Democratic lawmakers from the state of Washington have declared that the term “marijuana” is racist. As is usually the basis for these absurd acts, Democrats have argued that the word “marijuana” is derogatory and has a long history of racism against black and brown people.
Granted, it is questionable how a word indicates one race is superior to others, but that won’t stop Washington state Democrats.
Melanie Morgan, a Democrat in the Washington House of Representatives, sponsored the bill that makes this declaration. In 2010, Morgan testified to the ill effects associated with the word “marijuana.”
“The term ‘marijuana’ itself is pejorative and racist,” Morgan said. “As recreational marijuana use became more popular, it was negatively associated with Mexican immigrants,” Morgan said.
To subvert this “racism,” Washington legislators passed a bill recently that replaces the word “marijuana” with the word “cannabis” in the Revised Code of Washington, the guidebook of all permanent laws currently in force in the state.
In reality, there is no link between marijuana and Mexican immigrants. Still, Washington state Democrats can rest easy knowing they just provided a pointless remedy to a nonexistent problem.
Perhaps it is more appropriate to make the opposite argument. The erasure of this word is a deletion of Hispanic American history. “Historian Isaac Campos argues that the change in terminology will erase some of the Mexican influences on our culture,” said Connor Kubeisy, communications and policy associate with Smart Approaches to Marijuana.
This eradication of Mexican influence could lead to widespread ignorance about Mexico’s pioneering efforts in prohibiting the narcotic because of its harmful impact on people.
“It’s worth noting that Mexico began its nationwide prohibition of marijuana 17 years before our federal government did, citing concerns about the drug’s ill effects. Many of the concerns held by Americans about marijuana were shared and preceded by similar concerns among Mexicans,” said Kubeisy, an emerging voice in the drug policy field.
Moreover, Washington state’s change in terminology is not entirely accurate. Marijuana and cannabis are not the same.
“Although the words are often used interchangeably, there are key differences between their meanings,” Kubeisy said. “The word ‘cannabis’ refers to the genus of the plant, while marijuana and hemp are different species of it. U.S. law also views them differently. Cannabis plants that are above 0.3% THC are legally considered marijuana, while plants below that threshold are considered hemp. All marijuana is cannabis, but not all cannabis is marijuana.”
Other semantic differences could lead to confusion.
“Today, most people know the drug as marijuana, which is why the National Institutes of Health continues to use the word ‘marijuana,'” Kubeisy said. “Since cannabis is far less known, there’s also a practical component to this issue. Also, pro-legalization activists and the pot lobby have used the word ‘cannabis’ to make the drug sound scientific and medicinal in all circumstances.”
Yet whether “cannabis” or “marijuana” is used, the main point is that this is a pointless pursuit by politicians. The state of Washington has real issues, such as Seattle’s rapid descent into an uninhabitable homeless slum and the abject failure of the state’s public schools. But Morgan is hellbent on fixing the problem of racist marijuana.
She and so many other Democrats will be very surprised this November, I get the feeling.
