Cannabis Freedom Index

Glossary

The words of drug law and of the cannabis trade that this site uses, and the words people use for cannabis itself, each explained in a sentence or two. The 43 marked "Atlas entry" have a whole article in the cultural atlas. Across the site, the first time one of these words appears in a text it has a dashed underline: hover or tap it for the explanation.

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1988 Conventionalso Convention against Illicit Traffic: The United Nations treaty of 1988 against drug trafficking. It also asks countries to make possession for personal use a criminal offence, within the limits of their constitutions.
420Atlas entryalso 4:20, 4/20, four-twenty: A meeting time of five Californian schoolboys in 1971 that became the worldwide code for cannabis and the date of its yearly demonstrations.

A

administrative offencealso administrative offense, administrative offences, Ordnungswidrigkeit, přestupek: A breach handled by an authority instead of a criminal court, usually with a fine and no criminal record.
aggravatedalso aggravating circumstances, aggravated offence, aggravated offense: An offence treated as more serious because of its circumstances, such as selling to children, near a school or as part of a gang, which raises the punishment.
amnestyalso amnesties: A decision that frees people from punishment for past offences or clears their convictions, usually after a law has changed.
AnashaAtlas entryalso dichka, nasha: The Russian slang word for cannabis and hashish, borrowed from Uzbek and Tajik. It names the drug of the Soviet south, and of the wild hemp of the Chuy valley.

B

BangiAtlas entryalso bhang, banghi: The Swahili word for cannabis, linked to bhang and Indian Ocean exchange. Its immediate source and route inland are less certain than a simple borrowing from Hindi suggests.
BhangAtlas entryalso bhāṅg, bangue, bang: The leaves of the plant, ground to a paste and eaten or drunk. In India it is the one form of cannabis that the national law leaves alone.

C

caningalso strokes of the cane: Corporal punishment with a rattan cane, still imposed for drug crimes in Singapore and Malaysia.
cannabinoidalso cannabinoids: A substance that acts on the body's cannabinoid receptors, such as THC or CBD.
CannabisAtlas entryalso kánnabis, hemp, Hanf, konopí, kanapė, kenevir: The botanical name is a Scythian word that reached us through Greek and Latin. English "hemp" is the same word, borrowed much earlier and worn down by sound change.
CBDAtlas entryalso cannabidiol, CBD oil, CBD flower, Epidiolex, Epidyolex, novel food…: Cannabidiol, the cannabis compound that does not get people high. Studied since 1940, it became a word on shop shelves only after 2018, and the law still cannot agree whether it is a medicine, a food, a drug or none of these.
ChambaAtlas entryalso Malawi Gold: Malawi's word for cannabis, one of the country's three famous C's along with its fish and its tea.
CharasAtlas entryalso charras: Resin rubbed by hand from the living plant, the hashish of the Himalaya. Indian law names it in its definition of cannabis.
chira: A North African name for hashish, used in Morocco and in the colonial drug laws of France and Belgium.
Commission on Narcotic Drugsalso CND: The UN commission where governments vote on which substances the drug treaties control. In 2020 it took cannabis out of the treaty's strictest list.
compulsory treatmentalso compulsory rehabilitation, drug rehabilitation centre, rehabilitation centre: Drug treatment ordered by a court or the authorities, sometimes in a closed rehabilitation centre, that the person cannot refuse.
concentratesalso concentrate, cannabis concentrates: Strong extracts of cannabis, such as oil, wax or shatter, with far more THC than the flower.
Convention on Psychotropic Substancesalso 1971 Convention, Psychotropic Substances Convention: The United Nations treaty of 1971 that controls psychotropic substances, among them THC itself; the cannabis plant is controlled by the treaty of 1961.
cultivation associationalso cultivation associations, growing association, growing associations, Anbauvereinigung: A non-profit club whose members grow cannabis together and share the harvest only among themselves.

