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\u201cThere is not one piece of evidence that suggests that word was used purposely by anybody to stain cannabis.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent<\/strong><\/p>\n I was talking to a cannabis business owner I\u2019ve known for a while and respect. The man, who is white, told me he refused to use the term \u201cmarijuana\u201d because it\u2019s racist.<\/p>\n It was one of my first conversations on the cannabis beat, which I\u2019ve been on for a month now. And my mind was bursting with questions.<\/p>\n Should I be offended by the word marijuana??!!<\/p>\n This Chicana journalist has been on a mission to get answers ever since.<\/p>\n Immediately, I turned to Google and realized that he was talking about the numerous accounts saying that in the 1930s, American politicians leading the charge of prohibition popularized the term \u201cmarijuana\u201d in the U.S. to paint the drug as a \u201cMexican vice\u201d and to have an excuse to persecute Mexican immigrants.<\/p>\n Yet now after talking to scholars, lawmakers, fellow Latino journalists and even my parents, I\u2019ve learned that\u2014yes\u2014race is involved, but not in the way I expected.<\/p>\n First, I spoke with Isaac Campos, a professor of Latin American History at the University of Cincinnati and author of Home Grown: Marijuana and the Origins of Mexico\u2019s War on Drugs.<\/p>\n About a month ago, Campos published<\/a> findings online of his long study on the history of cannabis terminology, and it\u2019s compelling work.<\/p>\n Bottom line: He said the claim that politicians intentionally popularized the term during prohibition is false\u2014because the word was being used decades before then in the United States.<\/p>\n And in his view, people shouldn\u2019t have a problem using \u201cmarijuana.\u201d In fact, erasing the word brings its own problems.<\/p>\n The first reference to the intoxicant \u201cmarihuana\u201d was found in 1842 in Mexican newspapers, and then the term made its way to the United States in the 1890s.<\/p>\n After looking through thousands of American newspaper articles between 1910 and 1919, Campos found that \u201chashish\u201d was by far the most common word used for intoxicant cannabis during that time\u2014and \u201cmarihuana\u201d came second.<\/p>\n Words most frequently used for intoxicant cannabis in U.S. newspapers 1910-1919<\/p>\n In U.S. newspaper articles between 1910 and 1919, University of Cincinnati Professor Issac Campos found that \u201chashish\u201d was by far the most common word used for intoxicant cannabis during that time (Image from thedrugpage.org).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Here\u2019s the thing: Throughout the world, people were getting high off cannabis largely through hashish, by putting a lump in their mouths or smoking it in a pipe.<\/p>\n Americans began using the word \u201cmarihuana\u201d to describe the method found in Mexico\u2014smoking it through cigarettes\u2014which had much milder and more controllable effects, Campos said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why the word sticks,\u201d Campos said, \u201cbecause the word was associated with this particular way of taking the drug that came from Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n He compares using \u201cmarijuana\u201d to the word \u201csalsa.\u201d Rather than just saying \u201csauce,\u201d it\u2019s really specific to the way Mexicans make sauce for tacos and other things.<\/p>\n The myth, he said, that hardly any Americans had heard of the word before \u201can aggrieved William Randolph Hearst decided to pound the term into the American lexicon\u2026to facilitate its demonization\u201d was first introduced by marijuana-reform activist Jack Herer in the 1980s.<\/p>\n Was there racism against Mexicans? Absolutely, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut there is not one piece of evidence that suggests that word was used purposely by anybody to stain cannabis,\u201d Campos said. \u201cThere was absolutely no need for it. It was already associated with the more foreign-sounding word \u2018hashish.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The idea that it was \u201cracialized\u201d became another argument from activists to push to overturn prohibition, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that those arguments worked out, I think that\u2019s great,\u201d he said, noting that the laws disproportionately impacted communities of color as well as Mexico. \u201cBut I\u2019m a professional historian, so my job is to try to set the record straight.\u201d<\/p>\n Herer\u2019s influence can still be seen today. Last year the state of Washington banned using the term \u201cmarijuana\u201d in state statute, and Virginia and Maine introduced legislation to do the same.<\/p>\n After talking with Campos, I found two resolutions by the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators passed in 2017 and 2021, arguing the term was racist and should be replaced by \u201ccannabis\u201d in statute.<\/p>\n Interestingly, the caucus cited a study by Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML, on cannabis prohibition in California to justify their statements.<\/p>\n However, that paper actually corroborates what Campos says: That marijuana got swept up in the movement to ban opium, which some companies were adding to medicines without people\u2019s knowledge. And many of the northern states that began the marijuana bans didn\u2019t have Mexican immigrants yet.<\/p>\n \u201cYet even without the Mexicans, the Board would likely have proceeded to outlaw Indian hemp anyway, just like Massachusetts, Maine, Indiana, and Wyoming,\u201d Gieringer wrote.<\/p>\n I reached out to Gieringer, and he told me in an email: \u201cThere is nothing racist about the word marijuana\/juana. It is the proper term for smoked cannabis buds and leaf. Our organization, NORML, is proud to represent marijuana and cannabis users of all sorts.\u201d<\/p>\n I had a great conversation with New Mexico Sen. Antonio Maestas, D-Bernalillo County, who chairs the Hispanic caucus\u2019 law and criminal justice committee.<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t have a hand in writing the resolutions, but he took the lead on the 2007 legislation that legalized medical marijuana in New Mexico.<\/p>\n He was surprised the caucus called the word racist and isn\u2019t personally offended by it. This claim never came up in his many years advocating for decriminalization in New Mexico, he said, but he believes it\u2019s \u201cbetter messaging.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe word cannabis kind of has a plant connotation,\u201d he said. \u201cThe word marijuana kind of has an illegal connotation. It\u2019s in our interest to use the word cannabis exclusively when dealing with cannabis policy.\u201d<\/p>\n I told him about another academic study I read on how successful campaigns for marijuana legalization\u2014in Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon\u2014heavily relied on \u201cwhite individualism,\u201d meaning the face and focus of their campaigns were responsible, middle-class white people.<\/p>\n Maestas says it makes sense because when they were pushing legalization in New Mexico, they were targeting moderates and \u201crural conservative Chicanos.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re trying to go mainstream and sell a product, you market to the average-Joe white person,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Using Mexican-sounding words probably doesn\u2019t fit into that strategy.<\/p>\n This piece was first published by Missouri Independent.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n The post Why The Word \u2018Marijuana\u2019 Is Not Racist (Op-Ed)<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is not one piece of evidence that suggests that word was used purposely by anybody to stain cannabis.\u201d By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent I was talking to a cannabis business owner I\u2019ve known for a while and respect. The man, who is white, told me he refused to useContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":64657,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64656"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64658,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64656\/revisions\/64658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Terms-I.png\")
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\nRead More: Why The Word \u2018Marijuana\u2019 Is Not Racist (Op-Ed)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"