{"id":134426,"date":"2025-04-20T15:11:42","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T15:11:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/marijuana-holiday-4-20-coincides-with-easter-and-passover-this-year-heres-what-to-know-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2025-04-20T15:11:42","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T15:11:42","slug":"marijuana-holiday-4-20-coincides-with-easter-and-passover-this-year-heres-what-to-know-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/marijuana-holiday-4-20-coincides-with-easter-and-passover-this-year-heres-what-to-know-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Marijuana holiday 4\/20 coincides with Easter and Passover this year. Here\u2019s what to know – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Marijuana culture\u2019s high holiday<\/a>, known as 4\/20, falls this year on\u00a0Easter Sunday<\/a>, as well as the last day of\u00a0Passover<\/a>, meaning cannabis fans can celebrate in some unusual ways, including an \u201cEaster nug hunt\u201d in Los Angeles, kosher-style THC gummies in New York and a \u201cblaze and praise\u201d drag brunch in Portland, Oregon.
\u201cIt seemed appropriate with egg prices today<\/a> that we\u2019d be searching for something else,\u201d said Brett Davis, who runs the marijuana<\/a> tour company Weed Bus Los Angeles and organized the \u201cEaster nug hunt.\u201d
Here\u2019s a look at 4\/20\u2019s history and how it\u2019s being celebrated this year:
The origins of the date, and the term \u201c420\u201d generally, were long murky.
Some claimed it referred to a police code for marijuana possession or was derived from Bob Dylan\u2019s \u201cRainy Day Women No. 12 & 35,\u201d with its refrain of \u201cEverybody must get stoned,\u201d 420 being the product of 12 times 35.
But the prevailing explanation is that it started in the 1970s with a\u00a0group of bell-bottomed buddies\u00a0from San Rafael High School, in California\u2019s Marin County north of San Francisco, who called themselves \u201cthe Waldos.\u201d
A friend\u2019s 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 school\u2019s 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 \u2014 \u201c420 Louie\u201d and later just \u201c420\u201d \u2014 would take on a life of its own.
The Waldos saved postmarked letters and other artifacts from the 1970s referencing \u201c420,\u201d 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\u00a0the earliest recorded uses.
A brother of one of the Waldos was a close friend of Grateful Dead bassist\u00a0Phil Lesh, as Lesh once confirmed in an interview with the Huffington Post, now HuffPost. The Waldos began hanging out in the band\u2019s 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 \u201cmeet at 4:20 on 4\/20 for 420-ing in Marin County at the Bolinas Ridge sunset spot on Mt. Tamalpais.\u201d High Times published it.
\u201cIt\u2019s a phenomenon,\u201d one of the Waldos, Steve Capper, now 69, once told The Associated Press. \u201cMost things die within a couple years, but this just goes on and on. It\u2019s not like someday somebody\u2019s going to say, \u2018OK, Cannabis New Year\u2019s is on June 23rd now.\u2019\u201d
While the Waldos came up with the term, the people who made the flier that was distributed at the Dead show \u2014 effectively turning 4\/20 into a holiday \u2014 remain unknown.
With weed, naturally.
In New York City, the cannabis brand Tokin\u2019 Jew is advertising a kosher-style THC gummy line, \u201cTokin\u2019 Chews,\u201d 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 \u201cstoner activities.\u201d There is a $500 cash prize.
In Portland, Bar Carlo is hosting the \u201cblaze and praise\u201d drag brunch. Cannabis consumption isn\u2019t allowed onsite \u2014 \u201cPlease blaze before you arrive or go for a walk in the neighborhood in between performances,\u201d the event listing reads \u2014 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 doesn\u2019t care much for marijuana, but as a Mexican American who has been influenced by Catholicism, she is interested in seeing the two cultures melded \u201cin a cheeky way.\u201d
\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to seeing how the queens do it,\u201d Archuleta said. \u201cWe\u2019ve obviously given them carte blanche to do whatever they want \u2014 it\u2019s 21 and up \u2014 so it doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s sacrilegious or borderline offensive.\u201d
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 Francisco\u2019s 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 \u201cWaldos\u2019 Special Ale\u201d every year on 4\/20 in partnership with the term\u2019s coiners.
4\/20 also has become a big industry event, with vendors gathering to try each other\u2019s wares.
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\u00a0intoxicating products derived from hemp<\/a>, 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\u00a0Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0said he would vote for Florida\u2019s 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\u00a0fact sheet<\/a>\u00a0released by the White House last month complained that marijuana decriminalization in Washington, D.C., was an example of \u201cfailed policies\u201d that \u201copened the door to disorder.\u201d
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 \u201cit does align with some of their policy objectives \u2014 namely reducing criminal activity, or cartel activity.\u201d
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.
\u201cYou continue speaking up, even if the political momentum isn\u2019t there,\u201d Alovisetti said. \u201cIt\u2019s only possible if you stay in everyone\u2019s ear.\u201d
The Associated Press
© 2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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