The state authority warns of the dangers of driving after having consumed cannabis. “Alcohol is not the only substance that can lead to an arrest for driving under the influence,” recalls a CHP agent
Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images
Wednesday, December 4
This April 20 there will be more CHP controls on the roads for the unofficial marijuana day
The California Highway Patrol ( CHP , for its acronym in English) has been planning to intensify its activity during this Tuesday 20 April, when it is celebrated unofficially the day of the marijuana . Controls are intended to catch people who have gotten behind the wheel after consuming cannabis.
State agency agents in Riverside and elsewhere places have been prepared for “party” known as 4 / 20 (referring to how the date is read in English), as published Telemundo 52 .
“ Alcohol is not the only substance that can lead to an arrest for driving under the influence , ”Said Mike Lassig, CHP agent and spokesman for the agency’s station in the Temecula area. “Cannabis, prescription drugs and illegal drugs can affect driving. Driving is a complex task and any drug can slow down reaction time ”, he emphasized.
Origin of the “marijuana party”
The origin of April 4 as a celebration of marijuana dates back to 1971, when a group of five teenage students from San Rafael High School, in Marin County, California, gathered to smoke marijuana outside the educational building at 4: 20 pm, as published by the magazine Time . The time coincided with the moment when all of them, known as the “Waldos”, had already finished with all their extracurricular activities.
This group of young people began to use the three digits (420) as a code to refer to cannabis and meetings daily after school. However, the term became popular years later thanks to the band Grateful Dead . According to the aforementioned magazine, during a concert in Oakland in 1990 distributed flyers inviting the public to smoke “420” the 20 April 4: 20.
One of those pamphlets would end up in the hands of Steve Bloom, a reporter for High Times magazine and a personality in the field of marijuana. The magazine published the flyer with the number on its cover in 1991. This is what gave international projection to what had been created as a secret code among five adolescents. In an act of sincerity and respect for the origin of the celebration, the magazine recognized in 1998 that the term “400 ”had been“ invented ”by the so-called“ Waldos ”.
The well-known reporter Bloom wrote in 2015 that the goal of the people who wrote the pamphlet was “People from all over the world would get together one day a year and collectively smoke marijuana at the same time.”
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