cannabisnews.com: Lifting The Haze From 'High' Holiday Myths





Lifting The Haze From 'High' Holiday Myths
Posted by CN Staff on April 18, 2008 at 08:12:54 PT
By Alyssa Carroll 
Source: Daily Campus
Connecticut -- The "stoner" superbowl, and a favorite holiday of all herbal lovers, 4/20 is a celebration of all the green glory that is marijuana. It is a day where red eyes are as common as blue, snack foods are inhaled by the pounds and tie-dye and hemp uniforms are seen all around. However, there is as much haze surrounding the history behind this holiday as the participants themselves. Many people have no idea as to why 4/20 is the preferred spark time of the green culture, and an equal amount have only heard the urban legends. Paige Nuzzolillo, 4th-semester anthropology major, believes that 4/20 is celebrated, "because it's the police code. 420 is the police code for marijuana."
Tom Morph, 2nd-semester theater major, believes it's "because it was Hitler's birthday." Zane Roberts, 2nd-semester theater major, believes it's simply because "stoners need a holiday too." While these are all widely believed theories, none of them are actually correct.Four-twenty is actually not a police code for anything, anywhere. In fact, California Penal Code 420 defines as a misdemeanor the hindrance of use of public lands. While 420 is actually Hitler's birthday, surprisingly the birth of this Nazi leader was not the reason that peace-and-love followers rejoice. Other popular myths include the notion that there are 420 active chemicals in marijuana, and that Grateful Dead would only stay in room 420. However, according to About.com, there are actually only around 315 active chemicals, and according to Grateful Dead Productions spokesman Dennis McNally, that rumor is false.In reality, according to High Times Magazine, "The term '420,' once shrouded in mystery, began as a code for marijuana among a group of students known as 'The Waldos' at San Rafael High School in Marin County, California. Throughout the 70s and 80s the term spread through the relentless touring phenomenon that was the Grateful Dead. All the while, The Waldos held small ceremonies on April 20th at Mt. Tam in Marin."According to Steven Hager, editor of High Times, the term 420 was shorthand for the time of day the group would meet at the campus statue of Louis Pasteur to smoke pot. "Waldo Steve,'' a member of the group who now owns a business in San Francisco, says the Waldos would salute each other in the school hallway and say "420 Louis!'' The term was one of many invented by the group, but it was the one that caught on. "It was just a joke, but it came to mean all kinds of things, like 'Do you have any?' or 'Do I look stoned?' '' He said. "Parents and teachers wouldn't know what we were talking about.'' The term took root and flourished. It spread beyond San Rafael with the assistance of the Grateful Dead and their dedicated cohort of pot-smoking fans. The Waldos decided to assert their claim to the history of the term after decades of watching it spread, mutate and be appropriated by commercial interests. The Waldos contacted Hager, and presented him with evidence of 420's history, primarily a collection of postmarked letters from the early '70s with lots of mention of 420. They also started a Web site: http://www.waldo420.com/"We have proof, we were the first,'' Waldo Steve said. "I mean, it's not like we wrote a book or invented anything. We just came up with a phrase. But it's kind of an honor that this emanated from San Rafael."Source: Daily Campus, The (UConn, CT Edu)Author: Alyssa Carroll Published: April 18, 2008Copyright: 2008 The Daily CampusContact: opinion dailycampus.comWebsite: http://www.dailycampus.com/CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #8 posted by greenmed on April 19, 2008 at 18:10:49 PT
runruff
I agree with what you wrote.Neo-Machiavellianism seems to have been the model especially in these last seven years. I believe there is reason to be hopeful of electing an administration that does not resort to control by fear.We've had it before, although it has been quite a while.
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Comment #7 posted by runruff on April 19, 2008 at 08:55:37 PT:
Keep 'em shaking ,boy!
