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Cannabis Cup 2003, the latest, or must I say, the last….

I was invited to the Cannabis Cup this year, by Yerba Magazine from Spain, as one of their photographers and crew members. I would not have gone on my own initiative, as I have already witnessed America’s Greatest Cannabis Show on Earth on six previous occasions, twice as a participant in the Expo, four times as a guest of participants. I have never entered the Cannabis Cup with my merchandise, because my shops are not in Amsterdam.

The Judges, mostly Americans and Canadians, do not have their own transportation, so they can only visit the coffeeshops in Amsterdam to buy the samples they can judge for quality, either by going there by public transportation, on foot or in the buses that bring them to the competing coffeeshops in Amsterdam. I can enter, but then my strains will only be judged by the expert jury, which I do not trust, they are as corrupt as an Italian Prime-Minister.

The Cup Expo was held in the Hotel Arena, the Pax Party House was no longer available, for reasons I do not know. Jose and Pegu pose in front of the new venue, still unaware of what this Cannabis Cup may bring them. The organization was in the hands of 420 Tours, because the original organiser, High Times magazine, ceased to exist, and is now to be continued under another name, no longer as the ‘true’ marihuana mag they supposed to be.

This is Mike, the man behind 420 Tours, who were always involved in the cannabis Cups I visited, as the Travel Agency of the organisation.

The Yerba crew, except me, I was taken along to take pictures, so I did. Everybody rolled up a fat joint first, some of them had already purchased some Cup entries.

Pegu put up a little sign above our tables: The Spanish Smoking Corner.

Gonzalo, Yerba’s Art-Director, is concentrating on what he likes best, a fat joint of Sinsemilla marihuana.

The Netherlands, the land of plenty…

We had some nice company to share some smoke, this is a Cannabis Cup regular, as you can see, he was carrying his judges passes like a general would wear his decorations.

We were even joint by Ali Baba, Luuk’s sidekick in the Paradise seeds stand on every cannabis event. Patrick, Ali’s real name, is a Haarlemmer, like me, he is a long time regular in our shops, when not on the road. So far, so sweet, we were passing joint to the right, to avoid people ending up with three joint at a time, on random passing, when we were hit by this little oriental looking girl. She had already asked me to extinguish my joint the day before, when the cup had not taken off, Cannabis Cup staff members asked me to comply, it would only be for today, on Monday it would be allowed. I was stunned when the girl came walking up to our misty table to ask us to stop smoking weed in the restaurant. We did not comply, it was Monday, Marihuana Monday…

On Tuesday, this sign was up on the door of the restaurant, and on all walls of the restaurant.

On Wednesday, the signs were everywhere; smoking weed was prohibited in the halls, and even in the hotel rooms, where Cuppers were staying! I was disgusted. Cigarette smoking was not prohibited, of course?

Here are some shots of the Expo, it was very tight around the stands, which made it impossible to get good pictures, no distance…

The Expo was on two floors, the top floor was no more than a gallery in a U form, with two dead ends, where comers and go-ers were trapped all day.

Loads of people trying to move around on the ground floor.

The Expo was in the former chapel of the former orphanage that is now the Hotel Arena complex. It is a great venue, for concerts and such, but not for an event like this.

The Expo on the first floor was extended with an attic, with some stands and large beds along the side. Sebastian and Wismy are having a smoke here, while Gonzalo looks for a place to fall down and chill.

A display of one of the Glass Artists on the attic.

Jorge Cervantes was in the booth of the French Smokers Museum, talking with Mishka in the background, the founder of www.museedufumeur.net 

Jose and Pegu check the buds that Nirvana had displayed.

Their buds look as solid as they come, they would look nice on our menu’s.

The Glass Art entry of Bubble Bags.

Bubbleman in a very hot discussion about making hash, explaining he has only made bubblehash 609.876 times already, so he should know.

The entry of Hurricane Rob, space age smoking gear.

A fishy entry from the Cannabis College.

A Sweetleaf entry, looking extremely solid.

T.H.Seeds entered this artistic piece.

This is the piece that T.H.Seeds had up for use in their booth, A PlasmaPotPipe!

K.C. Brains had a bad hair day, or just another bad mood.

Soma was selling seeds, as always.

Martin Birzl, the founder of RooR and its fabulous bongs, shows of with a piece he made together with an American coloured glass artist in his workshop. RooR bongs suck, they suck excellent, to be exact!

Some of the seedbanks came with live plants, like Sagarmatha.

Fine looking plants.

I personally liked this booth the best, they came with an excellent line of cannabis candy, which we will carry in our shops soon. I was blasted by a medium Reefers, made by Xocolatl, a company based in Amstelveen, which is a town attached to Amsterdam, which nailed me to my chair.

I liked this little fellow too, he kept on bowing for his buds, produced from Magus genetics.

This is the coolest picture I took, Eagle Bill asked me to take this shot of three weed warriors, each in their own field. Left: Jack Herer is back on tour, but he is still recuperating from the stroke that downed him last year. Centre: Eagle Bill is still vaporising the world, a man with a mission, and one of my best friends, I am proud to say, we go back a long way. On the right, Ben Dronkers, founder of the Sensi Dynasty, clearly enjoying himself in the company of his two companions.

I met some of the nice people again, that was worth the trip. The Cannabis Cup stank, as always, Greenhouse won again, with Hawaiian White Snow. I looked at the grass before the final results, under a microscope. I noticed that parts of the bud had no trichomes on it, as if it was pollinated, but it carried a label stating the grass contains 23.8 % of THC, I wonder how much it was before tumbling the buds.
It gave me a bad taste, as always when the Greenhouse wins, especially because I know that the Greenhouse already knows they will win the Cup before it even takes place, like in 1998.

I picked up my lighters, printed by Future Bags, in October 1998. The lighters for the Greenhouse were also ready to be picked up, as I noticed, so I picked one up for a look.

The print that indicated the years that the Greenhouse won the Cannabis Cup, including 1998. The cup took place in November, the Greenhouse did win, as I already saw on their lighters a month before.

The Greenhouse was excluded a few years later, for fixing the Cup, they have been let in again, and they won again…

For what it is worth, this is all I have to report, never got to see the cannabis entries, like the year before. I left after three days, because I have to take pictures on the Sevilla Cannabis Competition, next weekend, they seem to have a lot more entries than the Amsterdam Cup.

This is my view, you may be gutted by it, as I am fed up with the whole Cannabis Cup, it gives our Dutch cannabis culture a bad name.

Sinsemilla Guerrilla
 

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