Talk:Cannabis in Washington (state)

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Requested move 9 November 2016

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: No concensus to move. (non-admin closure) Fuortu (talk) 22:07, 16 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Cannabis in Washington (state) → Marijuana in Washington (state) – Procedural comment intentionally placed here: Lengthy rationale by Dennis Bratland (talk) truncated for bot listing here, given below. 20:20, 9 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Per the policy Wikipedia:Article titles#Use commonly recognizable names: "Wikipedia generally prefers the name that is most commonly used (as determined by its prevalence in a significant majority of independent, reliable English-language sources)" and "Although official, scientific, birth, original, or trademarked names are often used for article titles, the term or name most typically used in reliable sources is generally preferred. Other encyclopedias are among the sources that may be helpful in deciding what titles are in an encyclopedic register, as well as what names are most frequently used." The Encyclopedia Brittanica entry on Marijuana says "The term marijuana is sometimes used interchangeably with cannabis; however, the latter refers specifically to the plant genus, which comprises C. sativa and, by some classifications, also includes the species C. indica and C. ruderalis."

Good examples are Guinea pig (not: Cavia porcellus) or Caffeine (not: 1,3,7-Trimethyl-1H-purine-2,6(3H,7H)-dione).

The current version of this article cites 6 sources, and five use the word marijuana and one uses pot. None use "cannabis". The number of google hits related to Washington state is about 10 to 1 in favor of marijuana. This article is primarily about Washington Initiatives 692 and 502. The word Cannabis doesn't appear once in the text of 692, and in 502 the word appears only 3 times, versus 38 times for marijuana, and this is the word used in the titles of both initiatives.

It's true all the other articles in Category:Cannabis in the United States by state are making the same policy error. Click on any article in that category, and it's the same as Washington: the sources overwhelmingly use the word marijuana. There is the theory that cannabis is the more correct word, but this theory is a violation of the no original research policy. Our sources are telling us that marijuana is the preferred term. Note that Wikipedia:WikiProject Cannabis does not own these articles, and whatever consensus these editors have about terminology, the article naming policy takes precedence. The sources in the articles in Category:Cannabis in the United Kingdom are the opposite: they prefer cannabis over marijuana. Per the guidelines at MOS:TIES, the US-related articles should use US English, as given by the sources. The policy WP:TITLEVAR underscores the same point. The evidence at Google nGrams is overwhelming and even more so within American English. Dennis Bratland (talk) 20:20, 9 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Survey

Feel free to state your position on the renaming proposal by beginning a new line in this section with *'''Support''' or *'''Oppose''', then sign your comment with ~~~~. Since poling is not a substitute for discussion, please explain your reasons, taking into account Wikipedia's policy on article titles.

Support a name change. Prefer "Weed in Washington" - It's "weed", man. And it's spreading like ganja. 4 States Just Legalized Recreational Weed. Weed gets more hits on Google than MJ. Got weed? The Transhumanist 07:06, 11 November 2016 (UTC) P.S.: "Marijuana" is a better title than "Cannabis", that is, in America. -TT[reply]
Oppose: "Cannabis in XYZ" is the current standard for fifty US states, a half-dozen US territories, and a dozen countries. I totally get where you're coming from, I just don't think we can have one state buck the trend without a very large group consensus to change all the titles for, at minimum, the US states and territories. Goonsquad LCpl Mulvaney (talk) 21:23, 14 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose for the sake of consistency. All other articles are "Cannabis in X". ---Another Believer _(Talk) 23:38, 14 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose Weed and pot would require needless disambiguation. The "Cannabis in XYZ" series as well as the Wikipedia:WikiProject Cannabis set the standard and would likely be affected. Houdinipeter (talk) 18:05, 15 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

Any additional comments:

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Update for Omnibus Bill

The history section needs to include the http://apps2.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=5131&Year=2017&BillNumber=5131&Year=2017 or omnibus bill, which allowed sharing of marijuana along other things. Glorygeek (talk) 05:11, 18 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]