Reflections ►
What if 4 / 20 Married 4 / 22 The Wedding Vows
by Dolores Halbin , contributing writer
I
, 4 / 20 , Cannabis Celebration Day , take you , 4 / 22 , Earth Day , as my lawfully wedded partner . I promise to love , cherish , and care for you in good times and bad , sickness and health , so we can survive . I promise to grow worldwide to clean my partner Mother Earth and replace fossil fuels . I promise to stand by you in sickness and in health , in good times and bad , to make our planet whole again unless death takes all of Earth ’ s children .
I , 4 / 22 , Earth Day , do take you , 4 / 20 , Cannabis Day , to be my lawfully wedded partner in life . I promise to love , cherish , and care for you . To make sure you are front and center in the happiness of all of Earth ’ s children . I promise to till your soil , plant your seed , and grow and propagate you . To support you in any way possible to help you grow offspring to replace all things fossil fuel . I promise to stand by you in sickness and in health , in good times and bad , to make our planet whole again unless death takes all of Earth ’ s children .
44 April 2024
The Birth of the Couple
Born in the backyard of San Rafael High School ( HS ) in 1970 , 4 / 20 ’ s parents were two teenage boys who met daily behind the HS in Northern California to smoke weed at 4:20 p . m . The day has become an International Celebration of Cannabis , not just to celebrate the plant , but to defy law enforcement trying hard to eradicate her for reasons they do not understand but accept .
Born the same year , Earth Day was the brainchild of Senator Gaylord Nelson . Nelson saw the writing on the wall . With no legal or regulatory protections for our environment , Nelson knew the industry would never put the planet first . He mobilized 20 million Americans from all walks of life to rally and protest on the first Earth Day , April 21 , 1970 . Nelson gave life to the modern environmental movement . There was promise in the air .
Since then , Earth Day has evolved into the largest civic event on Earth , activating billions in 192 countries committed to safeguarding our planet ’ s future .
I was a freshman in 1970 , and the counter-culture / hippies I identified with already had hemp awareness . We grew up on wax paper for sandwiches , mayo jars for water , powdered laundry detergents in lightweight boxes , and clothes made from plants . The assumption was that 4 / 20 and Earth Day would get married right out of school and make all kinds of hemp babies to save our planet .
When the two turned 15 in 1985 and still had not met , we began to wring our hands . How do we introduce this match made in heaven that kept missing each other in the halls ? California Cannabis activist Jack Herer took on the job , stepping up and writing The Emperor Wears No Cloths , the hemp bible .
Herer wrote a detailed accounting of the long-intertwined history of hemp worldwide in the book . In America , the first laws regulating hemp date back to the 1600s . Farmers had to sign contracts agreeing to grow 300 acres of cannabis Sativa if they wanted to farm in the Colonies . He explains that until the late 1800s , we could pay our taxes with hemp . Our original currency was hemp-based , as were our clothes , paper , fuel , and hundreds of products , including medical cannabis . Fossil fuel would not rear its ugly head until the 1920s .
Cannabis activist Jack Herer .
Both Earth Day and 4 / 20 grew into global movements , and despite social media , they have yet to meet .
It seemed such a natural pairing 54 years ago . Honestly , I don ’ t know what happened except to say fossil fuel monoliths are the aliens , and George Carlin was right , “ God made the earth because God wanted plastic .”