to smoke weed and search for cannabis plants in the woods.

The story goes a group of upstanding young marijuana enthusiasts at the local high school caught wind of a plot of marijuana growing wild in a forest near town.

To be more specific – the San Rafael High School students, who called themselves the Waldos, would meet at a wall outside their school after sports practice every day – at exactly 4.20pm.

They hatched a plan to find the pot plot, just as any decent young men at that time would have done. The Waldos, would meet up each day at 4:20 PM at a statue near their school. Once assembled at the appointed time and place, they set out en masse in search of the grass. The teens started using the term "420" to talk about weed, from inviting their friends to get high to asking if they had weed on them – and the code entered the mainstream and now regularly appears everywhere in pop culture.

Eventually 4/20, or April 20, became an unofficial holiday dedicated to getting high.

Later, this being the later 1970s and 1980s, the Grateful Dead spread the association between 420 and marijuana across America. The real tipping point came in 1990 at a Grateful Dead concert and passing a flyer about turning the tale of 420 into something of their own. The creators of the flier thought it would be cool for the marijuana crowd to turn the tale of cops' code around on them and celebrate pot by smoking together at 4:20pm on April 20th.

Here in Akwesasne, cannabis dispensaries, licensed and unlicensed all did their own take on celebrating 420. Some dispensaries created their own theme for 420 and others enhanced their brand to entice new customers and to urge regular customers to return.