By any other name ... Washington moves to ban the word 'marijuana'
There are lots of nicknames for cannabis: pot, weed, grass, reefer madness. But now there’s one name state lawmakers think you should avoid: "marijuana."
Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed a bill striking the word "marijuana" from the text of state laws. Instead, it will be replaced with “cannabis.”
It’s part of a national effort to remove the term from common use.
RELATED: Stop saying 'marijuana'? Lawmakers say it's racist
When the U.S. House of Representatives voted to decriminalize cannabis at the federal level last week, the bill also included a provision to strike "marijuana" from official statutory references.
KUOW politics reporter David Hyde has been looking into where this push to stop saying marijuana came from.
He joined Soundside host Libby Denkmann to discuss the name change.
You can find Hyde's full story here.
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Libby Denkmann
Host, Soundside
Libby Denkmann joined KUOW in December 2021 as the host of the midday show Soundside. She’s a native Pacific Northwesterner who grew up in Redmond, graduated from the University of Washington, and covered local news as a producer and reporter with KIRO Radio.
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Alec Cowan
Producer, Soundside
Alec Cowan is a producer for Soundside. His interests have brought many eclectic stories to the program, and his segments gravitate toward history, technology, arts and culture, and the environment. He's proud to be KUOW's unofficial "boat guy."
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Sarah Leibovitz
Supervising Producer, Soundside
Sarah joined KUOW in 2019 as senior producer on The Record. She is now Supervising KUOW’s new noon time show, Soundside. Prior to working at KUOW, Sarah was lead producer at the Seattle podcast production company Larj Media, and a teaching artist with Path with Art.
More stories from Sarah Leibovitz »
