The Potent Promises (and Perils) of Modern Marijuana

Left human hand displaying two round pink and two square yellow gummies.

Photograph by Sergiy Barchuk; Set Design: Mat Cullen, Lalaland Artists

August 12, 2025

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.

(NIDA's Director Tells Us What We Know—and Need to Know—About Marijuana)

A still life image of cannabis products — Photograph by Sergiy Barchuk; Set Design: Mat Cullen, Lalaland Artists

This strange syndrome is linked to regular cannabis use—and cases have doubled

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.

(The Marijuana Debate: Healing Herb or Dangerous Drug?)

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.

A close up image of a variation of sour candy stacked on one another. — 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.

Woman vaping in the cloud of blue smoke — 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.