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National Geographic

The Potent Promises (and Perils) of Modern Marijuana

The New Cannabis is a National Geographic exploration into the most critical questions raised by today's stronger, stranger, ever more accessible weed. Pot is more popular than it's ever been—and more powerful too. Driven by precision-cultivation techniques, sophisticated extraction, and old-fashioned consumer demand, the rise of ultrapotent cannabis (and its knockoffs) is sparking new science, new health concerns, and new ways of thinking about an increasingly destigmatized drug. National Geographic dives into the cutting-edge frontier of marijuana today. Inside the lab-driven quest for the ultimate high By Rosecrans Baldwin Think the heart of the United States' $32 billion cannabis industry looks like a greenhouse? Think again. It increasingly looks like a chemistry lab, full of scientists remixing marijuana into startlingly powerful concentrates—and just starting to reimagine what compounds in the plant can do. Photograph by Sergiy Barchuk; Set Design: Mat Cullen, Lalaland Artists By Stacey Colino and Brian Kevin What's causing the bizarre, debilitating symptoms that seem to afflict more and more users of high-potency pot? As diagnoses surge, researchers want answers. Sufferers of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome just want relief. Photograph by Sergiy Barchuk; Set Design: Mat Cullen, Lalaland Artists What exactly is in gas station weed? By Stacey Colino Fake pot? Marijuana lite? Thanks to legal loopholes, sketchy cannabis alternatives are readily available, even in states where plain old weed is outlawed. The highs are real—and so are the risks. Photograph by Rebecca Hale, National Geographic Does high-potency cannabis impair mental health? By Stacey Colino For all marijuana's therapeutic benefits, medical researchers are also sounding alarms about frequent use of its high-octane derivatives—especially among teens. And as supercharged pot goes mainstream, it's dispelling the myth of a nonaddictive drug. Photograph by Sergiy Barchuk; Set Design: Mat Cullen, Lalaland Artists Why synthetic pot could be the future of pain relief By Devin Powell Scientists set out to conquer chronic pain by sidestepping the parts of the nervous system that get cannabis users high. To pull it off, they needed help from an unlikely molecule: a designer street drug so noxious it's been blamed for causing 'zombie outbreaks' around the world. Photograph by Sergiy Barchuk; Set Design: Mat Cullen, Lalaland Artists