Four-Twenty

2017-04-20

Back in the day I was what was known as "a head". The term made reference to those who partook of various substances back in the heyday of the drug culture of the sixties through the 90s or so for me personally. I suppose it was the waining 1980s that found me confronted with the demise of my participation in the weed, the pills, the shrooms, all of it.

That demise was called a "pre employment drug screen" and rapidly became a requirement for any employment application process I encountered beginning at that time. I came to the personal decision that I was not going to be out of work for failing drug tests like so many of my user and dealer friends ... so I stopped with it all.

This lead to the time of hardship I called "jonesing" whereby I hungered for a toke, dreamed of taking a valium, longed for the various exlixirs of altered consciousness I no longer permitted myself. I was determined that that I would be able to go into some facility and pee all they wanted and be totally negative.

It became a personal obsession borne of a need to be capable of earning a paycheck. It was one of those early forays into the conservative adult behaviors which now predominate my existence. It was also a "rough row to hoe".

Today is known as 420, 4:20, or 4/20 (pronounced four-twenty) and is that code for consuming weed ... typically about the time 4:20 p.m./a.m. In some European jurisdictions the number used is 16:20 with the celebratory smoking of cannabis ocurring on April 20. It's a reference to a California drug culture called 'the Waldos" and their codes for assembly after school which became cultish and memorialized by High Times magazine to the point that four-twenty is now standard jargon with druggies.

Be all of this as it may, I don't intend to pick the cannabis back up because as they say it was indeed a doorway for other crap I willingly took including bootleg ludes and what have you. I've been much better off these past years by and large hanging with those who don't go out of their way to screw you to the wall in an effort to profiteer over some background drug deal they want to make with you.

So the clear head, improved focus and concentration, better memory, and high order thinking skills are simply that added bonus of declining Four-Twenty over the years. If you partake more power to you and I hope you don't get screwed as badly as I used to in those inevitable dirty dealing that go down when everyone you know is a drug dealer.