Is Cannabis and Marijuana the same thing?
It is no wonder that you are confused. The substitution of the term Marijuana for cannabis was a deliberate ploy at the time when certain commercial and racists influences were hell bent on getting cannabis prohibited. In fact, another word for cannabis is hemp. Before 1937 Hemp (cannabis) was a vital agricultural commodity, used to make paper, fiber, clothing, food, rope, birdseed, oil, medicine, plastics and fuel. Those who wished to see it banned knew that the congress would never do so if they knew they were banning hemp, so they dredged up a Mexican slang word for it which they felt would sound exotic and foreign and sinister. The Congress, true to form, did not realize that marijuana, hemp and cannabis were the same. They believed the anti-marijuana propaganda, and, sadly for humankind, they banned it.
