I just finished watching Reefer Madness (GREAT film, by the way…highly educational 
), and the entire time, they kept spelling it “Marihuana.” The movie was made in 1938, so at what point did the standard become “Marijuana”?
Just a stupid curiosity.
Maybe in imitation of “Tijuana”?? Or the suppsed origin as “Mary Janes” (María Juana). People might think it is more correct with the ‘J’.
But even in Mexican Spanish it is usually spelled Marihuana. I have even seen Mariguana written.
Much as cuate says apparently . Just a misspelling of Mexican slang.
The OED gives both spellings but shows the J spelling first, and seems to say both are the “American Spelling”.
Both terms go back a century or so. Looking at the cites given, they seem to have been used about equally for a while, but the J spelling seems to take over a little at a time.
The earliest cite with the J spelling is 1918, and the H spelling is a few years earlier in 1907. The G spelling is actually the earliest cite, appearing in 1894.
The last cite using the H spelling is in 1968 in the Times. All of the cites after that use the J spelling.
Not sure that helps a lot, but it’s a little data.
Ugly
According to “Smoke and Mirrors” by Dan Baum, “Until the early 1980’s, the drug was referred to by its anglicized spelling (marihuana) in all official (American government) publications.”
Cool. Thanks for the info.
Back in WWII the CHICAGO TRIBUNE was spelling it JUGOSLAVIA. So mabye the J out of Yugoslavia wound up in mariHuana.
I think “J” is often a Y, as in German, Polish, and most other Slavic languages. Jugoslavia is probably closer to the native spelling.
In Spanish “Marijuana” would be mah ree XWAH nah*. But the usual pronunciation is mah ree WAH nah. So the J is probably an American addition (designed to make the word more exotic?)
*(X being a little harsher than an English “H”)
To amplify what RJKUgly so nicely contributed, the original cite was in 1894, in Scribner’s Magazine as mariguan. It is cited as a horrible substance/drug.
The 1907 cite is a scholarly one where the spelling of marihuana is simply telling you what the plant is called in scholarly circles. Chambers says this is “a restored variant spelling in English,…)” No slang usage there.
The spelling of marijuana first appears in the Journal of the Amer. Med Assoc. in 1918. They also provided the spelling Mara Huiwane, which, thank the godess, has disappeared from civilization. Chambers offers that the spelling “marijuana” is from the proper Mexican names Maria + Juana, although Lighter seems to imply this is only remotely possible. In other words, no one knows where the actual word comes from.
The first cite for Mary Jane is supplied by the OED from 1928 thusly “What is Marijuana? … A deadly Mexican drug, more familiary knowna as “Mary Jane”, which produces wild hilarity when either smoked or eaten.” (Wow! They had brownies that long ago!).
I’ve not searched for the official US Gov’t spellings in history.