True story prelude

I go to the Mobil store and get a pack of cigarettes. The guy rings it up and tell me the total. $4.20. (generics) Then he starts giggling. Being the paranoid freak that I am, I think he is laughing at me for buying generics. As I start to pop the trunk it hits me. Ohh...that 4.20.

The story

It’s one of those days, kid. The incense is lit, The Congos “At The Feast” just popped up on Music Chocie, and I’m cleaning out the email, typing up news bits I missed the last few days. I come across one that makes me laugh. It is the second time today that these numbers have come to my attention. 4/20!

If you don’t know what this is, try to keep up and don’t get all judgmental on us when you do catch up. To the rest of you, mi familia, you are probably grinning already. Being the professional writer that I am, I begin to do a bit of research to find the meaning of the mysterious 4/20 that is following me around today. The email starts like this:

KOTTONMOUTH KINGS AND CYPRESS HILL CELEBRATE MARIJUANA HOLIDAY APRIL 20th, 2005, WITH SMOKERS WORDWIDE

I read the press release and got briefed on the details. Every year on April 20th, major celebrations, demonstrations, concerts and festivals take place in honor of the marijuana holiday. This year, hydro-holding rockers Kottonmouth Kings teamed up with Cypress Hill and recorded a song that will be released on 4/20. “Put Down The Pipe” is the name of the cut .

KMK front man Brad "Daddy X" Xavier will be doing the radio rounds, promoting the song and the holiday. "This song teams the two biggest pro-marijuana bands on the planet," says Kottonmouth Kings' frontman Daddy X. "We're happy to be a part of this year's 4/20 holiday festivities and hope that this song can give people a reason to light up their pipes in unison."

"Why is it that a plant made by the creator is illegal, yet guns and bombs manufactured by man are legal?" says X from his California home. "We're just trying to raise awareness about marijuana and all the benefits it brings with it."

“Put Down The Pipe” will be on the KottonMouth Kings next self titled album. The Kotton Mouth Kings and Cypress Hill have a lot of supporters with their pro-marijuana stance uniting them with fans. They should not be disappointed with the new material.
(However, I am disappointed that no MP3 were included in the email, so I have nothing to show you all. See the bottom of this article for a few links to some older stuff.)

Now, back to this 420 thing. Wikipedia had the following things to say about the subject:

Snopes.com and The Straight Dope claim that in the early 1970s a group of teenagers at San Rafael High School in San Rafael, California used to meet every day to smoke marijuana after school at 4:20 PM. The time became a code word for the drug, and usage spread. 4:20 PM has since become a popular time to "smoke up". (It's also worth noting that 4:20 PM is the time of LSD creator Albert Hofmann's first deliberate ingestion of the substance, in 1943 on what was later dubbed Bicycle Day; perhaps this is where the San Rafael teenagers picked up the idea.)

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