It’s here! It’s here! It’s finally here! April 20 is for potheads what Christmas is for little kids or, dare I say it, what April 19 is for the armed and dangerous anti-Obama crowd. It all goes back to 1971, when a group of San Rafael teens used to gather after school at 4:20 pm at the statue of Louis Pasteur. They were not going over their biology notes. The only papers they brought with them were for rolling their weed, and 420 soon became synonymous with weed and the cannabis counter-culture.
Almost forty years later, April 20 (4/20 on the calendar) has become an international day of enormous smoke-outs dedicated to the legalization of marijuana. Where better to celebrate than the UCSC campus, and indeed the campus has played an unwilling host to the event for several years running. Thousands of people will be gathering at Porter Meadow today to smoke up and enjoy what one student calls, “the biggest act of civil disobedience the school sees.” Yes, even more than the protests against tuition hikes and furloughs. Bill Maher would be proud.
School authorities realize that they can’t prevent the event, but they can prevent people from coming. In an email to students, Vice-Chancellor Felicia McGinty wrote that, “This unwelcome and illegal activity diminishes UC Santa Cruz reputation and draws negative attention to our campus.”
And yet, some officials are concerned that McGinty’s email may not have the desired effect of preventing the event from taking place. They are trying to restrict access, closing all the gates to the campus except the main one, and preventing students from having overnight guests until Wednesday. The campus will not, however, beef up its police presence.
Happy 4/20 everyone! And don’t forget—it’s still a school day.
Read More at KSBW.
