By Salam Diri & Estefania Valencia from SannaOhana Yoga & Wellness Wellness
The History Of The Word Marijuana The cannabis plant has had many different nicknames throughout its history in America; Weed, Hashish, Ganja, Pot, Bud, Reefer, Herb, Grass, Flower, Mary Jane, Marijuana, the list goes on. For the past one hundred years however, the most common word for Cannabis in America has been Marijuana. As America’s perception begins to shift and the plant is destigmatized and valued as the medicinal and sustainable versatile crop that it truly is, we should take a look back at how Cannabis came to be called Marijuana. For starters, marijuana is a spanish word that originated in Mexico and was brought to America in the 1900s by legal Mexican refugees fleeting the Civil War. That is why “marijuana” is the only word in the entire English dictionary with a silent “J”. Before the 1900s the word Cannabis was used in America as the scientific / medical term. Industrial hemp crop was also a common term for Cannabis used for textiles, rope and paper. Both were crucial to the foundation of this country. The idea of smoking cannabis flowers was introduced to mainstream America by Mexican Culture. Shortly after however, the government began to use Marijuana’s foreign origin to introduce xenophobic sentiments to target Immigrants and Black people. The plant became intertwined with racist, ethnic propaganda that led to the introduction of the Marijuana Tax Act in 1937. This created a system expensive enough to not only prevent research and pharmaceutical use of the Cannabis plant, but also to incarcerate massive amounts of Blacks, Latinos and Immigrants caught having the plant. At around the same time, the famous propaganda film known as “Reefer Madness” came out, although originally titled “Tell Your Children”. In the film, highschool students go from a hit and run accident, to manslaughter, suicide, attempted rape, hallucinations, and descent into madness from marijuana addiction. The melodramatic film created enough fear in the American 26
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