Thank you, Jackie and Keiva, for welcoming me and for the help and encouragement toward making a new post! Below, then, is the post I'd originally intended to make (but had mistakenly entered as a reply):
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This lurker now ventures into daylight to ask: what is the history of the word "marijuana" ("marihuana")? A friend thinks "marijuana" was coined by Randolph Hearst (?!), which I doubt; my limited dictionaries say it's of American Spanish/Latin American origin, but also add "?" and give no history of the word's usage. Could someone tell me what the OED has to say about it? - Circumstances make it rather difficult for me to get to the library.

No packages, please! Only information! : )

Thank you,

Tsyganka