POT SMOKERS ABUZZ OVER 420 'HOLIDAY'

WACO, Texas - Talking to Rob Ondreas is enough to make a guy get the munchies.

Passionate about pot smoking, Ondreas' face lit up when he looked at his
cell phone and saw that it was exactly 4:20 p.m. The wanting look that
followed hinted at what he really had a hankering to light up. But, since
he was in a public establishment, he had to settle for a laugh at the
coincidental time of this interview and an assurance he'd make up for it later.

It was, after all, 420 (that's four-twenty, in pot parlance) that he had
met with this reporter to talk about. He was asked what he and his friends
had planned for today, April 20 (4/20).

"I'll be smoking, you can count on that," he said, proudly. "I'll get
together with some of my crowd and we'll celebrate the day right, probably
with some good hydro (a marijuana connoisseur's choice) for a special
occasion."

The special occasion is 4/20, and potheads everywhere will fire up at 4:20
p.m. today, if at all possible.

April 20 has become somewhat of a pot smoker's holiday.

Dating back to the early 1970s, the term "420" is a symbol of cannabis
culture. Several theories evolved over the years attributing the origin of
420 to, among other things, police code for smoking pot and the number of
chemicals in marijuana. Turns out neither of those was correct, but Steven
Hager, former editor of High Times magazine, traced it to 1971, when a
group of about a dozen pot-smoking students at San Rafael High School in
California would gather after school at 4:20 p.m. to smoke pot at the
campus statue of Louis Pasteur. The term was used by the group as a code
for pot around their parents and teachers. "Do you have any 420?" or "Do I
look 420?" was common banter, said Waldo Steve, a member of the group, in
the High Times story .

The term spread beyond the Waldos, and eventually beyond San Rafael, with
the help of the Grateful Dead and its legion of pot-smoking fans. Decades
later, the term has encompassed April 20 as a day of unity among marijuana
users.

Ondreas, who is 30 and lives in Waco, said he's been smoking pot since he
was 18 and has known about the significance of 420 for several years. Now
he looks for it everywhere and even carries a disposable camera with him to
photograph the symbol whenever he sees it.

"I've got photos of me and my friends around a Highway 420 sign in Canada,
in front of buildings with large 420 street numbers and even houses with
420 for an address," he said. "It's just a symbol of something that's
important to me, and I'm not shy about it."

The reason Ondreas isn't shy about his pot use is because he's responsible,
he said. He's worked for the same company for seven years, pays taxes and
contributes to society just like everybody else, he said.

"Responsibility is the key," he said. "People can drink too much and be
more dangerous, but since alcohol is legal, they can get away with it.
Regardless of the substance or activity, people have to take responsibility
for their actions."

Ondreas said he would love to see the marijuana prohibition end but doubts
it will happen anytime soon because of the politics involved. He's had
brushes with the law but spent no time in jail for his hemp activities.

The use of the term "420" has become more prevalent in pop culture in
recent years, said current High Times editor Richard Stratton, because it
denotes an esoteric knowledge about something previously reserved for an
underground scene.

"It's amazing how it's caught on," he said. "In the last five or six years,
it has really taken off. It's one of those hip terms people like to use in
certain crowds to try and impress someone."

There are a number of Web sites with 420 as part of their address dedicated
to the cannabis culture. Stratton said many businesses catering to the
pot-smoking crowd now use 420 somewhere in their name, too.

Mikki Norris, director of the Cannabis Consumers Campaign, started the
organization in 2002 so people could come out of hiding about their
marijuana use. A section on the organization's Web site has photos and
profiles posted by more than 160 people from across the country who not
only smoke marijuana but also advocate its legalization. For the most part,
the profiles profess to be well-educated professionals, some with
doctorates, and include several Christian ministers.

Acts of civil disobedience will take place in several states and towns
today, many on college campuses, in honor of 420. In Austin, the Texas
chapter of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws (NORML) will
hold a "benefit" at The Vibe, a Sixth street club known for such events.

Sarah Darrouzet, president of the Texas chapter and a graduate student at
the University of Texas at Austin, said she smokes pot several times a
week, within limits, and said 420 has become part of American culture.

"It's turned into something like afternoon tea," she said. "The British
drink tea; we smoke some pot. It's not that big of a deal to most people,
which is why the laws in Texas against it are so silly."

McLennan County (Texas) Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Randy Plemons, a
former DARE instructor, said legalized marijuana would make more people a
danger to themselves and others by putting a substance that causes
impairment in their system.

"There's also the addiction factor," he said. "It's hard to put down and
tends to be a gateway to harder drugs as people try to reach that original
high. I used to tell the kids to open a bag of potato chips and only eat
one and put down the rest. It's hard to resist and that's the problem with
marijuana."

Sgt. Ryan Holt, spokesman for the Waco Police Department, was unfamiliar
with the term "420" as pot-smoking jargon and said the police have no
planned roundup of pot smokers. Since Monday was the anniversary of both
the ending of the local Branch Davidian standoff in 1993 and the Oklahoma
City federal building bombing in 1995, and today is the fifth anniversary
of the Columbine massacre, this is a busy security week for the department,
he said.

Darrouzet said some students from Baylor University had a NORML chapter in
recent years, but she is unsure if they are active anymore.

Jim Doak, director of Baylor's Department of Public Safety, said that other
than an isolated incident a few years back when someone wrote 420 on
several cars with shoe polish, the day is a non-event around campus.

"We're mindful of it, the officers are aware of it, but there are no
planned gatherings that we know of," he said.

"This BMW pulls up with a 'Baylor' sticker emblazoned across the back
window , with two typical Baylor 'Biffs' in the front and a 'Barbie' in the
back. She pokes her head out, not knowing who we were, and asks us if we
know where they can get some vitamin C (a street term for LSD, or acid).
I'll never forget that, considering what Baylor thinks about its image."

As for the gateway notion, Ondreas pointed at the beer he was drinking at
the time and said that alcohol was the real gateway drug, much more so
because of its availability as a legal substance.

"People who have been smoking are a lot safer to be around than people who
have been drinking, especially on the road," he said "I've seen people do
things, like hard drugs, when they're drunk that they don't do when they
smoke. Alcohol takes away their ability to make good decisions more than
weed does."

And don't even get him started on the drug war.

"It's ridiculous. Look around. It hasn't stopped anything," he said.

Ondreas said he knew of at about 25 to 30 people who would celebrate 420
today. An online poll taken at 420.com found that of 4,450 respondents,
almost 70 percent were planning on being part of a "smoke in" today.

So if people are scarce this afternoon around, well, you know what time,
draw your own conclusions.