The 420 API

The world's only 4:20 API. A free, read-only JSON API that tells you where in the world it's 4:20 right now — AM or PM — plus marijuana law status for 197 countries, each with a source.

• Live: https://api.420.menow.us/ (the front page is a beginner's tutorial: your first API call, step by step)
• Reference: https://api.420.menow.us/docs
• The map it powers: https://420.menow.us/

No key, no signup, CORS open. The hosted API is rate-limited to 10 requests a second per IP.

Try it

curl https://api.420.menow.us/v1/now

fetch('https://api.420.menow.us/v1/now').then(r => r.json()).then(console.log)

import requests
now = requests.get('https://api.420.menow.us/v1/now').json()
print(now['next']['place'], 'in', now['next']['minutes_until_next_420'], 'minutes')

Endpoints

Endpoint	What you get
GET /v1/now	Zones at 4:20 right now, the closest, the next, seconds left in the minute
GET /v1/zones	Every zone ranked by distance from 4:20
GET /v1/zones/{tzid}	One zone: its local time and distance from 4:20
GET /v1/zones/{tzid}/law	The local law card for one zone (e.g. America/Los_Angeles)
GET /v1/zones/{tzid}/places	Places in that zone with their own law cards
GET /v1/laws	Law status for every country
GET /v1/laws/{ISO2}	One country (e.g. NL, TH, US)
GET /v1/time	Server time, checked against the US Naval Observatory
GET /v1/meta	Data date, tz database version, SQLite size and SHA-256
GET /v1/laws.sqlite	The whole law database as one SQLite file, for offline apps

The law data

Status symbols: ✓ legal · ◐ decriminalized · ⚕ medical only · ⊘ illegal · ☠️ death sentences given.

• Legal means adult possession is lawful. Where possession is tolerated but fined in public, the country is marked decriminalized instead.
• ☠️ marks only the 18 countries where a death sentence has actually been handed down for marijuana, not every country whose statute book allows one.
• Every country carries the sources behind its call. Corrections are welcome — open an issue with a source.

Information and education only — not legal advice. Laws change; check official sources before you travel.

Run it yourself

docker compose up --build
# → http://localhost:8000/

Or without Docker:

python3 -m venv .venv && . .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
PYTHONTZPATH= DATA_DIR=data uvicorn main:app --app-dir app --port 8000

Time is computed from the pinned tzdata package (PYTHONTZPATH= in the Dockerfile), so results never depend on the host's zoneinfo. Half-hour and 45-minute offsets (Kathmandu is UTC+5:45) are handled.

Layout

app/main.py                      FastAPI app (all endpoints)
app/static/index.html            the beginner tutorial served at /
data/                            law + zone data the API reads (CC BY 4.0)
tools/cannabis-laws-export.py    regenerates data/ from the MariaDB source database

The source of truth is a MariaDB database (countries, zones, places, sources, history). tools/cannabis-laws-export.py turns it into the JSON and SQLite files in data/. Set LAWS_DB_CMD to whatever command reaches your database.

Licence

• Code: MIT — see LICENSE
• Data: CC BY 4.0 — credit "The Official 420 World Clock (420.menow.us) · LIBCSystems LLC". See data/LICENSE

Built by LIBCSystems LLC, Long Island, NY.