Will Hawaii Be The First State To Officially Change From “Marijuana” To “Cannabis” When Referencing Medical Products

We fully concur and  reported on this back in March .

There might be a little too much detail below but if we were legislators  trying to create some water tight bills with regard to medical products it would, we suggest, be upon us to try and tie down definitions with as much precision as possible to try and avoid  future issues in the courts, wasting tax payers money, based around definitions of products generated from the cannabis plant.

We’d suggest that cannabis become the default overarching word to be used in the english language rather than the slang marijuana which only came into mainstream use in the mid 20th century.

Wikipedia highlights 

“Marihuana”‘s currency in American English increased dramatically in the 1930s, when it was preferred as an exotic-sounding alternative name during the debates of the drug’s use.[7] It has been suggested that it was promoted by opponents of the drug, who wanted to stigmatize it with a “foreign-sounding name”

SOURCE GOOGLE

 

Marijuana is defined thus by the following

Merriam Webster

Definition of marijuana

 

Cambridge Dictionary
marijuana
noun [ U ] also marihuana UK /ˌmær.əˈwɑː.nə/ US /ˌmer.əˈwɑː.nə/
a drug, illegal in many countries, that is made from the dried leaves and flowers of the hemp plant. Marijuana produces a pleasant feeling of being relaxed if smoked or eaten.

Examples
They were convicted of possessing large quantities of marijuana.
He grows marijuana in his greenhouse.

And Wikipedia gives us further detail with regard to Etymology

Marijuana (word)
Cannabis sativa
Marijuana” or “marihuana“, etc., is a name for the cannabis plant and more specifically a drug preparation from it.[1][2][3] Marijuana as a term varies in usage, definition and legal application around the world. Some jurisdictions define “marijuana” as the whole cannabis plant or any part of it,[4] while others refer to “marijuana” as a portion of the Cannabis plant that contains high levels of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).[5] Some jurisdictions recognize “marijuana” as a distinctive strain of cannabis, the other being hemp.[6] The form “marihuana” is first attested in Mexican Spanish; it then spread to other varieties of Spanish and to English, French, and other languages.[7][8]

Etymology[edit]
The term, originally spelled variously as “marihuana”, “mariguana”, etc., originated in Mexican Spanish.[8]
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term may come from the Nahuatl mallihuan, meaning “prisoner”.[7] Author Martin Booth notes that this etymology was popularized by Harry J. Anslinger in the 1930s, during his campaigns against the drug.[9] However, linguist Jason D. Haugen finds no semantic basis for a connection to mallihuan, suggesting that the phonetic similarity may be “a case of accidental homophony“.[10]:94 Cannabis is not known to have been present in the Americas before Spanish contact, making an indigenous word an unlikely source.[11]
Other suggestions trace the possible origins of the word to Chinese ma ren hua (‘hemp seed flower’), possibly itself originating as a loan from an earlier semitic root *mrj “hemp”.[12] The Semitic root is also found in the Spanish word mejorana and in English marjoram (‘oregano’), which could be related to the word marihuana. This is also known in Mexico as “Chinese oregano”.[11]

Additionally, traditional association with the personal name María Juana (‘Mary Jane’) is probably a folk etymology. The original Mexican Spanish used forms with the letter ⟨h⟩ (marihuana). Forms using the letter ⟨j⟩ (marijuana) seem to be an innovation of English, and their later appearance in French and Spanish are probably due to English influence.[7][13]

English use[edit]
The word entered English usage in the late 19th century. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known appearance of a form of the word in English is in Hubert Howe Bancroft‘s 1873 The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America.[7] Other early variants include “mariguan” (1894),[11] “marihuma” first recorded in 1905, “marihuano” in 1912, and “marahuana” in 1914.[14] Through the early 20th century, however, both the drug and the plant were more commonly known as “cannabis” or “hemp“. “Marihuana”‘s currency in American English increased dramatically in the 1930s, when it was preferred as an exotic-sounding alternative name during the debates of the drug’s use.[7] It has been suggested that it was promoted by opponents of the drug, who wanted to stigmatize it with a “foreign-sounding name”.[8] The word was codified into law and became part of common American English with the passing of the 1937 Marihuana tax act.
For research and statistical data “marijuana” generally refers to the dried leaves and flowering tops (herbal cannabis), with by-products such as hashish or hash oil being uniquely defined.[15][16][17][18] Many legal references prefer the term “cannabis”, for instance in the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. However, many laws and regulations often use the term “marihuana” or “marijuana”, for instance the Controlled Substances Act in the United States and the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations in Canada. Cannabis reform organizations, such as the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and Marijuana Policy Project, alongside political organizations like Help End Marijuana Prohibition Party of Australia and the Marijuana Party of Canada, also use this term.

 

Per the report below in Merry Jane we believe this is the correct course of action to take and the legislators across the states should all agree to do the same. If legislators came to the table with words like pot, weed, spliff, draw,waccy baccy, tea they’d be getting sideways looks within seconds but somehow marijuana.marihuana has slipped through the net. It’s time to change it

 

Merry Jane reports

There is a bill currently sitting on the desk of Governor David Ige that, if signed, would dictate the change of all documentation, websites or other materials pertaining to the state’s medical marijuana program to express medical cannabis instead.

The bill was introduced by Senator Mike Gabbard because, according to its language, the term marijuana “carries prejudicial implications rooted in racial stereotypes.”

If Governor Ige signs the measure or simply allows it to become applicable by taking no action whatsoever, the state Department of Health would have until the beginning of 2019 to amend the language of all medical cannabis-related information.

If this happens, Hawaii would become the first state to require the word marijuana be legally changed to cannabis.

https://merryjane.com/news/hawaii-on-verge-of-legally-changing-term-marijuana-to-cannabis

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