Did you know 'marijuana' is a disparaging term for cannabis? That Sanja Gupta special on CNN mentioned it.
marijuana (n.) Look up marijuana at Dictionary.com
1918, altered by influence of Spanish proper name Maria Juana "Mary Jane" from mariguan (1894), from Mexican Spanish marihuana, of uncertain origin.
When the US was trying to first ban cannabis, they portrayed it as a Mexican thing to help demonize it utilizing white prejudices against Mexicans. But there's no plant by that name.
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three different species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis.
We usually would just refer to it by the name of its strain, like White Widow, Sour Diesel aka Sour D, OG Kush aka OG, Grandaddy Purp aka Purpz, Skywalker OG, Lemon Kush, etc. Or simply "bud". Or "Mary Jane" if we were tryin' to sound all poetic.
And most of the places I've lived are all over the Southwest US. Cali, Vegas, Phoenix, New Mexico, Texas... None of which really got anythang against Mehico