Why is marijuana called marijuana?

[gollygee]

Why does it have a Spanish-sounding woman's name?

There's a racist stereotype about Latinos and marijuana use. I feel like the name might be related to that stereotype. I'm just not sure if that name should be the name most used, particularly by the government, if it comes from a racist stereotype.

[shenmue]

1. I don't know

That's interesting. Maybe there are history teachers here who would know?

[Warren DeMontague]

2. I thought the scientific name was "Wacky Tobaccky"

[gollygee]

3. LOL

[Common Sense Party]

4. No one knows, apparently.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marijuana_(word)

[etherealtruth]

5. Maybe this, but maybe not ....?

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_does_the_name_marijuana_mean_How_did_that_name_come_from_the_actual_plant_name_of_Cannabis_Sativa

Cannabis in its most familiar form is marijuana. "Marijuana" is derived from the Mexican word maraguanquo which means "intoxicating plant". Some people site historical information in which the name was used to create an "evil" or "unpatrioitc" image for use of cannabis or other THC containing compounds.

[fredamae]

6. It is racist and

I believe Harry Anslinger was a master at using it to scare and convince my ancestors to vote against their own best interest.
Alcohol prohibition had ended and "they" needed budget money bad....the rest is history.

http://www.csdp.org/publicservice/anslinger.htm

[Cleita]

7. I actually read why but I forgot. It's actually Maria Juana or Mary Jane.

There's some story about a woman named Mary Jane or Maria Juana that gave the weed it's name in Mexico. I'm sorry I forgot it. Maybe someone with a better memory than mine will remember the details.

[octothorpe]

8. Wikipedia suggests it's something like that

[link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marijuana_(word)|

The word entered into English usage in the late 19th century. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known appearance of a form of the word in that language is in Hubert Howe Bancroft's 1873 The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America.[1] Other early variants include marihuma first recorded in 1905, marihuano in 1912, and marahuana in 1914.[6] Through the early 20th century, however, both the drug and the plant were more commonly known as "cannabis" or "hemp". "Marihuana"'s currency in American English increased dramatically in the 1930s, when it was preferred as an exotic-sounding alternative name during the debates of the drug's use.[1] It has been suggested that it was promoted by opponents of the drug, who wanted to stigmatize it with a "foreign-sounding name".[2]
Some references prefer the term "cannabis", for instance in the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. Laws in the United States, such as the Controlled Substances Act, often use the term "marihuana" or "marijuana," and many cannabis reform organizations in the U.S., such as the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and the Marijuana Policy Project, also use this term. However, some supporters of legalization eschew "marijuana" in favor of the more scientific cannabis, as they consider the former pejorative.[7]

[demosincebirth]

21. Mountain out of a mole hill? don't think so.

[octothorpe]

38. Not on my part. It is interesting history though.

[libodem]

9. I vote it goes on the

List of the verboten words as sexist AND racist.

[Cleita]

12. Here we go again.

I know someone with the name Mary Jane. I'll be sure to let her know that now her name is sexist and racist. It wasn't enough that she grew up being bullied because of the weed connotation. Now she has to deal with it being sexist and racist.

[libodem]

13. Truely that would be a burden

To defend. I hope she won't hate me or the 'list' for it. I'm just trying to be politically correct. Calling it 'weed' is kind of mean too. Nobody likes those vicious bastards, either.

We should only call it by its genus and species scientific nomenclature. We don't want women or the Hispanics offended. (I'm being somewhat sarcastic here, if you are not catching my drift)

Maybe it needs a masculine nick name. Maury John.

[Cleita]

22. Seriously? Weed is a bad word?

I think we are all going to have to start posting in French or something because we are running out of acceptable words in English.

[libodem]

32. I'm not serious

But weeds do have a bad reputation as being invasive plants. No one likes them.

[Bluenorthwest]

59. It certainly is an inaccurate word. If accuracy is good, then it is not the best word.

It is a cultivated crop. Intentionally grown plants are not weeds, weeds are subject of eradication, elimination, removal, no one wants a weed. This is why I don't use it. There are better and more accurate words to use. Weed is a slang, and it is not even the slag of my youth.

[Cleita]

60. Okay, here's a lesson.

It's called weed because it originally grew as a weed in fields. It's cultivated now and the word has become slang. Are we now forbidden by the word police to use slang? Since when did DU become the legal website. Only legal briefs with carefully precise language are allowed here?

DU used to be strong, in our politically incorrect language and strong opinions. But the word police are trying to make this into a religiously rigid message board providing only their message is allowed. Maybe we now need to crown a king and queen of DU so we can bend the knee and obey.

[gollygee]

14. Wow, another strawman

Fascinating.

