Sunday is April 20 and to many, that might not be a particularly notable day on the calendar, but for others, 4-20 is an unofficial holiday to celebrate cannabis.

There are several theories of how the holiday originated but the most credible dates back to 1971, with five high school students at San Rafael High School in Marin County, California.

David Reddix, Steve Capper, Larry Schwartz, Jeff Noel and Mark Gravich were a group of stoners who would hang out at a particular wall in between their classes. The group called themselves “The Waldos” after a term used by comedian Buddy Hackett to describe odd people, according to a 2018 article by The Associated Press.

One afternoon in 1971, a non-Waldo came to visit The Waldos with a map to the location of a marijuana garden in the forest nearby Point Reyes National Seashore. According to The Associated Press, the classmate said the garden belonged to his brother-in-law who was renouncing ownership of the garden and said The Waldos were welcome to the marijuana.

The Waldos made plans to find the garden after school and met in front of the school’s statue of Louis Pasteur at 4:20 p.m., where they would then pile into Capper’s vehicle, listen to a Grateful Dead 8-track tape and pass around joints for the 45-minute drive to the coast.

Over subsequent decades, 420 has become a shorthand for marijuana in all of its myriad forms.

While back in the 70s, marijuana use was (mostly) a secret, taboo activity, the times have been-a changin’ since then. Over the past 15 or so years, marijuana has been legalized in 24 states and Washington D.C. and those states, including here in Michigan, have seen success from raking in tax dollars associated with the plant.

During that time, marijuana has gone from a misunderstood substance that had parents worried their teens would become zombies, to a billion dollar industry where celebrities like Snoop Dogg and Willie Nelson have become almost mascots for the drug, further showing that being a pot user has become socially acceptable in recent years.

Even locally, marijuana-focused events are not unheard of, with the Camp Cannabis Music Festival having a great showing in Marquette in 2023 and the upcoming Summer’s End Smokeout slated for August in Republic.

These changing attitudes about marijuana may seem shocking to some but to others, it has been a long time coming.