Marijuana, Cannabis, Hashish, Weed and Ganja are common words you might hear when talking of Cannabis or related drug products.
While weed is also referred to as unwanted plants, the more common usage of Weed today refers to an intoxicating drug also known as Cannabis.
Essentially, Marijuana and Weed are different names for the same plant.
Weed is a slang or everyday term while Marijuana is used formally.
So, why are there so many names for the same plant?
Cannabis, Marijuana, Weed, etc., are names given per the usage and the active components observed through any of the biological or digital microscopes mentioned in this article.
Let us tell you everything about the evolution of names and their literal definitions. Keep reading!
Evolution of Terms
You might think that Marijuana, Cannabis, Weed or Hashish has become common recently in the past decade. Yet, it is not entirely true.
People have been smoking them for a long time now and they entered the US in the early 1900s.
Marijuana was not a name well-known to Americans before 1910. Many Mexican immigrants moved to the USA, bringing Marijuana with them. They called it Marihuana or Mariguana initially. The smoking culture was highlighted with the influx of more Mexicans in the 1920s and the name “Marijuana” became common.
Marijuana was banned in twenty-nine states in 1930 by Harry Anslinger, the first director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics.
On the other hand, Weed emerged as a widely used word on TV including National Geographic and Discovery Channel. It was first used by an academic journal that included Weed among new words.
They added Weed as a new word for Marijuana cigarettes. Other names like joint, blunts and spliffs have made their way into the list of synonyms for rolled up weed or Marijuana cigarettes.
In the 1930s and 1940s some newspapers and books also used the word Weed in place of Marijuana or Cannabis.
It is also known as 420 because of a group of weed-smokers in the 1970s. This group of school students in California would gather outside their school at 04:20 pm to smoke Marijuana. They used 420 as a code to intimate each other at the time of gathering.
Many smokers in the USA celebrate the Weed Day or unofficial marijuana holiday on April 20.
General Differences between Marijuana and Weed
- Marijuana is more of a formal term compared to the use of Weed as slang.
- Marijuana is the dried leaves or top of the plant. On the contrary, weed is a tobacco product.
- People used Marijuana as old as 1910 whereas Weed came into limelight in the 1930s.
- Weed is not used in formal or legislative terms. Yet, Marijuana refers to the plant in legal terms.
- Physicians use the term Marijuana or Cannabis professionally. However, they might call it Weed when informing a patient in layman words.
Is Recreational Marijuana Legal in the USA?
Whether you call it Marijuana, Cannabis, Weed or anything else, it more-or-less has the same effect on your brain. It is considered a psychotic drug that people take to “get high.” American law restricted using Cannabis for recreational purposes in the past.
Marijuana has been legal in 17 states for the past ten years. Yet, you cannot bring it from permitted states to states where it is not allowed.
Latest changes in the law permit the use of Marijuana and weed for medicine as well as recreation.
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People living in New York can have up to 24 grams of Marijuana in possession if they are over 21 years old. You may also keep as much as 5 pounds of the herb at home and carry the allowed amount of concentrate with you to places that allow smoking weed.
The Bottom Line
Marijuana and Weed are well-known names of the Cannabis plant. Weed is often used as a slang term whereas Marijuana is a formal word in legislation. Yet, they are not two entirely different plants. Marijuana, cannabis or weed is legal in many states in the US now for recreational and medicinal purposes. You can keep up to 24 grams of weed with you if you are over 21 years of age. However, you must smoke only in allowed spaces.
