4-20 In Retail

Today is the unofficial holiday of “Four-Twenty”, which is all about Marijuana. Apparently, it started (from what I recall over the years) from friends at work saying they’d go on break at 4:20 as a code for “time for a hit of weed.”

I’ve worked in retail places from toy stores to school supply stores to craft supply stores and one thing they all have in common is that the workers are stressed out, going to school and/or working more than one job, and ready to pull out their hair between dealing with corporate offices (who treat them at best as “expendable” and often as criminals) and overly entitled rude customers. How do they keep sane?

Cannabis.

Now this was back before it was legal, of course. I haven’t been able to work even a part-time regular job in years, but between 1992 and 2012, I was often a part of the customer service sector. One thing most places had was an on-site weed dealer, and every payday, the smell of weed would permeate the break room! Always. Always!

And… no one ever “investigated” because we all knew what was going on, even the bosses (who would often be the actual dealer or would buy from them for themselves…) and if we had to take drug tests, they’d lose most of an entire staff at one go, so no one dared to do it!

I’ve never been able to abide much in the way of chemical indulgences, given my precarious health, but after the age of 30, I liked having a little on hand to help with migraines and severe menstrual cramps. We moved a lot, so finding a place to buy it could be difficult, unless you knew people in a town already. Even Gerrick, who liked to smoke much more than I did (and, to be fair with his anxiety issues, needed to) knew that a stint at a retail job somewhere would quickly procure us a dealer.

It was just a part of everyday life, though under the surface. And it’s weird to think that this whole “system” has now been dismantled thanks to legalization. Everyone can go buy cannabis from a local shop openly, and it’s not even much of a thing anymore, just a part of adult life.

We’ve come a long ways, baby!