[rug]

10. Munchies.

[gollygee]

11. Oh I remember those!

Those are really good.

[Spider Jerusalem]

15. It's called "cannabis" outside of North America.

[Bennyboy]

26. "Ganja" is the most reconizable word in the world......

Everywhere everyone calls it ganja or some derivative of ganja.

[shanti]

48. ganj is good too

i myself, prefer the scientifically accurate name, cannabis. my first introduction though, was to POT. when someone calls it pot, it always dates them

[Art_from_Ark]

54. It's called "marifana" in Japan

or sometimes "taima".

[GeorgeGist]

16. Female

[Recursion]

31. Err... I thought "female" was cocaine?

Am I out of touch again?

[Threedifferentones]

56. The female plants make the buds that are worth smoking.

Once they are pollinated they put their energy into making seeds, instead of drug laden flowers. So, any decent grower will not allow any male plants to mature.

I believe most sophisticated growers these days use "clones" of female plants to avoid males and the natural reproductive cycle altogether.

[Bennyboy]

17. William randoph Hearst coined the term marijuana......

In order to make it sound more "Mexican" in an article titled "Marijuana madness". He took the term Marijuhana and changed it to the spelling we see today. This was in order to demonize it and and remove both hearst's and Duponts competition HEMP> it had nothing at all to do with people getting high, it had everything to do with Hearst protecting his timber rights and DuPont inventing rayon and Nylon.

I never use marijuana, and call it cannabis more than anything else.

I don't think that people should use the term made up by the demonizer and that is only playing into their hands when you do that. Especially seeing how so many people are still scared of Mexicans.....

BTW< this is all in the book by Jak Herer titled "The Emperor wears no clothes".

[gollygee]

18. Very interesting. Thank you. n/t

[Bennyboy]

28. More info....

http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_culture11.shtml

[Cleita]

25. I prefer pot myself, but I guess that would be insulting to

pots and kettles everywhere.

[elleng]

27. HA!

[olddots]

49. ding ding truth !!!!!!

Citizen Hearst is a hell of a book and explains today and history.

[HiPointDem]

57. First attested use is 1873. Use the inside the book search function to find 'mariguana'.

http://books.google.com/books?id=RQUEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA815&lpg=PA815&dq=The+Native+Races+of+the+Pacific+States+of+North+America&source=bl&ots=f0u2P8dV59&sig=wDxkV9TZ3TVvXHapVbb7yyjr608&hl=en&sa=X&ei=X4tqUZizN8mRrQHLk4HYBA&ved=0CFoQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=mariguana&f=false

The book describes its use as part of the marriage ritual of the chichimec indians:

Chichimeca was the name that the Nahua peoples of Mexico generically applied to a wide range of semi-nomadic peoples who inhabited the north of modern-day Mexico and southwestern United States, and carried the same sense as the European term "barbarian".

There's also mention of a tribe around sonora called the mariguanes or caramariguanes.

[Revanchist]

58. So true

I learned about it in the book "Prescription Pot: A Leading Advocate's Heroic Battle to Legalize Medical Marijuana" by George McMahon. A very interesting book about the Federal Investigative New Drug program where a select group of people received Marijuana from the Feds. The program was shut down and no new applicants were allowed due to it contradicting the government's stance on the war on drugs.

[Quantess]

19. Why is heroin called "heroin" and not "hero"? It's totally sexist!

[gollygee]

20. It seems like I've read

that at first it was considered a heroic medicine because it could help so many people. The name didn't come from trying to demonize it. I never mentioned sexism, and your point is completely irrelevant.

[Quantess]

23. My point is more irrelevant than yours?

I beg to differ!

[gollygee]

24. Read #17

No, my point was not irrelevant.

[Quantess]

53. Ahem... I never said your point was irrelevant,

it was you who appointed yourself the arbiter of relevance.
Not to mention, that's kind of a rude tone to take: my question is worth asking, but your question is trivial.

[JaneyVee]

29. Mary Jane.

[Recursion]

30. It's the transliteration of "Mary Jane"

Why do we call heroin heroin? Because it's a trademark of Bayer, Incorporated.

[Quantess]

52. Thanks for answering that.

It's not a big deal to me, but I remember wondering about the words heroin and heroine when I was a kid. I felt weird about using the word heroine because it was too close to heroin.

Thanks a lot, Bayer, for ruining the word for me!

[maddezmom]

33. Here is a pretty good link about the name

http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2012/04/the_great_cannabismarijuana_debate_whats_in_a_word.php

[gollygee]

34. Thank you for the other side of the argument

I don't use marijuana so it isn't an area where I have knowledge, but I knew it wasn't a trade name, and i wondered whether or not it was intended to demonize it.

Your link is much more informative than telling me the obvious - that in English it would be Mary Jane. LOL.

