Weed Is Big Business On 4/20
APRIL 18, 2008
LOS ANGELES (TNA) – Hangover holidays are a special breed. They're all based around some cultural tradition that promotes intoxication.
They're also very inclusive. Remember that old saying, "Everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day"? Fat Tuesday practically makes it a duty for people to get drunk and flash each other – at least it should be. And Cinco de Mayo has been a mainstream "hangover holiday" ever since the 1980s when American booze companies co-opted a small regional event in Mexican culture and turned it into a tequila fest.
Legend Films Doug Benson hopes holding free screenings of his new documentary, 'Superhigh Me,' creates a buzz around the film.
In recent years, "4/20" has also started to join those hallowed ranks. When authorities with impeccable credentials like rapper Method Man are declaring April 20 “the national weed smoking day,” you know it's not just for true-blue stoners anymore.
If the buzz surrounding the crop of ganja-related films, TV shows, DVDs and books soaring to market on or around this April 20 is any indication, then pot is suddenly big business for everyone.
This mainstreaming and normalization of weed, a gradual process that probably began in earnest with the innocuous stoner antics of Cheech and Chong in the 1970s, is good news for the money bags behind “Harold & Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay” and “Super High Me,” TV shows like “Weeds,” and the upcoming book, “Pot Culture: The A-Z Guide to Stoner Language & Life.”
“Increasingly, 4/20 has become a target date for pot-related marketing efforts,” says Shirley Halperin, co-author (with Steve Bloom) of “Pot Culture.” “It was very important to me to have that 4/20 peg for our book because the consumers we're targeting would ‘get it’ instantly.”
Halperin adds that “4/20 is instant stoner code – a way to immediately tell if someone partakes or not.”
Though the origins of 4/20 as a time of day or day of the year for smoking weed are about as clear as a billow of pot smoke, marijuana enthusiasts generally concur that, in the early 1970s, a group of high school students in Northern California adopted 4:20 p.m. as the time of their daily indulgence, creating a club to honor their affinity for green. In 1990, fans of the Grateful Dead circulated literature encouraging Deadheads to smoke at 4:20 every day, but also on April 20.
“Though it’s become primarily a stoner holiday, it’s really taken on a life of its own over the years,” says Steve Bloom, co-author of “Pot Culture.”
“4/20 is the President’s Day of pot culture,” says Barry Sandrew, Ph.D., founder of Legend Films, which restored and colorized “Reefer Madness” in 2004. “It represents a time when people get together to bond in a positive way, and it’s definitely a time of year when everything weed-related comes into the spotlight.”
Legend Films In 2004, Legend Films capitalized on 4/20 interest by releasing a colorized version of the 1930s era camp classic 'Reefer Madness.'
Sandrew says he steps up marketing efforts of the “Reefer” DVD – “The ‘Miracle On 34th Street’ of stoner movies,” he says -- each April, just as makers of chocolate bunnies hop to it in anticipation of Easter. “Sales always peak around April 20,” Sandrew says.
Halperin, Bloom and their publisher, Harry Abrams, Inc., will be hosting 4/20 parties on both coasts to celebrate the publication of “Pot Culture.” Michael Blieden and Doug Benson, director and star, respectively, of “Super High Me,” a documentary in which comedian Benson subsists solely on marijuana for 30 days, will be sponsoring free screenings of the film (www.superhighmemovie.com). Various publications, organizations and clubs will be celebrating 4/20 in their own inimitable fashion all around the world.
“4/20 gets a pot movie out in a massive way,” says Benson. “Everyone’s paying more attention to weed this time of year, and not only other stoners anymore.”
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