For thousands of years, cannabis was seen as a mysterious, sacred, even demonic plant. Today, weed is hugely popular. You can buy hundreds of strains, specially cultivated to produce different flavors and highs. You can buy it in vape cartridges and gummies and brownies. And it’s a lot stronger than it used to be: more than three times as potent as it was in the mid-’90s.
But, since it’s still illegal in most places, it’s also almost entirely unregulated. There is no “standard unit of weed.” Strain names like “Pineapple Express” or “Candy Cane” don’t tell you much about the product you’re buying.
So how did humans engineer this ancient plant into the drug it is today? And what does all that uncertainty mean for a booming marijuana market and its customers?
Vox tackled this question in this week’s episode of our Netflix show, Explained. We have new episodes every Wednesday on topics ranging from the racial wealth gap to dieting and more. If you like our videos, then you’ll love this show; it’s our most ambitious video project to date.
To watch, search “Explained” on Netflix or go to Netflix.com/explained. Click the “My List” button to make sure you don’t miss an episode.
Credit: www.vox.com
