There are two types of cannabis, Marijuana and Hemp. Hemp contains less than 0.3%THC and does not get you high. Marijuana can have over 30%THC and does get you high.

There is a reluctance to use the word Marijuana to describe intoxicating cannabis as it is synonymous with the prohibition era and racially targeted and discriminatory policing. Many believe the word was created during the 1930’s. This is a misnomer.

Origins of the word Marijuana

The Christianisation of Mesoamerica, by the Spanish in the 16th century, focussed heavily on forcing the indigenous populations (Aztec, Mazatec, Maya, Huichol) to adopt the eucharist, the Christian ceremony of eating the symbolic bread and wine. Spiritual practices that involved consuming psychoactive plants such as peyote, psilocybin mushrooms and other plants were banned through fear of severe punishment.

The Spanish fleet also required the indigenous populations to cultivate hemp, cannabis, which they brought over as seed. This enabled the colonizers to produce the necessary ropes and sails needed for the Spanish fleet rather than importing these goods.

The native peoples experimented with the plant and, in addition to secretly continuing the consumption of psychoactive plants, they also discovered the intoxicating properties of cannabis. Cannabis fitted with their experiences of the divine and was adopted as having spiritual properties of ancestors and God.

A coded, Christian oriented, language was developed to both hide and camouflage the use of cannabis as an intoxicant. An association with the divine mother of Jesus, Mary, heavily influenced names such as Donnia Maria, Rosa Maria and Mariguana (1846 Farmacopea Mexicana). This is where the word Marijuana originates from.

During the 1930’s the word Marijuana was used in a racially derogatory context to draw association with the Latin American community, invoking fear about those who consumed it. Over the past 100 years we have seen the deliberate targeting of African American and Latin American communities over Marijuana possession despite cannabis use being prevalent across all races equally.

The word has been used to invoke racial fear and hatred and still does. Yet the origin represents the traditions of native peoples who understood and celebrated the plant as a botanical medicine, as containing ancestral wisdom and as a representation of the divine. Being able to re-own ‘Marijuana’ from 1930's white supremacist invocation to its beautiful and celebrated origin is a good thing.