cannabisnews.com: Students Celebrate Drug Holiday





Students Celebrate Drug Holiday
Posted by CN Staff on April 19, 2006 at 22:16:30 PT
By Arielle Gomberg, Assignment Editor
Source: Daily Targum 
New Jersey -- Marijuana smokers everywhere know 4:20 is a time of day to get high, and for them, April 20, more than any other day, is a holiday."[I'll be] calling every pot-head I know to wish them a happy holiday because this is our national holiday," said Dovid Goldman, a Livingston junior. "In this age of attempted legalization, it's important for us to have our day," he said.
People said they will celebrate in a variety of ways."It's a day to get together and celebrate community," Lars Peterson, a Edward J. Bloustein School of Public Planning senior, said.He and his friends will participate in the "Hippy Olympics," an annual event invented in honor of the day. The festivities will include a Hacky Sack competition, an Ultimate Frisbee tournament and other activities, Peterson said.Rutgers College senior Tosin Akinduro said he imagines people will be "chiefing like an Indian," a term he said refers to smoking weed."I won't be partaking, of course, because of my career," he said.But others, such as Ashley Hanina, who is not affiliated with the University, said she took off work, so she's bound to celebrate.As a number, 420 has convoluted origins. Among smokers, the number is always pronounced "four-twenty" and never "four hundred and twenty," which leads some people to believe it is a police code.But Lt. John O'Neal from the Rutgers University Police Department said he never heard of the police term."Codes vary from department to department. It might be the code somewhere," he said.According to several Web sites, the number is not a police code, but rather a reference to the time of day when 12 teenagers in San Rafael, California used to get high every day in the 1970s. The teenagers may have imitated police code on a pirated radio, by saying, "We have a 420 initiated on San Rafael Hill," to indicate they were smoking marijuana, according to answers.com. In support of the time theory, other people say on an analog clock, when the time is 4:20, it looks like the there's a joint in the face's mouth.O'Neal said the RUPD does not adapt itself in honor of the occasion. "We don't treat it any different than any other day," he said. "Marijuana is still illegal in New Jersey so if we come across it we deal with it accordingly."But some students are opposed to 420, calling it an arbitrary designation. "I think it is stupid," said Larry Wiggins, a Livingston College sophomore and president of the Black Student Union. "There is no reason to celebrate smoking pot … if it's something you do … you could smoke up on July 13 or December 28, [but] we don't call those [days] holidays." President of the College Republicans Joseph T. McCarthy took an even stronger stance against the drug holiday."You feel better about yourself when you're 100 percent," the Rutgers College senior said. "If you're smoking up on 420, you're out of it, and I don't like to be out of it."Source: Daily Targum (Rutgers, NJ Edu)Author: Arielle Gomberg, Assignment EditorPublished: April 20, 2006Copyright: 2006 Daily TargumContact: oped dailytargum.comWebsite: http://www.dailytargum.com/CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on April 20, 2006 at 11:37:01 PT
Hope
I talk by e-mail with Linda almost everyday. I wrote a letter to his warden to ask him to please let Jerry be sent back to Oregon so his wife and mother would have him closer. I even told the warden that I would pray that he makes a wise decision one that is compassionate. Jerry is in with people who have murdered people and they don't know why he is there.
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Comment #4 posted by Hope on April 20, 2006 at 11:22:05 PT
Happy 4-20
to Runruff.It's possible, I hope.
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Comment #3 posted by Hope on April 20, 2006 at 11:21:17 PT
How long before they can set our people free?
How long?I don't know why...but I have a good feeling about Runruff.
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Comment #2 posted by Hope on April 20, 2006 at 11:19:33 PT
4-20-2006
I think it's sweet...as long as nothing terrible happens that we know of. I know terrible stuff happened yesterday and today in years past and I always hold my breath.I'll exhale in a day or two, maybe.
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Comment #1 posted by whig on April 20, 2006 at 11:16:16 PT
Happy 4/20
4/20 is a holiday because it is a Holy Day.
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