School is in attendance on Wednesday April 20th

April 19, 2016 6:14 PM

The Vancouver School Board would like to remind students that 4/20 is a regular school day, and absences will be marked. "While not officially confirmed," the information sheet from the VSB helpfully adds, "it appears that the 2016 Vancouver event will be held at Sunset Beach."

Data intelligence firms are making robust sales predictions for the day in Washington and Colorado. Pennsylvania is marking the occasion with one of the strangest legalizations so far - no smoking, no buds, no plants. In San Rafael, where it all began, the local paper so far has little to say about it.

posted by clawsoon (24 comments total)

Aww, guys, you don't have to celebrate my birthday with such grand events, really. Wait, why are you sniggering?
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 6:27 PM on April 19, 2016 [3 favorites]

4:20 A.M: April, 18, 1775.

"The British are coming."

"Dam it Elijah, we are the British"
posted by clavdivs at 6:49 PM on April 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

We pick-up a Papa Murphy's pizza every now and then, and I often think they missed a really good marketing hook. Their baking instructions say to heat your oven to 425. The temp definitely should be 420. It's pizza. It's a natural.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:15 PM on April 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

Who the hell are all these people in Colorado and BC getting excited about Hitler's birthday?

That's not cool!
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:36 PM on April 19, 2016 [3 favorites]

In Toronto, where weed is also apparently now quasi-legal, a 'Smoke-Out' will take place at Yonge-Dundas Square, our little attempt at Times Square. I just learned this in the alt-weekly NOW's 'Marijuana Issue', the most striking feature of which is a full page ad for a delivery service on the inside front cover, promising one hour delivery of such strains as 'Dank Schrader' and... well, there are a bunch of other strains but that's the only one that's funny.
posted by Flashman at 8:38 PM on April 19, 2016

Pennsylvania is marking the occasion with one of the strangest legalizations so far

On the eve of 4/20/2016 the emerald green wave of marijuana reform sweeping across the country seems to have finally reached Pennsylvania.
...
Instead of being turned into attractive, trimmed buds, the Keystone's State's first legal cannabis plants of the 21st century will be grown, harvested and then processed into a variety of oils.

Depending on how the oils are refined they can be incorporated into food as a edible preparation or put into an e-cigarette style vaporizer pen.

Dial it back, Chris Goldstein of Philly420. We get that you're a marijuana advocate, you don't need to sell us on that sweet, sweet dank in this "news coverage" you're providing.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:48 PM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

You know who else was born on 4/20?
posted by I-baLL at 9:17 PM on April 19, 2016 [4 favorites]

And my old roommate who is deathly allergic to marijuana smoke (literally, she has anaphylactic reaction to breathing it in) will carry a respirator in her purse all day.
posted by mollymayhem at 9:27 PM on April 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

... and a bunch of mostly young folk will end up in emergency because they ate too many brownies and/or cookies and that can really make you feel tremendously awful sometimes.

Just Say Know.
posted by philip-random at 9:50 PM on April 19, 2016

That's just, like, your opinion, man.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:48 PM on April 19, 2016

You know who else was born on 4/20?
posted by I-baLL at 9:17 PM on April 19 [1 favorite −] Favorite added! [!] [quote]

Yes, Harold Lloyd. And George Takei.
posted by chavenet at 12:08 AM on April 20, 2016 [4 favorites]

It's funny what a big deal this has become....last year I was reading a support board for people quitting pot and the mostly much younger denizens were CRUSHED, it was really an ordeal for them having to miss 4/20, despite the fact that they had all been smoking that way every day.
posted by thelonius at 12:20 AM on April 20, 2016

Well, you know what they say: 420 smoke weed once a year.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:25 AM on April 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

So I know a girl who works for Kiva (chocolate marijuana company) and told her this, she said it made her day. She got injured last night (got her finger sliced up possibly rather badly) and was worrying that she couldn't go to the ER because tomorrow is the biggest day of the year and she canNOT be out and has to work until 11 p.m.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:58 AM on April 20, 2016

