Video shows huge plume of smoke rising from Hyde Park - but it's nothing to do with a fire
Huge plumes of smoke were seen rising from Hyde Park today - that being the 20th day of the fourth month of this year. The beginnings of a wildfire? A mass BBQ event? Or a trade show for wood-burning stoves? It was none of those. If you were there the smell might give it away, along with the conical shape of the rollies being passed around, one toke at a time. Today was 420 - a day reserved for celebrating the inhalation of marijuana, a plant that calms the body and titillates the mind. Lighting up joints in full view of the police, thousands of revellers descended on the Central London Royal Park to take part in the 'unauthorised event' which demands the illegal Class B drug become decriminalised. Pot smokers unite for the rally every year on April 20, a reference to the term 420 under the American date system. The origins of 420 are said to come from the time - 4.20pm - when students at a school in California would convene for a search to find an abandoned plot of cannabi...