1988 Cannabis Cup
1988 marked the year of the very first High Times Cannabis Cup - a competition to name the best cannabis - and it was held in Amsterdam Holland where although technically illegal, cannabis consumption and retail sales is tolerated.
Amsterdam was the perfect setting with its thriving cannabis culture and de facto legality of usage of marijuana and hashish, which was readily available to adult clientele for purchase at any of the (at the time) several hundred cannabis coffeeshops located throughout the city of Amsterdam.
High Times editor Steve Hager was hired by the magazine in 1988 and he promptly created the Cannabis Cup, which he would run for 25 years.
Hager and two other judges made the journey over to Amsterdam in November to hold the inaugural 1988 event in which four cannabis seed companies participated.
A single winner was eventually crowned - seed company Cultivators Choice with their entry Skunk #1.
