With marijuana stepping into legal light in a growing number of states, both business owners and customers are considering a simple question: How much do I know about my weed?

The answer, many are finding, is not nearly enough.

National Geographic reports on the questions that are emerging on both sides of the market, as producers and sellers try to set up — or evade — mechanisms to spell out what’s in the marijuana and associated products they sell. Consumers, meanwhile, want more information about what’s in their weed; depending on the product and the seller, they may learn a lot or a little.

NatGeo explores questions about the entire line of production; energy efficiency, for example, is a key concern in an industry where a square foot of marijuana production can use four times as much energy as a hospital and eight times as much as a commercial building.

[related_articles location=”left” show_article_date=”false” article_type=”automatic-primary-section” curated_ids=””]Concern for both the workers who harvest cannabis and the end-users who consume it is also motivating many growers to explore organic farming techniques, according to National Geographic.

“We believe that sustainability extends to setting a high standard for conduct, and we are working to show the community that the emerging legal cannabis industry is contributing to society, not taking from it,” Siobhan Danger Darwish, who co-owns Humboldt’s Blessed Coast Farms, told the magazine.

One big challenge to regulating the quality and composition of cannabis products is still being figured out: Testing, as is common with many foods and prescription drugs. Without laws in place mandating standards for testing facilities and for products that make it to market, consumers may not be sure what they’re getting. With marijuana still labeled a Schedule I drug under federal law, a set of federal rules defining testing standards and standards for products that make it to the market is probably still far away.

To read the entire article, go to National Geographic.com.

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