The late Nate Dogg once distilled the modern plight into one sensible maxim: smoke weed everyday. Maybe the statement lacked utility. Sometimes there are days where the plug is unreachable or barren. Sometimes you have to study for a Chemistry mid-term or take your child to the doctor’s office, and sustained stoning isn’t the wise move. Nate Dogg was emphatic about never letting someone make your high come down — ergo, the sacred principles of the Long Beach legend maintain that one should only inhale in appropriate situations. Timing is everything.
4/20 is a weed holiday for all. When you’re in high school or college, it’s an excuse for narcotic creativity. Yard-long blunts. My friend’s invention, “The Dragon,” a four-pronged gravity bong made with plastic tubing that could propel smoke into your lungs at organ-incinerating speeds. The novelty of “Whoa Weed” wears off as you get a bit older. You either quit burning, implement Nate Dogg’s idealism into workable philosophy, or you own a weed store.
But even if 4/20 no longer stirs the implacable need to be stoned for 4 and 20 hours, it’s always reminder of good times. Your old weed wine cellar with white felt wallpaper, dark lights, and glow in the dark beach balls. The time after you graduated college and had a business journalist day job, and got bombarded by taunting phone calls from your friends still in school. So you took six hours off work, smoked opium in a suit and tie in the backseat of your SUV, bought Pet Sounds, and drove around the San Fernando Valley, for the most blissful four hours of your year.
4/20 is a fine holiday, but you always need a soundtrack. The playlist below is intended to be an enhancer. It’s by no means comprehensive, but just a smattering of some of the staff’s favorite smoking songs. So crumble some herb, roll a blunt, hit the bong, pack the pipe. Never let the spirit of Nate Dogg down.
