He was dressed in a three-piece suit. But Chris Coggan nearly went unnoticed when he dropped by a San Diego city councilor’s office last year to do some lobbying on marijuana laws.

“An aide came to reception and asked, ‘Where’s the pot guy?,’” said Coggan, co-founder of Therapy Tonics & Provisions, a La Jolla cannabis drink company.

“He seemed to be looking for someone in a tie-dyed shirt with a joint stuck behind his ear.”

California voters overwhelmingly approved the use of recreational marijuana in 2016. And licensed stores in San Diego began selling it on Jan. 1, generating brisk business.

But marijuana still carries a stigma that surfaces with the use of old slang like pot and weed. For many, the words evoke an image of lazy, not-so-bright people who puff their lives away.

The image deeply bothers the marijuana industry, which is telling the public — sometimes gently, sometimes curtly — that they should use the word cannabis. That’s the scientific name for the plant from which marijuana is derived.

Many retailers also are marketing marijuana as a health and wellness drug even though recreational sales will soon dwarf those of medical marijuana. [Read more at San Diego Union-Tribune]