History of 4/20 at the University of Colorado

Every year, thousands come together in the middle of CU's campus to celebrate 4/20, a counterculture holiday in which public consumption of weed is overlooked by law enforcement officials for the most part. 4/20 originated in California in 1971. It began from a group of teenagers at San Rafael High School in San Rafael, California in 1971. The teens would meet after school at 4:20 p.m. to smoke marijuana outside the school at a statue of Louis Pasteur. Each of the teens had practices for sports and when they were finished with that they would all meet each other at the statue and light up at 4:20 p.m. The group named themselves the Waldos because they would meet everyday by a wall. When they met they would look for an abandoned stash of marijuana that the group had heard was hidden a near Point Reyes.⁴ Though they never found it, they had smoked plenty during their meetings. The Waldos never knew that they would create a national holiday out of they daily meetings. CU has the largest crowds for this event in the United States, and Canada's Vancouver Art Gallery has about the same turn out. The event has the reputation of a political movement working towards the legalization of marijuana.

• In the 1990’s the first flyers were hung up inviting students to smoke in Farrand Field.³
• It didn’t get really big until 2002 when several hundred demonstrators came.³
• In an effort to stop 4/20, in 2005, the school closed down Farrand Field, but people still came; when the students came, the police turned on the sprinklers resulting in millions of dollars in damage to the filed.³
• An estimated 3,000 people came to Norlin Quad in 2007 and in 2008 an estimated 10,000 people came.³
• In 2003, when the events of 420 first began to take off in Boulder, 5 cops were outnumbered by approximately 800 people and made no arrests, they only confiscated drug paraphernalia¹
• The event was moved from Farrand Field to Norlin Quad due to the amount of people who were coming.³
• 2004 was the first year police openly admitted they were not enforcing marijuana laws on this day because it was “impractical…with such a large gathering…we don’t want to create a larger issue than the one we’re presented with…”(Lt. McGraw)¹
• In previous years (as recently as 2006) Police have taken pictures of students smoking on Norlin Quad, posted them on the Internet, and offered money for anyone willing to identify the students²
• In 2007, six students were ticketed (out of about 3,000)¹
• "Given the number of people here," said Police Commander Tim McGraw "discretion is the better part of valor."³

¹"A Short History of 4/20 in Boulder." Colorado Puffs 2005-2010: n. pag. Web. 19 Apr 2010.
²Black, Gary. "The History of 4/20 at CU." Cannabis News 20 Apr. 2007: n. pag. Web. 19 Apr 2010.
³Vittert, Leland. "Police Stand by as Pot Smokers Light Up at CU." FOX 31, KDVR.COM 20 Apr. 2009: n. pag. Web. 19 Apr 2010.
⁴Huffington Post "420 Meaning: The True Story of How April 20 Became "Weed Day"" April 20, 2010