cannabisnews.com: World Goes Up In Smoke Each April 20 





World Goes Up In Smoke Each April 20 
Posted by CN Staff on April 19, 2007 at 09:23:09 PT
By Greg Gotcher, Opinion Columnist
Source: Daily O'Collegian 
Oklahoma -- Tomorrow seems like just another day to the average person, but to a number of people, tomorrow’s date marks a special occasion where all responsibilities and worries go up in smoke.Why is there such a fuss about April 20? Why do all the slackers always seem to hype this date? When April 20 finally comes around they are nowhere to be found. What are they doing?
Perhaps they are just taking a day of rest to stay inside, take it easy and study.However, this doesn’t seem likely considering the origins of 420 (it’s pronounced “four-twenty,” not “four hundred and twenty”). April 20 is called 420 because April is the fourth month of the year, and it’s the twentieth day of the month.Supposedly, a dozen California high school students used 420 to refer to the time they would meet around a statue. They eventually turned it into a slang term referring to marijuana so teachers and parents wouldn’t understand what they were talking about.Throughout the years, the term has spread like a wildfire. High Times magazine got a hold of the term and published an article about the meaning and the slang term became a popular term all over the world.It no longer seems to be an underground term that teachers and parents don’t understand.People have taken the origins of 420 out of context. The term has many theories about its origin.To put the urban legends to rest, a review of false origins is needed.People might believe that the term is used as a police dispatch to refer to marijuana use. A review of police dispatch codes revealed that 420 is not a police radio code for anything, anywhere.Another false origin is the thought that there are 420 chemicals in cannabis. However, there are only about 315 active chemicals in cannabis, according to High Times.Some say that it started because the Grateful Dead would only stay in room 420 while touring. This, however is also false, according to Grateful Dead Productions spokesman Dennis McNally.Whatever the reason for making April 20 a worldwide cannabis smoking day, doesn’t matter. It just is, and that’s enough reason to fly to Amsterdam and partake in the festivities. It’s a day of peace, happiness and paranoia.The day is not meant to be a rebellious, lawbreaking celebration — but people are certainly breaking the law if they are in possession of Ms. Mary Jane.Rather, the day should be thought of as a day to relax and enjoy the gifts that Mother Earth and the shady dude on the corner have provided.April 20 is not only a day of greatness but also has negative connotations. It is the birth date of Adolf Hitler. It is also the anniversary of the Columbine school shootings in Littleton, Colo.Every pothead worldwide will embrace 420 tomorrow. Look around when the clock strikes 20 past four and you will most likely notice that a number of your peers have dipped out of class for a quick toke.If your friend next to you reeks of smoke tomorrow, try not to think twice about it. If you notice a red-eyed kid munching on Cheez-Its next to you, again, don’t think twice.So tomorrow when it’s 4:20 p.m., just think — there are people all over the central time zone lighting up their joints, bowls, bongs or whatever unique contraption they have thought up.Enjoy the day and be careful.Source: Daily O'Collegian (OK State U, OK Edu)Author: Greg Gotcher, Opinion ColumnistPublished: April 19, 2007Copyright: 2007 Oklahoma State UniversityContact: letters ocolly.comWebsite: http://www.ocolly.comCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #23 posted by Hope on April 19, 2007 at 16:43:37 PT
Comment 21
Right on BGreen! Right on!It must be nice. So nice.Some of my grandchildren are Nederlanders as well as U.S. Citizens. I want it to be free here so they don't want to wander across the world to live in a free country.It really bothers me and just adds more weight to this burden of concern about the way our government treats people. I've always had to warn my friends, relatives, and aquaintances from that country that when they are here...don't make the mistake of thinking this place is as free as where they come from. It's not. Dangerously so. In this country you have the "Liberty" to work yourself to death for "the man" and pay taxes. That must be what they talk about when they say we still have any liberty left. We don't have liberties...we have "privileges". That's what I'm told.A good friend of mine has a t-shirt that I think they bought there. It says "Why drink and drive when you can smoke and fly?"That kind of "flying" is cool...the kind where you get on a airplane and stay on it for so far for so long just is not my cup of tea. I strenuously avoid that sort of flying whenever possible if I possibly can. So, I'll only be enjoying the stories about Amsterdam and the freedom of the Nederlanders.I just so hope that that freedom they enjoy there, doesn't draw my precious offspring away from me... although I want them to be as free of government inteference in their lives as they would be there, for sure.I don't want to leave my country for another, though. I want to make it as good, or better here, as it is there, for all of us.
