Throughout the 19th century, news reports and medical journal articles almost always use the plant’s formal name, cannabis. Numerous accounts say that “marijuana” came into popular usage in the U.S. in the early 20th century because anti-cannabis factions wanted to underscore the drug’s “Mexican-ness.” It was meant to play off of anti-immigrant sentiments.
But of course the anti-war protests were also inextricably tied up with civil rights protests happening at the same time.
It was banned in the usa in the 1930s, long before hippies or vietnam