The origin of the word marijuana is not known but it appears to be the Spanish name for Maria and Juana (Mary and Jane). Well, Adam and Eve had already had the apple :)

1918, alt. by influence of Sp. proper name Maria Juana "Mary Jane" from mariguan (1894), from Mex.Sp. marihuana, of uncertain origin. "Marijuana ... makes you sensitive. Courtesy has a great deal to do with being sensitive. Unfortunately marijuana makes you the kind of sensitive where you insist on everyone listening to the drum solo in Iron Butterfly's 'In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida' fifty or sixty times." [P.J. O'Rourke, "Modern Manners," 1983] http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=marijuana Etymology: Spanish marihuana. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Marijuana Etymology: Mexican Spanish mariguana, marihuana http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=marijuana

"Marihuana or Marijuana" appears to be the Spanish name for Maria and Juana (Mary and Jane). A derogatory "buzz" word used to stigmatize minority cannabis users and jazz musicians. Especially Mexicans. After Hearst Publications lost hundreds of acres of forest to Mexico. Hearst started smearing Mexicans. Mary Jane was supposedly Randolph Hearst arch enemy Poncho Villa's "prostitute, girl friend or some have said she "serviced Poncho and his men". The constant reference in headlines of yellow journalism. This marihuana would make the lily white daughters of South Western state citizens become as loose as Poncho's whore "Mary Jane". It not only stigmatized the Mexicans and sided with the isolationists fearful of Mexicans crossing the border, stealing jobs. It kept the word cannabis and hemp from the stories. Lumping them all into one convenient item to prohibit. With the discovery of an easier method of extracting fiber from hemp it also aided corporations in keeping competition off the market, ie; Dupont, Monsanto, Rockefeller Oil, and the Pharmaceuticals and newly legal Booze Mfg. Conspiracy or Coincidence? Regardless it worked and now we are re-discovering the medicinal and food, fuel and fiber properties of cannabis. Still fighting the same yellow journalists and government propagandist. http://www.jackherer.com Shadow of the Swastika: An Open Letter to All Americans http://www.hempfarm.org/Papers/Shadow_of_the_Swastika.html

mary jane!!!