MARIJUANA Also known as marijuana. 1. f. Hemp (Indic or Sativa). 2. f. Product made from hemp.

When did the word come into being, and why is it called that? Here are some possible versions of the etymology of the word MARIJUANA. One possible version relates to the fact that healers and herbalists were always called Marías or Juanas and used the Cannabis plant (as is still done today) for medicinal purposes. But another version places the possible origin in Nahuatl: “malli,” which means a coiling herb or weaving herb, and “huana,” which is associated with “thauhani” and means “drunk” and “altered in body and mind.” The Nahuatl language came from the Uto-Aztecan family, spoken by the inhabitants of what are now the states of Nevada, Colorado, and Utah in the United States. It then spread to the mountainous and rugged regions of western and northern Jalisco (Mexico), and between the 3rd and 7th centuries AD, it occupied a significant area of Mesoamerica, at that time experiencing a period of great urban and ceremonial flourishing. At its peak, Nahuatl was the primary lingua franca for communication among the subjugated, administered, and tributary peoples of Mexico-Tenochtitlan; consequently, numerous groups abandoned their native languages to adopt Nahuatl. The original name for marijuana is hemp, derived from *cannabum*, the common form of the classical name *cannabis*, which comes from Greek and, in turn, from Thracian. Hemp cultivation predates the colonization of the Americas, dating back to around 4000 BC in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq, Iran, and Kuwait). In those times, it was believed that excessive hemp consumption caused one to see monsters, but that prolonged use could allow the user to communicate with spirits. In ancient India, cannabis was attributed with properties such as granting the user spiritual power and a connection to truth, and it was also used in the worship of the god Shiva. Christopher Columbus brought us the first products derived from this plant: 20 tons of candles, nets, ropes, and other items. Later, Hernán Cortés, conqueror of the Aztecs, requested that hemp be brought to New Spain. And in 1530, Pedro Cuadrado de Alcalá brought the first hemp seeds to Mexico City, and the Second Royal Audiencia authorized its cultivation for the textile industry. The pre-Hispanic cultures, who knew many plants since ancient times, as well as their uses and properties, both curative, hallucinogenic and divinatory, surely adopted cannabis as one of their sacred plants, and it was then that it adopted the name marijuana.

Its use spread over time, and by 1902, José Guadalupe Posada had created the first comic strip character in Mexico, Don Chepito Marihuano, a humble old man who was always getting into trouble (although official culture mythologizes Posada only for his Catrina Garbancera: a skeleton who tries to pass herself off as rich when she is actually a poor servant of Spaniards). During the Mexican Revolution, the custom of smoking marijuana was tolerated and widespread, and it is no coincidence that one of the best-known corridos of that era was "La Cucaracha." After the revolution's defeat, it was definitively prohibited, giving way to the illegal business that is now run (in almost every country) by the state apparatuses that hypocritically prohibit it. In the United States, illustrious and prominent figures such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Michelangelo, among others, are known to have used cannabis, and some even cultivated it for medicine and textiles. The plant that so many have used for its healing properties is now needed by so many patients with various serious illnesses, and if we do not decriminalize home cultivation, we will go from the illegal business to the legal business of the same old laboratories.

Nora Buich, Teacher, Río Santiago Shipyard Technical School