I may be going out on a limb here but I am guessing that to many of you 420 is just a number. Here in Manitoba, as in many other parts of the world, that number takes on a larger significance. Pronounced " Four Twenty" it is slang the world over for Marijuana. The term comes from the supposed police code for a marijuana arrest. This however is incorrect according to various sources including the
Urban Dictionary, 420 may have started out as a code word between a bunch of Californian high school students that liked to get high.
In any case, the term has become the clarion call of pot smokers everywhere to light up. Today's date also figures into the term, April 20 or 04-20 in Canada is the day that Marijuana activists and casual users alike gather on the lawns of our houses of government to protest the continued criminalization of marijuana use.
Here in Winnipeg the scene on the legislative grounds was as always a festive event. This year a few thousand people gathered, some brightly dressed, some carrying signs, all smoking dope.