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Comment #22 posted by FoM on April 19, 2007 at 14:53:59 PT
BGreen
That's what is wrong hysterical Americans. They are so afraid of any change that they want to make laws to make people be as miserable as they are. Hopefully those days will soon be behind us after elections next Fall. I can hang on that much longer.
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Comment #21 posted by BGreen on April 19, 2007 at 14:46:07 PT
Our seventh trip to Amsterdam
is coming up this summer. I've tried to tell everybody that cannabis is a NON-ISSUE in Amsterdam. You'll see families walking right past a coffeeshop without even noticing, yet the tourists will gawk and take pictures of this antithesis to the hysterical American stereotype,I've been in DOZENS of coffeeshops in the past six years and NEVER saw any problems. No fights, no arguments, and in complete contrast to the bars in the Netherlands and the US, NO LOUD BOISTEROUS screaming or singing at the top of their lungs.I've been in bars in the US maybe a dozen times in the past six years and have seen cops show up at least six times, and on three occasions an ambulance and paramedics had to be called.The lies about cannabis will never stop as long as those supposed "drug experts" maintain a willful ignorance of the 30-year success story of the Netherlands' coffeeshop system.I've never been paranoid in the Netherlands. In fact, it brings me to tears every time I have to leave REAL FREEDOM to come back to the prison states of america, falsely called the "land of the free" by our lying bullshit leaders.Our paranoia in the united states of america is NOT paranoia, because they really are out to destroy our lives and those of our families and friends, something that they perpetrate on us themselves while blaming the innocent cannabis plant.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #20 posted by Hope on April 19, 2007 at 13:59:25 PT
Zetetic
is a good word. Thanks.What I really am is behind on my chores. God willing, I'll talk to you guys some more this evening.
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Comment #19 posted by Hope on April 19, 2007 at 13:56:48 PT
I can't even enjoy fish anymore
since I realized with my last fish how "human" they can be. He was always so happy to see me...and showed it.Aaargh.I eat it...but it still bothers me. I hope not to find out for sure, that shrimp and oysters have personalities...but I'm sure they do. 
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Comment #18 posted by whig on April 19, 2007 at 13:55:05 PT
Zetetic is a good word
I used that for awhile.I still do, sometimes.
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Comment #17 posted by Hope on April 19, 2007 at 13:53:03 PT
I've never been very leery of sheep.
Maybe a really big ram would scare me. I've heard they can be mean. I don't know. My neice had a mean ewe, as a project, but she really wasn't all that dangerous.I like my Mastiff/Bulldog when I'm out in the woods and fields. He's very protective, yet gentle. He always goes in first to any outbuilding or brushy area and inspects it for me. He most often locates a rat if he locates anything at all, but I've never seen him kill or harm one. He barks and fusses and draws my attention to it.He doesn't like for the cattle to get too close to me...but he will endure it as long as they behave gently, because he knows they are my pets as well as he is. When he doesn't like it...he just insists that they step back from me about three feet and he stays between me and them. He's not mean...and will protect them, too...if he needed to.My old friend, Marilyn, the Great Pyranese, a goat herder/shepherd, that used to visit me regularly has apparently passed away. She was very old and I noticed recently that she couldn't even chew up a weiner unless I tore it in little bits for her. I miss her. She was a magnificent animal.I was thinking metaphorically about Republicans. I don't want to hunt them or harm anyone. Surely you know me that well. I want to stop people from hurting other people.If hunter doesn't sound right to you. Consider me a seeker.
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Comment #16 posted by whig on April 19, 2007 at 13:48:40 PT
Big game hunting
Godzilla.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVKySmZ-nPk
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Comment #15 posted by whig on April 19, 2007 at 13:45:32 PT
Hope
I'm not vegetarian either, nor do I keep kosher. I try to eat organic and humanely raised food.
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Comment #14 posted by Hope on April 19, 2007 at 13:41:16 PT
Hunter...
Actually, I don't hunt or fish anymore. But I do let someone else do it for me and take it to the grocery store. I have a vegetarian, gatherer, heart...but I do consume meat....so I must be a "hunter" type, too.We HUNT for truth and justice. At least I do. Hunting means seeking sometimes...not necessarily, that you are out to kill and consume a living creature.I'd rather run a snake off even, than kill it. My "feet" are "not quick to shed bled", any blood.Something strange about wild animals. When I was at my daughter's in town...one evening while outside...I could swear I heard more coyotes near those houses than I hear out here anymore. I like to hear them. It seemed strange that they were so loud and seemingly right there in the neighborhood. It made me think that someone has a few in a back yard somewhere trying to domesticate them.