Fear and anxiety go hand in hand. Is just a thought but President Eisenhower said to beware of the military industrial complex. We know today what a choke hold they now have on our government and out budget. This was all accomplished through a technique we now have a term for, it is called the, "politics of fear." It has worked very well up until now. Could it be that even the Pentagon sees cannabis as a threat because it lowers the feeling of anxiety in people. Some say it gives one a feeling of well being. Seems this would interfere with their program to keep people paranoid all the time. And of course we all know that getting high makes you think. Meditating while high makes you smarter. I have these thoughts and cannot put anything past people who are ADDICTED to power. 
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Comment #6 posted by greenmed on April 18, 2008 at 21:43:48 PT
Link #1 is good research
It should be shouted from the rooftops! Cannabis certainly has a more benign side-effect profile than do the SSRIs and other drugs used to alleviate anxiety.What does this say about the commonly held belief that cannabis use is sometimes associated with paranoia, if there is no biochemical basis for it?
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on April 18, 2008 at 20:10:46 PT
 "...because they are absolutely crazy."
The prohibs, I mean.
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Comment #4 posted by Hope on April 18, 2008 at 20:08:17 PT
Saying nothing positive about cannabis
*smile*Ekim. I noticed that little "slide by" in the article from comment 1. As in slide on by... act like you didn't see it or it isn't important.It was obvious that that little experiment with the cannabis, no it was just synthetic thc, was a positive thing... but they just slid right by it... quietly ... mentioning that the result was so useful in helping them understand that they should be able to see the results of the pharmaceutical they were testing in the same way... if it was working.Right. Slide on by. Act like you never saw it. Can't say as I blame them, under the circumstances they live in... but dang... END THE INJUSTICE OF THE HEINOUS PERSECUTION OF PEOPLE WHO CHOOSE TO USE CANNABIS.Not that it would help if they had mentioned the effectiveness of the cannabis copy. Nothing helps... because they are absolutely crazy. Prohibs, in their wild insanity, somehow manage to ignore everything that might not be negative, especially how helpful the herb can be, even in helping cancer victims, in their lust to destroy cannabis users.They're nuts in their hate.
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Comment #3 posted by ekim on April 18, 2008 at 19:50:58 PT
PET SCANS
http://cannabisnews.com/news/23/thread23819.shtmlComment #10 posted by paulpeterson on April 15, 2008 at 08:59:44 PT 
Block at U of Iowa-doing research since 911 
I talked with Block in 2002-he had been working on NIDA grants for some 3 years by then.
I asked him what they already knew from their "PET SCANS" so far:1) no permanent brain changes from even chronic use.2) specifically no "rewiring" of the stimulus reward center (like with those dopamine surging drugs, like Coke, Meth, Alcohol, Opiates, Nicotine) ie: it is not addictive3) marijuana usage causes a surge in blood flow to the ventral lobes-the area most ravaged by ALZHEIMER'S-this area causes "emotional thought"-that is why girls have long known if their boyfriend is emotionally "dead", sticking a joint in his mouth will get him thinking about and talking about love (guys, watch out for this ploy-it is fatal to independence).I asked him if he had "published" his research-NO, said he, he was trying to get reapproved for grant money and ANYBODY THAT PUBLISHES ANYTHING POSITIVE ABOUT MARIJUANA GETS BLACKBALLED.A year later, he published an article about how marijuana changes the "time clock", (ie: a negative slant-which obviously has helped him "prime the pump").The interesting thing is, his quip about how if there are negative findings, that will help embolden the "antis", but if there are positive findings, that will help decriminalization advocates (roundly stated).That sounds pretty bold for him-in other words, he is anticipating positive results from this study-and is "couching" his words, in neutral terms to deaden the blackball thingy, in my opinion.Its good to see statewide publicity about their advertizing for study participants, of course.Any questions? PAUL PETERSON Storm lake 712-732-2620
 
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Comment #2 posted by Hope on April 18, 2008 at 19:23:38 PT
Comment 1
That's very interesting.That's cool that they can actually see the effect happen through that fMRI.
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on April 18, 2008 at 12:39:46 PT
High Anxiety?
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/539960/
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