D

DaggaAtlas entryalso daccha, dacha, daggha, insangu: The southern African word, from Khoekhoe. First written down by the Dutch at the Cape in 1658, later a word of contempt, now reclaimed.
day finealso day fines, day-fine: A fine counted in days, each day worth a share of the person's income, so the same offence costs the rich more. Used in Germany and the Nordic countries.
decriminalisedalso decriminalized, decriminalisation, decriminalization, decriminalise, decriminalize: Still against the law, but no longer a crime. Having a small amount brings at most a fine or a warning, and no criminal record.
Delta-8Atlas entryalso delta-8-THC, Δ8-THC, D8, delta-6-THC, delta-10, hemp-derived THC…: Short for delta-8-THC, a close chemical cousin of the THC in cannabis, made in bulk from legal hemp after 2018 and sold in American petrol stations as a legal high. The word names a loophole as much as a molecule, and the loophole closes in November 2026.
depenalisedalso depenalized, depenalisation, depenalization: Still a crime on paper, but in practice no punishment is imposed for small amounts.
DiambaAtlas entryalso liamba, riamba, yamba: A Central African word for cannabis that turns up on three coasts of the Atlantic, wherever enslaved and freed Central Africans were taken.
DispensaryAtlas entryalso dispo, cannabis dispensary, buyers' club, cannabis store, cannabis retail outlet, medical marijuana dispensary: An old word for a place that hands out medicine, which in the United States became the name of the cannabis shop. The medical word was chosen because, for twenty years, medicine was the only legal ground cannabis could be sold on.
dissuasion commissionalso dissuasion commissions: In Portugal, a panel of health and social workers to which the police send people caught with drugs for their own use, instead of to a court.
diversionalso diverted, diversion programme, diversion program: Sending someone to treatment, education or a warning instead of to court.
DopeAtlas entryalso dope fiend, doped: A word that travelled from thick sauce to narcotic drugs. In British English it often means cannabis, but it has never named cannabis alone.
dronabinol: THC made as a medicine, mainly against nausea and loss of appetite.

E

ediblesalso edible: Food or sweets made with cannabis, such as cookies, chocolate or gummies.
endocannabinoidalso endocannabinoids, endocannabinoid system: A cannabinoid the body makes itself, such as anandamide.
eradicationalso eradication campaign, eradication campaigns: Destroying cannabis crops, by hand, by burning or by spraying from the air, usually by police or soldiers.
EsrarAtlas entryalso esrarkeş, esrar tekkesi, esrarhane, beng, haşiş, asrār…: The everyday Turkish word for cannabis means "secrets". A medieval dervish poet was already using it for the drug, and it named the hashish dens that Ottoman and Republican police spent a century trying to close.
EUDAalso EMCDDA, European Union Drugs Agency: The European Union Drugs Agency in Lisbon, called the EMCDDA until 2024, which gathers drug figures from the EU countries.
excisealso excise tax, excise duty, excise duties: A tax on a particular product, such as alcohol, tobacco or legal cannabis, charged on top of ordinary sales tax.
expungementalso expunged, expunge, record clearing, records cleared: Removing an old conviction from a person's criminal record.

F

felonyalso felonies: A serious crime, usually one that can bring more than a year in prison.
fixed penalty noticealso fixed penalty, fixed-penalty notice: An on-the-spot fine, like a parking ticket, paid without going to court.

G

GanjaAtlas entryalso gāñjā, ganjah: The Hindi word for the flowering tops. Indian labourers carried it to the Caribbean, and it also became the usual word across South-East Asia.
Gol (گل)Atlas entryalso flower, sabzak, alaf, geras, jay: Persian for flower, and a name for herbal cannabis whose rise in urban Iran carried ideas about class, modernity and belonging.
GrassAtlas entry: American slang for cannabis recorded by 1932. An ordinary word for greenery became an alternative to the language of narcotics and menace.

H

harm reduction: Measures that reduce the damage drug use does, such as drug checking or advice on safer use, without first requiring people to stop.
hash oilalso honey oil: A strong liquid extract of cannabis, with much more THC than the flower or hashish.
HashishAtlas entryalso hash, haschisch, hachisch, hasch, hashish: Arabic for dried grass. The word for cannabis resin from Morocco to Afghanistan.
HempAtlas entryalso industrial hemp, hempen, Hanf, hampr: The old English name for cannabis, its fibre and its crop. Modern law gives it a narrower meaning, defined by THC limits rather than by a separate species.
HHCalso hexahydrocannabinol: Hexahydrocannabinol, a semi-synthetic cannabinoid usually made from CBD and sold as a legal high, until many countries banned it.
home growingalso home grow, home cultivation: Growing a few cannabis plants at home for one's own use, legal in some countries within a set number of plants.