[cali]

35. oh for fuck's sake. pc gone barking fucking insane.

[gollygee]

36. I was curious about the origin of the name

But if it did have a racist background, it would be very reasonable to expect at least the government to not use it.

[randome]

37. Let's call it by its Chinese name.

大麻

[cliffordu]

39. You win the innernets for today!!!!!

[riderinthestorm]

40. From some of the links, it did have a racist/pejorative slant for @ 30 years til the 60s

'"Whatever cultural significance it may have once had as a racially loaded word was eclipsed in the 1960s, when marijuana was lovingly embraced by the hippie culture and was cast in a positive light."

http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2012/04/the_great_cannabismarijuana_debate_whats_in_a_word.php


What makes me cringe is that I can't help thinking of how young blacks and wannabe hipsters have become really inured to the n-word. Its becoming more and more common in daily language, and not in a pejorative way. My daughters are forbidden from using the n-word ever and when any of their friends come over and use it, they are instantly reprimanded by me. Its simply not allowed because I don't care how "cool" its supposed to be now, it will never be cool for me. The racist overtones are just too ugly. The article makes me think that MJ was once the same.

As a deep friend with the Hispanic community in my area, I wonder if they feel the same. I've never asked them but maybe they do?



I think for me, I'll go back to using cannabis. I always used to use that word but fell in with the slang. Now its got me all squishy inside again.

[Cleita]

41. I've always been of the opinion that words, all words, have their place.

Maybe there are some words you don't say in certain company but often you can in other company because the use has changed and the meaning changed. Most, what are called swear words, were usually words of the native language of a people, who were conquered by another people with a different language. The language of the conquerers became the proper language and the native language was reduced to vulgarisms.

Since I speak Spanish and have been to many Latin American countries I noticed the swear words are different in each country although Spanish is the common language. It occurred to me that the swear words were various words in the indigenous language that became vulgarisms.

I will give you English examples. All our dirty words are Saxon in origin and our nice words Franco/Latin in origin. For instance, fuck is considered a dirty word and fornicate a nice one. They mean the same thing, but the Saxon origin word fuck is used in the locker room and the word fornicate in church and polite company.

In the case of Maria Juana, a woman's name, it's Spanish and perhaps Hearst felt that since the English languaged Americans were superior to the Mexicans, it gave it a racist and sexist veneer. It's all in the eye of the beholder.

[riderinthestorm]

47. Thanks for this Cleita!

I too speak spanish. I have 3 Mexican employees (legal as far as I can tell but who the hell knows, the government's online SSI index really only tells me their numbers are legal - not that they are attached to my employees). They are a part of our family. 2 speak english reasonably well, 1 of them is in an ESOL class at the local college (at my expense). They and their families are an integral part of our life so I'm hugely invested in them personally and professionally.

I guess I'm hyper sensitive. I had no idea of the history of the word. I've simply "liked" the word cannabis over marijuana personally. If I ever have used it in slang, I use MJ instead of anything else. Just visceral I guess.

[whistler162]

42. Because calling it THATDUMBASSDRUG

goes against "advocates"!

[lame54]

61. Damn those cancer patients...

throw 'em in those for-profit-prisons like the other evil stoners

[bob4460]

43. What My Grandfather told me......

He said the name was used by the newspapers because everyone KNEW that Cannabis or Hemp was safe, and the laws would have never gone through without this. And no I am not a troll I have been here for 6 years.

[DirkGently]

46. That makes a lot of sense. Scary "new" drug. (nt)

[Blue Owl]

44. Or, for that extra bit of evil menace: "Marihuana"

Hua hua hua hua....

[Avalux]

45. It is absolutely related to that stereotype. Drugs were made illegal or racial reasons.

Sarted with the Chinese in California, they smoked opium, which wasn't illegal. They also worked as laborers, and some saw that as a threat to jobs for Americans. So....opium became illegal and the Chinese were rounded up. Same thing with African-Americans and cocaine, then Mexicans and marijuana.

All made illegal to have a reason to round up and jail minorities. If you're rich and you're white, you can do whatever you want.

[Egalitarian Thug]

55. Not quite. Racism was used to make people accept the prohibition, but was motivated by

a few of the rich and powerful wanting to be more rich and powerful. As with virtually everything that is wrong with America, it goes back to a small number people that come from an even smaller number of families that have ruled here since we beat the British.

[Bennyboy]

50. The war on marijuana...

[Newest Reality]

51. +1

Wow man, what this thread about again?

Could you pass the munchies?

[WinkyDink]

62. Seriously?! Whatever the etymology, it is here. P.S. Don't drink the COKE.

[MNBrewer]

63. Discussion of the etymology here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marijuana_(word)