Pet peeve of mine - it's cannabis!

edited July 2020 in General

I wish the front page and even the logo would replace the slang word 'marijuana' with the correct scientific term cannabis. Marijuana became the slang term used most simply because of Reefer Madness and the associated racist framing. IMO, it should be legitimized more by using the only correct word cannabis.

From an article on Leafly:

Harry Anslinger: It would not be an overstatement to say that Harry Anslinger was one of the primary individuals responsible for creating the stigma surrounding cannabis. Hired as the first director of the recently created Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1930, Anslinger launched a vigilant campaign against cannabis that would hold steady for the three decades he remained in office. A very outspoken man, Anslinger used the recent development of the movie theater to spread messages that racialized the plant for white audiences. In one documented incident, Anslinger testified before Congress, explaining: “Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind… Most marijuana smokers are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage.” In another statement, Anslinger articulated: “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.” In retrospect, Anslinger’s efforts with the Bureau of Narcotics were the reason “marijuana” became a word known by Americans all over the country. When making public appearances and crafting propaganda films such as Reefer Madness, Anslinger specifically used the term “marijuana” when campaigning against the plant, adding to the development of the herb’s new “foreign” identity. Cannabis was no longer the plant substance found in medicines and consumed unanimously by American’s all over the country.

https://www.leafly.com/news/cannabis-101/where-did-the-word-marijuana-come-from-anyway-01fb

Comments

  • edited July 2020

    Funny. Of all the ways Ive described it, I’ve never said I smoke cannabis or referred to weed as cannabis. Not once. 🤷‍♂️ To be fair I almost never call it marijuana either. 😉

  • Interesting read.
    I usually refer to it as:
    1. Weed
    2. Pot
    3. Ganja

  • edited July 2020

    Dope.... just like the airplane glue from the Fifties... but I pronouce it like Homer Simpson when he says, 'doh' followed with a faceslap.

  • Cannabis, gas, dank, loud, dope, weed, pot

  • @Sixwaychili . Used to be a pet peeve. Over the years i have just given up. I usually say cannabis, but i was a science major so there is that.

  • edited July 2020

    I grew up calling it weed..now I refer to it as flower, herb, and also cannabis if I’m being more technical I guess. I hope to see it fully legal before the end of my life. I would love to have my own outdoor garden with minimal limitations.

  • Interesting. I'll ask @medman if he's open to changing some of the language on our website.

  • I absolutely agree!!! Not only is it racist, it facilitates the criminality of Cannabis. The term "Marijuana" was used to associate it with impoverished people or those of a lower socio-economic class in the United States, typically immigrants from hispanic nations during the early 20th Century. This led to much of the negative perception around it.

    We need to start using the term, "Cannabis."

  • I agree! I swapped to cannabis myself and would love to see others do the same!

  • I call it “herb”. But I agree with the cannabis comment

  • An opposing view, just to keep the "debate" balanced.

    Myself, all I care about is that my order gets to me asap. :wink:

    "[T]he word “marijuana” is not racist. It was once a means of rebellion, says Santiago Ivan Guerra, a professor of Southwest Studies at Colorado College. When Europeans first arrived in present-day Mexico, they ordered the indigenous residents to convert to Christianity and stop growing their own psychoactive drugs (morning glory, peyote, and psilocybin). Instead, the indigenous Mexicans were told to grow hemp for rope."

    "That’s when the residents discovered that this hemp plant could be psychoactive. To hide that they were using it, they started to code the language, says Guerra. Many plants in Mexico have some version of “mary” in the name to please the Spanish who pushed Christianity. And so the plant became “marihuana.”"

    https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/19/17253446/marijuana-cannabis-drugs-racist-language-history

  • Cannabis head ? Doesn't sound right.

  • I call it Cannibas, Medicine, pot, loud, gas, 🔥, gonja, Idk I never really refer to it as marijuana

  • Dont forget flower

  • I'd say that both perspectives are true to an extent. It's a complex word that's jumped from one language to another and now is trying to hold it together on both sides of the border. So the story of who Anslinger was and what he did with the word is true, just as it's true that there are other speakers who recall a prouder lineage when they use it. It's a very interesting question!

  • I changed references of marijuana over to cannabis.

  • i like marijuana over cannabis. cannabis sounds too scientific to me . anslinger was a dick so i just make up my own slang terms me and my friends would know and laugh about

  • edited July 2020

    i don't really care too much one way or another personally but i HAVE to agree that 'cannabis' seems to have some ... inexplicable kind of 'legitimacy' associated with it. somehow?? it's weird. i never stopped to actually think about it and analyze it.

    but cheers @medman for that! i think we all want what's best for the plant.. sometimes i'm just baffled that it is not widely accepted 100% everywhere, but as medboy said, it's an interesting and very complex topic. very happy to see it trending that direction in the last decade or more. ; )

  • Wow, thank you @medman !

  • That cat makes me laugh!

    Now, can we talk about the word, 'fire' and/or the emoji 🔥... what does that even mean? Is it hot like a pepper? Is it goona burn my mouth? Is it hot like a good looking man/woman?

    I know, I'm a dinosaur failing to evolve. But its fun to start the day with a laugh.

  • Wow,that is some hard cutting mezz ! 30

  • Honesty, I don't give a [insert favorite expletive] what it's called as long as it does what it's supposed to. From a medical perspective and prescribing it to patients, then I would agree with cannabis. From any other perspective, it doesn't matter to me.

  • edited July 2020

    In the grand scheme of things, you may think it doesn't matter. But to about 40+% of the population, they think making "marijuana" legal is only about stoners wanting to get high when it is clearly medicinal and way better for you than tons of legal substances that are poisoning your body daily and shortening your life. It's all about making cannabis a legitimate topic that doesn't get ridiculed by the idiots who have been brainwashed by all government and big pharma propaganda for the last 90 years. The only possible way to do that is by referring to it by its scientific name, which refers to a natural species of plant and not a f*cking Big Mac with 37 chemical ingredients in it so that it won't mold for 40 years.

  • Medical cannabis juat doesnt roll off the tounge like medical marijuana does. Cancer cannabis has a bit of a ring to it. Some of us have too much time on our hands.

  • @Sixwaychili I think my statement might cause it to be taken out of context, I didn't realize the way it sounded until I re-read it now. I agree with you 100%. Wasn't trying to make it sound like I don't care.

    Big pharma has done that for ages, not just on cannabis. They jack prices up beyond the scope of anything reasonable.

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