I

Indian hempAtlas entryalso Cannabis indica, hemp drugs: The name under which the British Empire, and then the world, first brought cannabis under control. It survives in the statute books of dozens of countries that have nothing to do with India.
Indica and sativaAtlas entryalso hybrid, landrace: Two Latin names from eighteenth-century botany that became the vocabulary of the modern cannabis shop. Botanists now doubt they name different things at all.
InjagaAtlas entry: A Rwandan name for cannabis documented in 1959–60 interviews. The record also shows how a word for a plant could carry social prejudice about its users.
International Narcotics Control Boardalso INCB: The UN body that watches whether countries keep the drug treaties, and criticises those that legalise cannabis.

J

JointAtlas entryalso J, jay, doobie, roach: A hand-rolled cannabis cigarette. The word passed from "side room" to "opium den" before it reached its present meaning in the 1930s.

K

KifAtlas entryalso kief, keef, kef: From the Arabic for pleasure. In Morocco it means chopped cannabis mixed with tobacco, smoked in a long thin pipe.
KushAtlas entryalso Hindu Kush, OG Kush, Purple Kush: Named after the Hindu Kush, the mountains whose hashish plants were carried to California in the 1970s. It became the most famous strain name in the world, and, in Sierra Leone, the name of something else entirely.

L

LandraceAtlas entryalso landraces, farmers' variety, beldiya, beldia, khardala, accession: A farmers' variety, kept by saving seed in the place where it grows rather than bred to a standard. The word came from German agronomy and, in cannabis, names the old local populations of the hashish and ganja regions, many of them lost to hybrids and eradication. Morocco now licenses its own, beldiya.

M

MaAtlas entryalso dàmá, taima, hemp: The Chinese character for hemp, among the oldest recorded names for the plant. It also carries the sense of numbness.
MaconhaAtlas entryalso diamba, liamba, pango: Brazil's word for cannabis, from Kimbundu, a language of Angola. It crossed the Atlantic with enslaved people, like the plant itself.
magistral preparationalso magistral preparations, magistral: A medicine made up by a pharmacist for one patient from a doctor's prescription, such as a cannabis oil dosed for that person.
mandatory minimumalso mandatory minimums, minimum sentence, minimum sentences: A prison term the judge must impose at least, whatever the circumstances of the case.
MarijuanaAtlas entryalso marihuana, mariguana: A Mexican Spanish word of unknown origin. In the 1930s it replaced "cannabis" in American law because it sounded foreign.
MatekoaneAtlas entryalso khomo ea fatše, likata, kakana: The Sesotho word for cannabis connects generations of Basotho smallholder cultivation with South Africa’s market and Lesotho’s newer licensed medical industry.
MbanjeAtlas entryalso suruma, dagga: Zimbabwe's word for a crop that has grown there for centuries. Near the Mozambican border, and across it, the name is suruma.
misdemeanouralso misdemeanor, misdemeanours, misdemeanors: A minor crime, below a felony. It can bring a short jail term and leaves a criminal record.
MotaAtlas entryalso moto, motorolo, pacheco, churro, toque, grifo…: Mexican and Central American Spanish for marijuana since at least the end of the nineteenth century. In older Spanish it is a speck or a tuft of fluff; how it came to mean the plant is unknown.

N

nabilone: A man-made substance similar to THC, prescribed against nausea during chemotherapy.
narcological registeralso drug users' register: In Russia and other former Soviet states, an official list of people known to use drugs, which can cost them a driving licence and some jobs.
ng/mlalso ng/mL, nanograms per millilitre: Nanograms per millilitre, the unit for THC in blood or serum. A nanogram is a billionth of a gram.

O

OlsAtlas entryalso olusu, олс: The Mongolian word for hemp also means rope or cordage. Its compounds connect the plant with oil, textiles and livestock tethers; a proverb finds strength in a rope’s twist and in people helping one another.

P

PakalōlōAtlas entryalso pakalolo, paka lōlō: A Hawaiian name for cannabis, literally “numbing tobacco.” It also appears as pakalolo in Hawaiʻi's local English and Pidgin.
paraphernaliaalso drug paraphernalia: Equipment for using drugs, such as pipes, bongs, papers and grinders. Some laws make selling or holding it an offence.
per se limitalso per-se limit, fixed THC limit, fixed limit: A driving rule under which a set level of THC in the blood is an offence by itself, whether or not the driver is impaired.
personal usealso for personal use, own use: Holding or using drugs for oneself rather than to supply anyone else. Many laws punish it far more lightly than dealing.
PotAtlas entryalso potiguaya, potaguaya: English slang for cannabis, recorded in 1938. Its familiar Mexican-Spanish origin story is plausible but remains disputed.
potency: How strong a cannabis product is, usually given as its share of THC.
prensado: Spanish for "pressed". Herbal cannabis compressed into hard blocks for transport, typical of the cannabis grown in Paraguay and sold across South America.
presumption of traffickingalso presumed trafficking, presumed to be trafficking: A rule that treats anyone holding more than a set amount as a dealer, unless they prove otherwise.
probation: A sentence served in the community under supervision instead of in prison, with conditions such as regular drug tests.

