If one thing is beyond debate about the strict "marihuana" prohibitions in Texas, it's that the word is misspelled dozens of times in decades-old state statutes.

Leave it to a former Spanish teacher to do some retroactive copy-editing.

"I wanted to get a pen and write over it," freshman state Rep. Terry Meza, D-Irving, said of her reaction when she first noticed the h-instead-of-j spelling of marijuana repeated throughout state law books.

Instead, she has introduced House Bill 1196, which would replace all the phonetic "marihuana" references with the plant's scientific name: "cannabis."

It's unclear when the first bungled spelling of marijuana was written into state statutes, although one section of the Texas code of criminal procedure that would be changed by Meza's bill — involving "possession or delivery of marihuana" — dates to 1979. The phonetic spelling apparently was commonplace in some quarters decades before then, however, with El Paso municipal leaders using it in 1915 when the city became the first in the United States to outlaw marijuana, according to the El Paso Times.

The “h” spelling was also used in some federal statutes: in the Marihuana Tax Act of the 1930s, and then again in the Controlled Substances Act, passed in 1970. Several other states also use the spelling in their statutes.

Regardless, Meza said changing the reference in state law is important now, as elements of the plant have shown promise as medical treatments and as proponents in Texas are advocating for fewer restrictions on it.

"The word 'marijuana' has kind of a controversial connotation" regardless of how it's spelled, said Meza, a lawyer and former school teacher. "'Cannabis' is its medical name, and we want to return it to its medical name."

Heather Fazio, director of Texans for Responsible Marijuana Policy, a pro-cannabis lobbying group, agreed that such an edit could help make the plant more acceptable by lessening the stigma attached to it.

"Talking about it in more professional terms and scientific terms helps to change the level of the conversation," Fazio said.

Still, she said, her group is more focused during this year's legislative session on reducing penalties for marijuana possession in Texas and on expanding the state's highly restrictive medical marijuana law — called the Compassionate Use Act — to allow more Texans to access cannabis-based treatments. Changing the state's terminology is a lower priority, she said.

But "I appreciate where (Meza) is coming from on this," Fazio said. “I’m a little surprised that this conversation hasn’t happened, to the extent that a bill would be filed, in the past."