Truth in Cannabis

I would like to start a forum to promote legitimate discussion about cannabis and health.

First point, it all starts with a name. The scientifically correct name is cannabis, meaning of two canes, “bis” meaning two. The two cane plant is unlike most common plants which have both reproductive structures on the same plant.

Monoecious” is translated as “single house,” meaning that male and female flowers are found on a single individual. This contrasts with the translation of dioecious, which is “double house.” This means that male flowers are on one plant and female flowers are on another plant. Cannabis is dioecious, as is its closest plant relative, hops (Humulus).

A few examples of other common dioecious landscape plants: yew, poplar, willow, ash, mulberry, holly, juniper, pepper trees, pistachio, red maple, box elder, aspen, currant, sumac, carob, Osage orange, sassafras, and bay laurel.

Other terms used in place of cannabis, like weed, pot etc., are vague and should be avoided. The term marihuana, often spelled marijuana, first occurs in a 1937 tax act. This was born out of ignorance and bias, and not science. The unfortunate term “medical marijuana”, is an oxymoron, if medicine is science, marijuana is anti-science.

Oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two opposite ideas are joined to create an effect. The common oxymoron phrase is a combination of an adjective proceeded by a noun with contrasting meanings, such as “cruel kindness,” or “living death”. However, the contrasting words/phrases are not always glued together. Some would also include terms like, jumbo shrimp or military intelligence as oxymorons. In my opinion, marijuana ignorance works as a phrase. I do like the comment, “you can’t spell medi CAL M arijuana with “calm”. (My all time favorite one of these phrases, you can’t spell advertisements, without semen between the tits).

Bottom line: if you want to use some slang, to sound “cool”, feel free to light up some “mary jane” with your friends. If you want to talk science, or write some legitimate laws, cannabis is the only acceptable term. To promote this “woke” way of thinking, use the term “2cane” or #2cane to help change twitter, (is it trending yet?).

P.S. What about the term “hemp”? While I would say cannabis=hemp, the government has again muddied the waters.

In Dec. 2018, President Trump signed into law the farm bill, which contained a provision legalizing hemp, a species of cannabis that CBD can be extracted from but that isn't psychoactive. This use of the term would imply “hemp” to be a low THC subset of cannabis. This is also probably a governmental inaccuracy. The teaching i received was that when male and female plants are grown together naturally the resulting plant products are called hemp (oil, seed and fiber), this is the natural state of the plant. This fiber was prized as used for tarps and paintings (correct use of term canvas) as well as rope. Modern cultivation of cannabis is almost exclusively virgin females (1cane, without seed, spanish translation “sans semia”, often misspelled sensimilla).

Therefore hemp now means 1cane low THC, marijuana means 1cane high THC, and the correct term for the whole spectrum, 1&2 cane, low&high THC is cannabis. Our elected officials should take notice of the change, or maybe we can official change their name from “legislators” to “do nothing bureaucrats”.