This is Day 1 of our 4-part 420 series.
You’ve probably seen 420 everywhere. A number that shows up every April, a date linked to cannabis.
A term people recognise, but don’t always understand. So let’s start with the obvious question:
What is 420?
Because if you use CBD, or you’re even remotely interested in cannabis, this matters more than you might think.
The meaning of 420 didn’t come from science, government, or the cannabis industry. It came from a group of teenagers. In the early 1970s, a group of students in California would meet at exactly 4:20pm after school. Their goal was simple, to search for a cannabis plant they’d heard about growing nearby.
They never actually found it, but the time stuck. “420” became their code, a way to reference cannabis without saying it directly. Over time, that code spread:
And eventually, it became global.
Today, April 20th (4/20) is recognised worldwide as a day associated with cannabis culture. But somewhere along the way, the meaning became blurred.
If you Google “what is 420”, you’ll get a simplified answer: “It’s cannabis day” and/or “It’s about getting high”
But that’s only part of the story. 420 was never originally about excess, escapism, or stereotype. It was about curiosity. It was about people questioning what they’d been told about cannabis, and exploring it for themselves. And that’s a very different message to what we see today.
Because over time, 420 has been turned into:
And when that happens, depth gets replaced with surface-level understanding.
To understand why 420 matters, you need to understand cannabis properly. Because cannabis has been reduced to one single idea: getting high. But historically, cannabis has always been more than that.
Across different cultures and time periods, it’s been used for:
Yet modern narratives rarely reflect that. Instead, cannabis has been framed in a way that makes it easy to dismiss. And once a plant is reduced to a stereotype, it becomes much easier to control how people perceive it.
This is where it becomes directly relevant to you. Because if you use CBD, you are already interacting with the cannabis plant. CBD (cannabidiol) is a compound found in cannabis, more specifically, in hemp varieties that are naturally low in THC.
That means:
And this is where confusion begins. Because the stigma around cannabis has been carried over into CBD, despite them being used very differently. So when people misunderstand cannabis… They often misunderstand CBD too.
If you use CBD, or are considering it, understanding 420 gives you something important: Context.
Because 420 represents cannabis culture, but more importantly, it represents the conversation around the plant itself. And that conversation has been shaped by:
When you understand the meaning of 420, you start to see that cannabis is not one-dimensional. Hemp-derived CBD is part of a much bigger picture, and the plant has always been more complex than it’s been presented
This is why 420 matters. Not because it’s a trend, but because it forces people to look again.
We’re now seeing a shift, more people are searching:
People are questioning and looking deeper. Which means more are wanting to understand rather than assume. And that’s exactly what 420 has always represented at its core, a moment where curiosity replaces conditioning.
If you remove the noise, the stereotypes, and the marketing… 420 becomes something much simpler, a symbol of awareness and a reminder that:
420 isn’t just a date, it’s not just cannabis culture. And it’s definitely not just about getting high.
It’s about understanding the plant, and if you use CBD, that understanding matters. Because once you see where it all comes from…you start to use it differently.
👉 Tomorrow (Day 2): Why 420 Became So Misunderstood — And Why It Still Affects Cannabis and CBD Today
Written by Dee Mani
A: 420 refers to both a time (4:20pm) and April 20th, now widely associated with cannabis culture.
A: The term originated from a group using it as a code for cannabis, which later spread globally.
A: CBD comes from the cannabis plant family, so understanding cannabis culture helps provide context for CBD use.
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