Some Oxford Locals Celebrate 4/20 Despite the Drug’s Legality

Oxford’s Grandma Slackers is expecting a big turnout for their 24-hour sale.

Easter is coming Sunday, but that’s not the only celebration happening this weekend.

April 20, known to many as “420”, is a day that marijuana smokers across the nation light up their favorite plant. In a country where weed is becoming cheaper and more readily available, getting high is likely a part of many folks’ daily routine. But on this day, their toking has a purpose.

The origins of the “420” term have been debated, but a 2017 History.com article cites a group of early ’70s California teens. Apparently, they used the number as a code to talk about the supposed location of a hidden marijuana plant they were searching for. Eventually, they began to simply refer to their reefer as 420.

The use of the “420” lingo has become so mainstream that smoke shops like Oxford’s Grandma Slackers have adopted annual sales to take advantage of the date. Specifically, Slackers hosts a 24-hour sale where almost everything in the store is 42% off. General Manager Kelsie Wright says it’s a huge hit among the town’s smokers.

“At the midnight grand opening we usually expect a lot of people lined up outside almost like it’s Black Friday or something,” Wright said. “We’re really expecting a week’s worth of revenue in one day.”

Walt Burge, a customer of Grandma Slackers and a Lafayette High School student, has some big plans of his own mapped out for Saturday.

“At my house I’ve got an upstairs bedroom, so I plan on sitting in there and watching Scooby Doo probably,” Burge said.

It seems that plenty of people around town will be rolling up for April 20, but the fact remains that neither medical nor recreational marijuana use is legal in the state of Mississippi.

However, that could change soon.

Medical Marijuana 2020 is pushing an initiative to get medical marijuana on voting ballots in November of next year. It has already garnered more than 60,000 of the required 86,185 signatures to move forward in the process. The deadline for signatures is Sept. 6.

If the initiative does get the support it needs to make it on the ballot, there’s a good chance it gets passed. According to a JacksonFreePress.com article written earlier this year, Millsaps conducted a study and found that 67 percent of Mississippians are in favor of legalizing medical marijuana.

Mississippi would join D.C. and 33 other states in making marijuana legal for medical use.