4/20 Marijuana Smoke-Out: Ten Thousand take flight in Boulder with out leaving the ground.

I would like to preface this blog by stating I attended this event to shoot photographs and not smoke pot.

With nearly all European flights grounded due to ash and smoke in the air from the erupting Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland, nearly 10,000 smokers blasted off into the clouds during the 4:20 marijuana smoke-out at the Norlin Quad at the University of Colorado in Boulder on April 20, 2010.

According to Wikipedia, 4:20 was created in 1971 by a group of San Rafael California teenagers who would meet at 4:20 after school to smoke marijuana. Now it is known to all pot smokers as “Pot Day”.

As I was driving into Boulder from Fort Collins I had no idea where the smoke-out was happening. As usual I let my news nose do the work. And let me tell you it wasn’t hard. The rich stench of weed filled every smelling receptor in my nose as soon as I turned onto Broadway in Boulder. The steady line of people that filed along the busy, traffic choked street was enough evidence that I was close. I should know better then try to get to an event that is predicting up to 10,000 participants with out a minute to spare. It’s a bunch of pot smokers I reassured myself, they’ll never start on time. You know the usual stereotype of the pot smoker operating on the slow-ish time schedule with rough estimations of starting and stopping points. However, if the sun were to blow up tomorrow and every clock stopped, rest assured you could set your watch on 4:20 on April 20th thanks to the diligent pot smoker time keeping that happens once a year.

In one cheer like a wave through the packed quad sounded the moment of 4:20 to the minute and second as an immense cloud percolated from the bobbing sea of heads. Truly a splendid experience to see so many people with a common interest enjoying the same moment in time as one. No arrests were reported as of 5:00pm, but, many bongs were confiscated. My only question is how did everyone get home?