“Weed, pot, grass…” Call it whatever you want, just please don’t call it marijuana.

As a health professional and cannabis pioneer and entrepreneur, one of my biggest pet peeves is the term “marijuana.”  Marijuana has become the acceptable colloquial term for cannabis for everything from state licensing and regulating agencies, to legislative bills, and even medical treatments. Cannabis is the genus describing the plant and psychoactive drug. You can find it on cold and cough syrup labels from the 1920’s and pharmaceutical ads in the 40’s.

So why does everyone think they sound more knowledgeable when they call it “marijuana”?

Most people call it marijuana because the government propaganda worked. The government attempted to brainwash humanity into believing the plant was the devil’s plaything, with ridiculous propaganda films like Reefer Madness which tried to convince the American public that if you smoke cannabis you turn into a psychopathic murderer; they also used the term marijuana to subconsciously associate the plant and drug with Mexican Drug Cartels. “Marijuana” or “marihuana,” was the accepted term in Mexican Spanish cultures, however, the government spin machine twisted the otherwise common term with racial overtones and negative connotations. By referring to cannabis as marijuana, the American government propaganda machine could closely tie the term to ruthless violent Mexican drug cartels, providing further evidence as to why the drug was bad.

So call it what you will; weed, reefer, grass, pot, herb, or the scientific term Cannabis, just please don’t call it marijuana. As a cannabis proponent, when you refer to this very special plant by the slang term created by the opposition to associate it with illegal cartels, it just makes our legitimate scientific and medical uses by legal businesses look stupid!

Cannabis Saves Lives. Period.

 

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