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.
I like this take but it relies on a critical analysis that isn’t going to occur to most people. Most people aren’t even aware up the word’s racist origins.
I think calling it cannabis helps distance it from it’s illegal past. There’s a lot of more conservative people out there that still think of “marijuana” as something dangerous and criminal that is used by disreputable people. I think calling it “canabis” will help shed that negative connotation.
For the record, I call it “weed.”