The terminology for marijuana has changed since the 1960s. Even marijuana itself is outdated. The legalization movement prefers cannabis, and now that cannabis is completely legal in many states and countries, outdated words have been replaced in the overall pop culture. In the 60s and 70s cannabis was most often called weed or Mary jane, an anglicized version of marijuana. Mary Jane was so popular a term it was a song by Rockstar Rick James, as well as the name of Spider Man´s girlfriend/wife. Spider-Man´s girlfriend had a carefree, party-type personality and the implication is that she smoked Mary jane. Due to the Jamaican influence, many hippies used the term ganja. Musicians like Bob Marley were Rastafarians, and they openly used and sang about ganja. Pot, grass, wacky tobacky was also comparatively commonly used.

Cannabis Codes

Shortly before cannabis legalization took off, 420 was used as a code word for cannabis. The older cannabis slang often used codewords that were meant to be understood by users and not understood by non-users so much. 420 came out in an era, perhaps the late 1990s or early 2000s where one could be arrested for marijuana possession due to the war on drugs and the big crackdown on crime in large cities. Before legalization became a thing, one would hear about brownies, which were cannabis oil-infused brownies. Now there’s a wide variety of cannabis edible products and even restaurants that sell cannabis-infused foods.

New Smoking Terms

Smoking terms have changed as well. People used to say hashish the solid residue made from cannabis that is smokable. Now it is often called concentrates. And even smoking has more modern terms such as vaping. Particularly, as people use electronic pens or another tech to vape. The modern equipment should be available in your local marijuana dispensary.