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Comment #13 posted by whig on April 19, 2007 at 13:39:25 PT
Hope
We're more like shepherds than hunters, don't you think?Still, a good sheepdog is a good sheepdog.
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Comment #12 posted by whig on April 19, 2007 at 13:31:33 PT
We aren't hunters
I don't think. At least I'm not. And carnivorous animals don't make good food anyhow. We don't want to harm anyone here. Get off our grass.
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Comment #11 posted by Hope on April 19, 2007 at 13:22:27 PT
Cornered any wild animals?
Well, yes, I have. In my younger days I even grabbed and tried to hold a few of them with my bare hands....which mostly wound up as a regrettable choice.Whenever I have to be where there could possibly be a wild animal...I make noise and stomp and yell and do everything I can to let them know Im coming and for them to clear out of my way. Wish the Repubs could be handled that way.We're here, Repubs. We know where we are going and we need you to get out of our way or help us...for your own good as well as ours. You never know when it will be you or your loved one that needs the comfort and healing found in the cannabis plant. Stop the progress today and you may be very, very sorry come some tomorrow.Also, it helps, in wild animal territory to have a sharp tooth and claw on your side. A good dog. What would be a metaphor for a good dog...in our quest.Oh, I know. The Truth.That dog WILL hunt.
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Comment #10 posted by whig on April 19, 2007 at 13:07:43 PT
Sun Tzu
Here's what you have to do... Give them an escape. A small exit, a way to retreat. So I tell them to go and nominate Ron Paul for president if they want to restore any possible honor to the Republican party. I might disagree with him but he is someone we could at least respect.
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Comment #9 posted by whig on April 19, 2007 at 13:05:13 PT
Hope
It's to be expected, unfortunately. Ever corner a wild animal?
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Comment #8 posted by Hope on April 19, 2007 at 12:55:32 PT
Chicago Sun-Times Editorial
Legalize Medical Marijuanahttp://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n492/a13.html?397
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on April 19, 2007 at 12:37:43 PT
Interesting Thread on The Abortion Ruling
I have been reading this thread since Senator Obama posted his opinion and I have never seen that many totally out there people post comments. Even Senator Obama made a brief comment. I admire him for allowing the rightwing flaming too. Clinton doesn't they said. There are over 700 comments on the thread. No one approves of abortion that I know but it should be between a doctor and the woman not the government in my opinion.http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post_group/ObamaHQ/CZsK#comments
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Comment #6 posted by Hope on April 19, 2007 at 12:08:25 PT
Maybe, Whig...
but when they get paranoid...they tend to get meaner and more draconian and that can't be good for the nation.
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Comment #5 posted by whig on April 19, 2007 at 11:55:38 PT
Hope
Look how paranoid the Republicans have become now.Oooh! Tables have turned.
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Comment #4 posted by Hope on April 19, 2007 at 10:47:07 PT
And....
I'm not smoking and I'm "paranoid" ... if you want to call it that, as hell, about what the prohibitionists do to those they find doing so. It's not imagined. It's not paranoia. It's real fear and sorrow over what is being done to people in the name of prohibition of cannabis.I fear for the users caught in their traps. It's not right. The prohibitionists and the laws we have now do really bad things to people over something that is not bad at all.
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Comment #3 posted by Hope on April 19, 2007 at 10:43:17 PT
The paranoia business
"Whatever the reason for making April 20 a worldwide cannabis smoking day, doesn’t matter. It just is, and that’s enough reason to fly to Amsterdam and partake in the festivities. It’s a day of peace, happiness and paranoia."One of my children lived in the Netherlands a couple of years. They said they were surprised that there was no paranoia problem at all, ever, in any strain they smoked while there. To me...that means that the occasional "paranoia" you experience from cannabis use in the US and other nations with draconian laws is not paranoia at all...just a clear realization of the facts.The so called, "paranoia", comes from what you know "they" can do to you in this country should you be dragged into their trap. The meaner the laws the more the apparent "paranoia". The "paranoia" comes from the state of the country's prohibition laws. It's NOT paranoia. They really do want to get you. Badly.
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Comment #2 posted by whig on April 19, 2007 at 09:57:07 PT
Wikiwiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/420_%28cannabis_culture%29
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Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on April 19, 2007 at 09:30:58 PT
Editorial
Here's a little note I sent off to the writer, it captures my thoughts pretty well-Thanks for the 420 column - I'll keep an eye for shady guys & slackers while I'm enjoying my cannabis.As for you guys, be sure to watch out for vomiting drunks while you're at your local bar. You can step in the puke and slip & break your ass. And of course drunken rednecks do love to fight & pound on their girlfriends too. Be careful out there, my boozing friend.
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