Q

QannebAtlas entryalso qanba, qannebusa, qanneb Indjan, kannabis, Indian hemp: The Maltese word for hemp, familiar through ropes, textiles and birdseed. Drug legislation used qanneb indjan, “Indian hemp”; Article 25 of the 2021 reform literally replaced those words with “Cannabis”.

R

ReeferAtlas entryalso muggles, tea, viper, mezz, Reefer Madness: American slang of the jazz age for a cannabis cigarette, and the word that gave its name to the most famous anti-drug film ever made.
regulated marketalso regulated cannabis market, legal market: A legal market in which the state licenses growers and sellers and sets rules on products, prices or buyers.
reschedulingalso rescheduled, reschedule: Moving a drug to another list of a drug law or treaty, which changes how strictly it is controlled.
rongony: The Malagasy word for cannabis, used in Madagascar for the plant and for what is smoked.

S

Sativexalso nabiximols: A mouth spray made from cannabis extracts, with THC and CBD in roughly equal parts, approved in many countries for muscle stiffness in multiple sclerosis. Its generic name is nabiximols.
Schedule Ialso Schedule IV, Schedule 1: The strictest classes in a drug law's lists. Schedule I in the United States is for drugs said to have no accepted medical use; Schedule IV of the 1961 UN treaty was for drugs considered especially dangerous.
Single Conventionalso Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs: The United Nations treaty of 1961 that obliges countries to control cannabis and to limit it to medical and scientific use.
SinsemillaAtlas entryalso sensimilla, sinse, sensi: Spanish for "without seed". The word for unpollinated female plants came north from Mexico in the 1970s and changed what people expected cannabis to be.
SpliffAtlas entryalso grabba: A Jamaican word of unknown origin for a cannabis cigarette. In Europe it came to mean one rolled with tobacco.
suspended sentencealso suspended sentences, suspended prison sentence: A prison term the court imposes but does not enforce, unless the person offends again within a set period.
synthetic cannabinoidsalso synthetic cannabinoid: Laboratory chemicals that act like THC, often far stronger and more dangerous, sold under names such as Spice or K2.

T

telemedicinealso telemedicine platforms, online clinics: Doctors' consultations held online, through which some countries' patients get cannabis prescriptions without a visit.
THCalso tetrahydrocannabinol, delta-9-THC, Δ9-THC: Tetrahydrocannabinol, the main substance in cannabis that makes people high.
THCAalso THC-A, tetrahydrocannabinolic acid: The acid form of THC found in the raw plant. It does not make people high until it is heated, which some sellers use to sell strong flower as "hemp".
TinnyAtlas entryalso tinnie, tinny house, tinnie house, foilie: New Zealand slang for a small deal of cannabis wrapped in tinfoil, and for the "tinny house", an ordinary-looking home where it is sold to anyone with cash.
toleration policyalso tolerated, gedoogbeleid: Illegal, but the authorities have decided not to prosecute, as with the Dutch coffeeshops.
traffickingalso drug trafficking: In drug law, supplying drugs to anyone else, sold or given away, not only smuggling them across borders.

U

UNODCalso UN Office on Drugs and Crime, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime: The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, which collects countries' drug figures and publishes the yearly World Drug Report.

W

WietAtlas entryalso weed, nederwiet, binnenwiet, buitenwiet, mediwiet, wietpas: The Dutch word borrowed from English weed. It usually means herbal cannabis, while hasj means resin; the Opium Act uses the plant names hennep and cannabis.

Z

ZamalAtlas entryalso jamala, amale, candia, ciga, chimique: The Creole word for cannabis on Réunion. It seems to come from Madagascar, though modern Malagasy does not use it; on the island it names a plant, a temper and a book of poems.
ZatlaAtlas entryalso takrouri: Tunisia's everyday word for cannabis. An older name, takrouri, is the one in the decrees of the French protectorate.
zero tolerance: A driving rule under which any trace of THC in the body is an offence, however long ago the cannabis was used.