The Real Story of 420: Five Teens, a Treasure Map and the Grateful Dead

The Weekly Sesh — Vol. 10

Ask ten people why “420” means weed and you’ll get ten answers. Cop radio code. The number of chemicals in a cannabis plant. A Bob Dylan song. Somebody’s uncle swears it’s tea time in Amsterdam. Fun theories — and almost all of them wrong. The real story is better: five high-schoolers, a hand-drawn treasure map, a statue of a French scientist, and the biggest jam band in the world. Pull up a chair. This one’s for the circle.

Meet the Waldos

San Rafael High School, Marin County, California, 1971. A crew of five friends liked to hang out on a wall outside school, which earned them the name the Waldos. Three of them have gone public over the years — Steve Capper, Dave Reddix and Mark Gravitch — while the others have stayed anonymous. They weren’t trying to start a movement. They were just bored teenagers who loved a good adventure, which they called “Waldo Safaris.”

That fall, the best safari of all fell into their laps. Word got around that a member of the Coast Guard had planted a cannabis patch out on the Point Reyes peninsula and couldn’t tend it anymore. Even better: there was a crude map showing where it was.

4:20, at the Louis Pasteur Statue

The plan was simple. After sports practice, the crew would meet at 4:20 p.m. at the statue of Louis Pasteur on campus, pile into Steve Capper’s 1966 Chevy Impala, smoke up and go hunting. Their shorthand around the hallways was “4:20 Louis.”

Here’s the twist: they never found the plants. Week after week, they searched and came home empty-handed. But the phrase stuck. They dropped the “Louis,” and “420” became their secret code for smoking — something they could say right in front of teachers and parents without anyone catching on.

How the Grateful Dead Took It Worldwide

A code word between five friends doesn’t usually go global. This one had connections. The Grateful Dead were based around San Rafael in those days, and the Waldos had a line straight into the scene: Gravitch’s father handled real estate for the band, and Reddix’s older brother was friends with bassist Phil Lesh and managed one of his side projects. “420” moved from the Waldos to the Dead’s circle, and from there into the traveling, tie-dyed community that followed the band from city to city.

Fast forward to Christmas week, 1990. High Times reporter Steve Bloom is at a Dead show in Oakland when a Deadhead hands him a flyer: meet at 4:20 on 4/20 on Mount Tamalpais in Marin and smoke together. High Times ran with it, and the magazine’s reach did the rest. Its editor Steven Hager started scheduling events at 4:20 p.m., and the number went from inside joke to international holiday.

Fun detail: that same flyer also pushed the “police code” story. Nobody knows who made it — but it’s a big reason the wrong origin spread right alongside the right one.

Busting the Myths

The Waldos didn’t just tell a good story. When High Times started digging, they came with receipts: letters postmarked in the 1970s using the term, an old school newspaper mention and art from their crew. They even keep an original “420” flag tucked away in a bank vault. The evidence was solid enough that the Oxford English Dictionary’s entry for “420” credits students from San Rafael.

From Inside Joke to Law Books

The number didn’t stop at parties. In 2003, California lawmakers passed Senate Bill 420, which set up the rules for the state’s voter-approved medical marijuana program. Officially, nobody has ever said where the bill number came from — but come on. Today, April 20 is the closest thing cannabis culture has to a national holiday, with crowds lighting up together at 4:20 p.m. in parks and campuses across the country, and dispensaries treating it like Black Friday.

It’s also a reminder of how far things have come. A word that started as a way to dodge parents and police in 1971 now shows up on product menus, in state law and in the dictionary. If you want the policy side of that story, catch up on Vol. 5: Reform Watch and Vol. 8: Ballot Watch 2026.

Quick note: this is culture and history, not legal advice. Cannabis laws vary by state — know yours and celebrate responsibly.

Wear the Number

420 is the one code everyone in the culture knows — so wear it like you know the whole story. Grab the 99 Problems & 420 Solutions T-Shirt, or shout out the most dedicated person in the house with the 420 MOM 365 T-Shirt. Then when somebody at the sesh brings up the police-code thing, you know what to do.

Rep the strain. Wear the culture.

Shop everything at Crazy Strains Tees.

Next up on The Weekly Sesh: Monday we’re back with another Strain Spotlight — a new legend from the shop gets the full origin-story treatment. Stay tuned.