Green’s Dictionary of Slang

marijuana, orig. spec. that sold by Milton ‘Mezz’ Mezzrow.

1936		Stuff Smith ‘You’se a Viper’ 🎵 Dreamed about a reefer, five feet long / Mighty Mezz but not too strong / You get high but not for long / ‘Cause you’se a viper.
1938		D. Maurer ‘Lang. of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in Lang. Und. (1981) 106/1: mezz. Marijuana. Probably derived from the name of a well-known ‘swing’ conductor and composer.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 215: Overnight I was the most popular man in Harlem. New words came into being to meet the situation: the mezz and the mighty mezz, referring, I blush to say, to me and to the tea both; mezzroll, to describe the kind of fat, well-packed and clean cigarette I used to roll (this word later got corrupted to meserole and it’s still used to mean a certain size and shape of reefer, which is different from the so-called panatella); the hard-cuttin’ mezz and the righteous bush.
1950		Fads & Fancies 1 3: For those who don’t know, marijuana (or tea or weed or gauge — there is a whole new language here) is a drug [...] smoked in cigarettes known as reefers or mezzes or muggles. If you are in the habit of smoking [...] you are a ‘viper’ and when you are experiencing the full effects of the drug you are ‘high’.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970).
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak 98: Mighty mezz – outsize marijuana cigarette.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 15: Mighty mezz — Marijuana cigarette.