The word marihuana was published first in Mexico in 1846, while the plant drug's prior history there is cloudy: Spanish colonists introduced Cannabis sativa for hemp as early as 1530 but failed repeatedly, the one limited success a farming family near Mexico City around 1760.[1] Two documents of 1772 and 1777 show Indigenous peoples using cannabis within the pipiltzintzintlis, a generic category of mostly mixed, drunk ceremonial preparations — never again documented after 1777.[1] The new 1846 appellation suggests a novel use arrived in the intervening decades, effacing the pipiltzintzintli legacy: when Mexican marihuana uses were first described in the 1850s, it was a smoked drug with limited medicinal indications, used mostly by prisoners and soldiers for mental escape.[1]
Listed for context. No score change is recorded for Mexico here.
References
- The African Roots of MarijuanaChris S. Duvall · Duke University Press · 2019 · ch. 7, printed pp. 153–154; 1846 first printing of mariguana, 1530–1760 hemp failures, 1772/1777 pipiltzintzintli documents, 1850s smoked use · ISBN 9781478004530
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read.