Marijuana

"Marijuana" is the common English spelling used by most modern legislatures, regulators, and media for the psychoactive Cannabis sativa L. plant containing more than 0.3% delta-9 THC. The word entered American English from Mexican Spanish in the early 20th century and was popularized by anti-cannabis campaigns in the 1910s–1930s, most notably by Federal Bureau of Narcotics Commissioner Harry Anslinger, who preferred the foreign-sounding term to the medically familiar "cannabis." Many contemporary reform statutes have deliberately replaced "marijuana" with "cannabis" in recognition of that racialized history (e.g., New York's Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act nevertheless uses "cannabis" throughout its operative text; Washington State renamed its agency the Liquor and Cannabis Board in 2015). As a matter of pharmacology and taxonomy, "marijuana" and "cannabis" refer to the same plant; "marihuana" (below) is the federal statutory spelling. *→ See also: Cannabis, Marihuana, Hemp