Despite marijuana not even being legal in Iowa, law enforcement is apparently not even trying to keep you from celebrating the day devoted to all things "stoner", aka "4/20" later this month.

For the uninitiated, April 20, aka "4/20" is known to pot users as a day of celebration, to get together with others like them to "toke up". I happen to be one of those somewhat uninitiated on the subject, but I do have a job to do, so I did some research on "4/20". I landed on an article put out last summer by Vox. One of the possible reasons April 20 was chosen as the day to celebrate the festivities was that "420" coincides with California penal code for marijuana.

Another possibility has to do with the at least 420 chemicals in marijuana. But it is said there are actually closer to 500, so let's try again. In yet another explanation, according to Vox:

a lesser-known possibility comes from the 1939 short story “In the Walls of Eryx” by H.P. Lovecraft and Kenneth Sterling. The story describes “curious mirage-plants” that seemed fairly similar to marijuana and appeared to get the narrator high at, according to his watch, around 4:20. Since the story is from 1939, it’s perhaps the earliest written link between marijuana and 420.

Let's face it, like drinking on St. Patrick's Day, those partaking don't really care why, they just want an excuse. This brings me to my real point.

Iowa law enforcement says to stay off the roads after your cannabis shenanigans

According to CBS2, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau (GTSB) are teaming with state and local law enforcement to remind you that drug and alcohol-impaired driving is harmful and illegal. And they will be stepping up their enforcement on this between April 19 and 22. Statistics show that according to NHTSA, between 2009 and 2018, of those drivers killed in crashes and tested for marijuana, the presence of marijuana had nearly doubled.

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Just as you should after a night of drinking, you should have a "designated driver" to bring you home safely from your 4/20 shenanigans, and if you're lucky no one will know the wiser. But, as these things often require, this campaign has a snazzy catchphrase:

IF YOU FEEL DIFFERENT, YOU DRIVE DIFFERENT.

Like, whoa, dude.

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