I know young people can seem like they’re looking for things to be offended by, but I think the stigma still attached to the word marijuana by older people (like my mom in her 60s) is the main issue here.
We were both taught how horrible and evil drugs like marijuana, LSD, cocaine and heroine were (as if there is much similar between them), and I do think that calling it cannabis or something else in things like laws, dispensary names, vaporizer ads, etc. is probably less likely to get a negative response from people who grew up on “marijuana bad”.
I don’t know a lot about how people refer to reefer outside the US, but I did see a post here recently questioning why we’re still saying marijuana in the US. I think the kind of propaganda I was fed reached a lot of other countries through the “war on drugs” sadly…
So yeah, I think it’s fine to use any of the names I’ve heard for it, and I use a variety of them, but I also get why a lot of people might prefer to avoid some of those terms.
It might be a little like calling alcohol the demon drink in the 1930s as prohibition was ending here. I’m sure plenty of people were still sensitive to that kind of thing too, and stirring those types of thoughts and feelings while trying to gain acceptance may be counterproductive.