Thanks for the reminder. I'll make sure my route home today doesn't go through Kensington market. Yesterday I had to cross the street several times to avoid people stinking up the sidewalk. The smell is common enough there, but it did seem over the top yesterday. I guess people were getting warmed up.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:54 AM on April 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Perhaps today's the day Unicode will consider incorporating the FOUR HUNDRED AND TWENTY POINTS emoji.
posted by Nelson at 9:27 AM on April 20, 2016

Previously it was held at the grounds of the art gallery downtown. It's pretty messy and there's a good amount of garbage left over, like there is after the fireworks and after pretty much any other big public event. But garbage downtown is kind of the norm -- I mean have you seen Granville on a Sunday morning? On a beach, though...I imagine people are gong to be pissed off if the attendees leave their trash all over the place, and they probably won't get the OK to do it there again. Then when you consider that Trudeau wants to legalize it anyway, all of a sudden there's not much of a political point to be made by this event either. I can't see it going on much longer.
posted by Hoopo at 11:14 AM on April 20, 2016

Hoopo: Then when you consider that Trudeau wants to legalize it anyway, all of a sudden there's not much of a political point to be made by this event either. I can't see it going on much longer.

Are you sure? It's not like Pride Parades have gotten smaller since gay marriage was legalized, or St. Patrick's Day has gotten smaller since "No Irish Need Apply" signs came down. Some things turn from protests in celebrations, and this could well be one of them.
posted by clawsoon at 11:55 AM on April 20, 2016

Please for the love of whatever you hold sacred do not equate Pride with pot legalization. I say this as a gay dude who smokes a lot of pot. They are not equivalent in any way at all whatsoever insert more synonyms here.

Our rights are still being violated. We are, in defiance of actual scientific knowledge, forbidden from donating blood, organs, and sperm. Smoking pot is not a fundamental legal right related to equality, and Pride in Toronto grew out of the bathhouse raids in the 80s. Seriously do not equate these.

Ministry said next spring. If they're super clever they'll introduce the bill for first reading on 20/4 (heeeeeeeeeee) next year.

What's likely to happen is 420 will persist as a bit of a tradition for a few years and then piddle out as everyone over the age of 18 comes to terms with the fact that they're no longer sticking it to the man, man, and there's nothing to protest. As an event, the usual smoke-ins on 20 April will become about as relevant and meaningful as staging a drink-in to celebrate the end of Prohibition.

Also, what grinds my goddamn gears about this is that in Canada we already have a legal framework for distribution of pot--provincial liquor monopolies already have to worry about security, selling to minors, etc. Literally all we need to do is update a couple laws regarding operating under the influence (which, frankly, also means developing some sort of roadside test for THC intoxication) and poof, done. The only reasons I can see for the delay are a) general parliamentary and bureaucratic inertia, and b) probably some intense lobbying behind the scenes so that e.g. tobacco producers (who are logically in a realllllllllllllllly good place to pivot into marijuana production and distribution) can get their operations ready.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 12:14 PM on April 20, 2016 [3 favorites]

Are you sure?

Well no, I mean I can't see the future or anything, by my understanding has been that the premise of this is to show people that normal people smoke and it's fairly harmless and should be legal, and hey watch us all go down here and smoke and just have fun without anyone getting hurt. I would imagine "4/20" as in "lots of people use the day as an excuse to smoke ridiculous amounts of weed" will continue, but a big 20,000 person event seems less likely as the years go on with Canada essentially accepting the whole premise in law. But I could be wrong and it could become like the Lollapalooza of weed or something.
posted by Hoopo at 1:24 PM on April 20, 2016

Lollapalooza was the Lollapalooza of weed.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 1:30 PM on April 20, 2016

But what will become the Lollapalooza of Lollapalooza?
posted by clawsoon at 2:07 PM on April 20, 2016

Bonnaroo.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 2:16 PM on April 20, 2016

No.
posted by eyesontheroad at 2:20 PM on April 20, 2016