Why do we call marijuana weed? The etymology of cannabis slang
Elissa Esher
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In a world of chaos, one universal law holds true: Nearly every culture and every generation has a different word for weed.
Experts say the reason is fairly simple: Each culture with access to marijuana had to come up with a word for it, and those words spread to other parts of the world through migration and colonization over time. Then, particularly throughout the 20
th century, every time law enforcement caught wind of a new word for cannabis, another was either adopted or invented.