thursday 13: happy 4/20

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4/20 falls on Sunday this year, so I feel like a post about cannabis is on topic, especially since I’m 100% behind it being decriminalized. Point of fact, I qualify for medical use, and you can be sure that, if I didn’t live on a federal installation, I’d be using it and probably living a much higher quality of life. So on to the weed facts…

Note: I’m considering it a personal goal to not use the same term for the product in question within this post. Why should I limit myself when there are so many fun slang terms for it?

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1. why is 4/20 the high day of dope?

There are lots of theories…

• 420 is the police code for smoking in progress: not true. There is no actual code for that.
• Bob Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women #12 & #35”. Why? Because the numbers multiplied equals 420. And there is a refrain in the song, “Everybody must get stoned.” Um, sure.
• 420 is the number of active chemicals that get you high: not true.
• 4/20 is Bob Marley’s birthday: not true

But the most likely scenario is just a bunch of teenagers. In 1971, five students at San Rafael High School met every day at 4:20p by the school’s statue of Louis Pasteur (of chemistry fame) to indulge in a little reefer. The time was simply when the extracurricular activities at their school ended. So they met and smoked, using “420” as their inside-joke code for Mary Jane. The code became part of popular culture because one of the core group, Dave Reddix, later became a roadie for the Grateful Dead, who adopted it. Then a group of Deadheads handed out flyers inviting people to smoke “420” at 4:20p on April 20. Steve Bloom, a ganja expert who was a journalist for High Times, got a flyer and reprinted it, and continued to use the term.

2. the grass origin story

Contrary to popular belief, the devil’s cabbage has been around far longer than the hippie era. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration Museum in Arlington, Virginia, there are written references to the asparagus as far back as 2727 BC. Supposedly, the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung used it medicinally. One small problem with this… Shen Nung was not, in fact, an emperor of China. The first emperor was Qin Shi Huang… and he was born around 260 BC, some 2000 years later. On top of which, the earliest examples of written Chinese dates to the Shang dynasty, between 1200 and 1050 BC, at least a millennia after the mythical Shen Nung. But while the Shen Nung situation might be wrong, there is ample evidence of ancient Taiwanese using hemp fibers in pottery some 10,000 years ago.

3. speaking of hemp

It’s a multiuse plant, its fibers suitable for rope and fabric. And I can use the word “hemp” multiple times without failing my aforementioned goal, as they are not the “fun” version. While hemp and pot are of the same species, hemp doesn’t produce tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA), which means it isn’t psychoactive. Hemp lacks an enzyme that produces this substance.

4. newborns testing positive

In 2012, a hospital in North Carolina suddenly had a rash of stoner babies, all testing positive for THC exposure. Usually, in cases like this, the mother is looked at for her own intake of space cake during pregnancy. But the number of positive babies was too high for that to be the likely answer. Researchers dove in and found the unlikely culprit… chemicals found in baby soaps, to include those from Johnson & Johnson, CVS brand, and Aveeno. Apparently those chemicals can lead to false positives. So no stoner babies.

5. the green herb isn’t all that green

If grown under grow lights, the amount of energy needed to produce 2.2 pounds, or 1 kilogram, of bong load is equal to that needed to drive from coast to coast in the US… FIVE times (in a car that gets roughly 44 mpg). Growing it outdoors can lessen its carbon footprint.

6. the girls get you high

Dope is gendered, and it’s the girls that do the hard work. The THC is much more concentrated in the female plants. So growers separate their male plants from their female plants before the males begin to flower and release pollen. Otherwise, the males will pollinate the females and force them to flower prematurely which significantly effects their THC levels.

7. it’s not just the young ‘uns

Studies have shown that the largest number of consumers of broccoli in the US are between 18 and 29 years old. But the fastest-growing age group are those 50 and older. This does not surprise me.

8. even the bard liked a doobie

Yes, THE Bard. Residue of pakalolo have been found among Shakespeare’s belongings. And 24 pipes were found in his garden, and 8 of them had traces of his happy smoking.

9. happy baccy virgins

In 2014, the CDC conducted a study in which they discovered that over the course of the year, roughly 2.5 million Americans tried the illicit lettuce for the first time. That equates to roughly 7,000 new users each day. In contrast, a similar study was done in 2000, with an average of 1,000 new users each day.

10. e-commerce began with boof

In the early 70s, students within Stanford University’s AI Lab used their Arpanet accounts to connect with counterparts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Stanford students used this connection to buy the magic dragon from the MIT students, creating the first online sale.

11. the big bust of bobo

There is a Guinness world record for anything. Including the biggest seizure of the green goddess. The record is currently held at 4,260,000 lbs of it, seized in Mexico on 8 November 1984 by DEA officers, based in Alexandria, Virginia.

12. bougie bud

I may have to bust my goal here and reuse a word, but I maintain it doesn’t count because it’s part of the proper name, not a casual slang reference. Anyway…

Cannabis Caviar. It’s a thing. It’s also the most expensive strain currently on the market. For $1,400 an ounce, you too can get it… if you can find it, as it’s pretty rare. Why so expensive? It has the highest THC levels of any strain at 32%.

13. musical magical brownie

What would a post about wisdom tea be without music? Here are some themed songs for your listening pleasure.

a personal favorite

the aforementioned Bob Dylan

a Rick James classic

and finally The Beatles