Let's stop using the word "marijuana"

Surprise! It's racist.

I’m sending a two-parter this week. Today is about why we should stop using the word marijuana. Tomorrow is a digest of Black voices in cannabis. Please consider subscribing if you haven’t done so already—it keeps the lights on and the information flowing. These posts (with the exception of tomorrow’s) will soon be archived behind a paywall. Thank you!

I stopped using the word marijuana a couple of years ago. Long-time readers of this column in its various iterations over the years might have noticed that it has never appeared until last week when I briefly discussed the term’s shitty history. My friends definitely know to not use it around me, lest they want a preachy, rapid-fire verbal beat down that only a skilled killjoy such as myself could employ while everyone is just trying to have a good time.

Therein lies the problem. While it’s nice to imagine that California’s Proposition 64 and other states’ adult-use legislation ushered in a world where we’re all just hanging with Dave Chappelle, ripping blunts, getting our wellness on with CBD oil and trying all of the THC lube, the truth is far less sanguine. 

Many other aspects of the cannabis world have not progressed in the same way that the industry would have one believe. Across the state and country, over 40,000 people--mainly people of color--remain imprisoned on cannabis-related convictions. The passage of several California bills designed to help those with non-violent cannabis convictions expunge their records and get released from prison is a step in the right direction. Still, there is a long way to go before the playing field can be considered any kind of level.

Last week I briefly outlined how I came into weed and the privilege I’ve enjoyed as a white woman moving through the world as a “stoner.” This week I’m going to make a plea, instead: stop using the word marijuana. Cannabis is the scientific name for the plant and the best umbrella term to use for everything that comes after that.

Its shitty use can be traced back to The Federal Bureau of Narcotics’ first director, Harry J. Anslinger, who went whole hog on the plant in the early 1930s, attaching it to Black and Mexican working-class communities. He wanted to turn public opinion against cannabis use by classifying it as foreign and, therefore, dangerous. He also wanted to stigmatize the communities that used it. So, he appropriated the word ‘marihuana,’ a term thought to be used in colonial Mexico by indigenous growers who were forced by colonizers to grow hemp for rope. 

“Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind,” Anslinger once said. “There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music--jazz and swing--result from marijuana use.”

He also was quoted as saying, “Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men” and “the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.​”

In case it isn’t already obvious that this is fabricated, racist garbage, then allow me to simply state just that. Anslinger’s rhetoric and his policies laid the groundwork for all-out criminalization and the eventual War on Drugs, a fruitless endeavor that continues to drag on and ruin lives across state lines and international borders. He’s also the guy responsible for the atrocious Reefer Madness films and propaganda (see below).

In concert with Anslinger, the infamous journalist and publisher William Randolph Hearst helped popularize and stigmatize the word marijuana. Hearst was a known racist who was very public with his opinions and used his newspapers and magazines to run smear campaigns against anything he didn’t like. Hemp/cannabis crops threatened Hearst’s timber empire and so he was virulently against it and subsequently sicced his newspapers on it. Around the same time, cannabis became federally illegal. We know what happened next.

It’s important to right the wrongs of those who came before us and little gestures can have large impacts. Since words matter and I can’t lay cultural claim to saying marihuana, I’ll stick to saying cannabis and other less harmful terms like weed, herb, grass and other euphemisms for the beloved plant. Unless you want me to harsh your mellow, let me suggest doing the same.

Tomorrow’s Cannabitch will be devoted entirely to Black voices in the cannabis world, including those currently incarcerated for non-violent cannabis offenses. It will also include resources for further learning and research, which, let’s be honest, we all need to look into. Thanks for reading, as always.