The 420 rallies originally started at a Tea Party rally in the common in Keene, New Hampshire. Rich Paul, Noah Wood, and a couple others decided that they wanted to smoke a bowl so they went into the gazebo and sparked up.

After that, Noah and Rich went back to the common every day (at different times at first) to have a quick smoke. About three days after the Tea Party, they had the idea to go down at every day at 4:20 PM, and they began inviting more people.

It didn’t take long for word to get out that there was a smoke-out at the common every day at 4:20—and within a week, there were thirty or so people gathered at the common for the daily smoke-out. And no longer was it a drive-by smoke out, either: Now it was an event. People came, hung out, and waited for Rich’s big announcement that it was almost 4:20.

Soon, other places around New Hampshire started holding their own 420 rallies, starting with Manchester when Big Mike announced that he couldn’t let Keene keep showing up the Manchester liberty activists. Rich Paul and perhaps forty activists attended the first Manchester 420.

The first 420 in Manchester was almost a disaster—comically so. A few minutes before 4:20, it became apparent no one had actually brought any weed! There was a mad dash for a hook-up, but someone came through right on time and 4:20 went great.

Now, with 4:20 rallies springing up all over the state, arrests are still pretty low. So far, there have been a handful of arrests in Keene, and two in Manchester.

No one is quite sure where the future of 420 at 4:20 is leading—except toward the ultimate legalization of marijuana. So until that day day comes, keep your bowls packed, joints rolled and smoke ’em if you got ’em!

Thanks to Capuzzo for this write-up.