In 1978’s Up in Smoke, they drive a van from Mexico to Los Angeles that is made of resin from cannabis plants. In 1981’s Nice Dreams, they sell marijuana out of an ice cream truck. That imagery was part of an anti-cannabis movement and helped to prompt a crackdown on illegal cannabis use, which culminated in the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. Like anything, the history of pot, weed or whatever you want to call it is complicated. During the Jazz Age, when singers wrote odes to the plant, it was called dope, reefer and tea.

So, despite some decline in usage, it’s still well-understood to refer to cannabis. However, in the 1930s, the term “marijuana” became more widespread. This is an Anglicization of the Spanish word “marihuana”, which was pronounced with a throaty j/g sound.

Statistical Insight into Cannabis Culture

Marijuana is typically smoked in joints, pipes, or vaporized, whereas hashish can be smoked or mixed with food and eaten. Hashish is generally more potent than marijuana because it is a concentrated form of the plant’s active compounds, like THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). The terms “Mary Jane” for cannabis and “Mary Jane” for the shoe style may share a name, but their origins and cultural implications are distinct. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term “Mary Jane” as a name for a style of shoe predates its use as slang for marijuana, with the shoe term appearing as early as the early 20th century. While both terms have widespread recognition, their connection is more coincidental than intentional. The term thus becomes a part of social vernacular, reflecting both collective and individual identities.

Also, a smoked marijuana high lasts about two hours, but eaten marijuana often lasts 4-8 hours. The reason marijuana is baked into brownies is that brownies taste good and this keeps you from getting the munchies. No, actually the real reason is that active ingredient in marijuana is THC, also called delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, and it needs to be extracted from the marijuana plant to have an effect on the body. The heat of smoking turns THC into a vapor which is inhaled.

What Does Mary Jane Mean? – Meaning, Uses and More

As William S. Burroughs wrote in his 1959 novel Naked Lunch, catnip was “frequently passed on the incautious or uninstructed,” since it looked and smelled similar enough to the drug. Click here for an overview of the real risks of using marijuana. Research shows that year old girls who used marijuana every day were 5x more likely to suffer from depression when they reach their early 20’s. There’s also a significant increase in the reporting of depression and anxiety in young women who use daily – and 13% of young users become dependent on it. If our explanation didn’t quite hit the mark, we’d love to hear your perspective.

What is Marijuana?

The slang is universal since you might find the same name in Canada, Europe, and the US. It is said that the group of high school students often met at 4.20 pm after classes to enjoy a session of cannabis smoking. Funny that the name stuck and is a favorite for many weed lovers today. As stated above, the name marijuana is believed to come from the Chinese or the Spanish people. Marijuana was uncommon in America before the 1930s, meaning the nickname was invented after 1930. While the meaning might depend on where you come from, it usually refers to recreational cannabis with a high THC content.

Many stoners use “Mary Jane” as a code for cannabis, though not everyone knows Mary Jane’s origin in weed culture. Invented in the 1970s by high school students, “420” is a witty nickname that stimulates your brain. While it might not be anything serious, it gained popularity among the young people. Weed lovers who have been in the industry for decades are more likely to refer to cannabis as grass. Like “weed,” “grass” is an old-school term that is not popular with young enthusiasts.

Mary Jane is a slang term primarily used to refer to marijuana, which is the dried leaves and flowers of the Cannabis sativa plant. Hashish, on the other hand, is a concentrated form of cannabis made from the resin of the plant’s flowers. While both marijuana and hashish come from the same plant, they differ in form, potency, and often in how they are consumed. Names like “Mary Jane” have been popularized through various mediums such as music, film, and literature.

It does not have a sexual connotation and is not a typo or misspelling. Also, as you’ll read below, there smoking mary jane are some serious and definitive physical and mental effects from smoking pot that need to be understood. It took some time–and a number of tries to leave it fully behind, but she did it. Now she’s reaping the benefits – as are her relationships, work, and family. While “Mary Jane” is primarily an American term, it is understood in many English-speaking countries.

Other Weed Slang You Must Know

The term “mary jane” is a slang term that refers to marijuana. The exact origins of the term are not clear, but it is commonly used to refer to marijuana. A study which followed 1900 patients who suffered a heart attack showed that smoking marijuana doubles your risk of dying in the few years after a heart attack. The pot smokers in this study who did not die of a second heart attack died from lung cancer or car accidents, which could also have been related to marijuana, of course.

When was the term 'Mary Jane' first used to refer to cannabis?

• Newer slang terms are also coming to prominence, including boom.
• Besides the cannabis plant, the nicknames range from the users, smoking, and accessories.
• Slang names for marijuana, including “Mary Jane,” frequently appear in pop culture, particularly in songs, movies, and TV shows.
• As my sister will attest, marijuana use can negatively affect your life, your work, your education, your relationships – as well as your goals and your dreams.
• So while the future of 420 is hazy, one thing is for sure—it's not going anywhere anytime soon.

“Mary Jane” serves as more than just a term; it embodies a range of cultural, legal, and social implications. The term “Mary Jane” is one of the many colloquial names for marijuana, a psychoactive drug derived from the Cannabis plant. The plethora of names for marijuana is a testament to its complex cultural, social, and legal history. With legalization, existing users of recreational marijuana will continue to smoke weed as they always have.

And if you start using before the age of 18, you are 4-7x more likely to develop such a disorder as an adult. You can read more here about its addictive qualities – as well as how the potency of marijuana has significantly increased over the years and why that matters. Mary Jane, while a light-hearted and often whimsical euphemism for marijuana, plays a significant role in modern culture. Its evolution from a slang term to a mainstream reference mirrors the changing attitudes toward cannabis in society. As acceptance continues to grow, it’s likely that terms like Mary Jane will remain an integral part of cannabis culture and discourse worldwide. The nickname “Mary Jane” is thought to have been derived from the Spanish word for marijuana, “marihuana,” which could also be a play on the name “Mary” in English.

The worst just e-mail their buddies and then write up a paper or grab some undergrads in an introductory psychology course. Some of the common terms you might know include pot, ganja, weed, and joint, among many others. Besides the cannabis plant, the nicknames range from the users, smoking, and accessories. With a vocabulary list of over 100 nicknames, you will learn different code names for cannabis and its users. Common names for smokers are potheads or stoners; you might have heard the terms from weed enthusiasts.

Sure, you wouldn’t want your daughter to date one, but when a slow-moving, laconic, glassy-eyed, long-haired, character pops up on the screen—big or small—we’re all likely to crack a smile. I have a friend who smokes a lot of weed, and she even trained her parrot to say, “Where’s my marijuana? Cannabis by any other name would smell as sweet (or skunky, rather), and it’s definitely had its fair share of creative sobriquets over the years. From giggle smoke to Nixon, here are 18 old-fashioned slang terms to describe the ever-popular psychoactive plant.

I’m a huge fan of marijuana and here’s why…

Share your own definition below and help us enrich the tapestry of urban language. Most adults under the acute influence of marijuana can manage without medical assistance. The exact date when Mary Jane came into prominence as a term for marijuana is not known.

Even though cannabis has been approved by the FDA for use in some medical conditions, the jury is still out on the benefits vs. risks. One thing we know for sure though is that there’s not enough information on long-term effects of people using it for either age- or health-related concerns. Legal considerations also contribute to the term’s cultural significance. The use of euphemistic names like “Mary Jane” can sometimes serve to soften the perception of marijuana, often used to navigate around legal restrictions or societal taboos. This is especially true in places where marijuana use is illegal or socially frowned upon. The term “Mary Jane” is not just a casual nickname for marijuana; it holds considerable cultural significance.