The 2007 High Times Cannabis Cup was a milestone edition: the 20th Cannabis Cup, held in Amsterdam from November 18 through November 22, 2007, with a closing ceremony at the winning coffeeshop on November 23. High Times built the anniversary around a “Comedy” theme, moved the main expo and opening ceremonies to the large PowerZone venue in Duivendrecht, and brought Tommy Chong to Amsterdam as one of the central personalities of the week. Redman, Jack Herer, Jorge Cervantes, Soma, John Sinclair and numerous musicians, breeders and activists appeared throughout a packed schedule of seminars, performances and private parties. High Times also prepared anniversary material that ultimately became the documentary High Times Presents: The 20th Cannabis Cup, released the following year.
Competition produced another important chapter in the rivalry between Amsterdam’s largest cannabis names. Barney’s won the overall Cannabis Cup with G13 Haze, moving up from second place in 2006 and giving the coffeeshop another championship in an already extraordinary run. Grey Area finished second with Chocolope, while Green House took third with Super Silver Haze, a cultivar that had already won consecutive overall Cannabis Cups in 1998 and 1999. Amnesia Seeds’ Top Dawg won Indica, Apothecary’s Kaia Kush took Sativa, and Barney’s swept the imported-hash, Dutch-hash and Best Booth categories as well.
The 20th Cannabis Cup
Calling 2007 the 20th Cannabis Cup demonstrated just how far the event had traveled from Steven Hager’s first Amsterdam competition in 1988. What began as a small gathering of breeders and High Times judges had grown into an international festival encompassing coffeeshop judging, seed-company competition, hash, glass, vaporizers, music, fashion, cultivation seminars and political activism. High Times’ later history of the event describes the Cannabis Cup as evolving repeatedly with the cannabis world itself, moving from underground breeder judging toward increasingly public and sophisticated competitions.
The anniversary also encouraged High Times to look backward. Promotional material, an anniversary tarot project and extensive filming treated the Cup as a cultural institution rather than simply that year’s cannabis competition. The documentary released in August 2008 contained performances, interviews and judging footage from the 20th Cup, including a Redman performance, preserving far more of the week visually than exists for many of the early Amsterdam competitions. The fact that High Times could now produce a commercially released film around the Cup demonstrated how much the event’s cultural profile had expanded.
The Cannabis Cup Moves to the PowerZone
The PowerZone became the operational center of the 2007 Cup. The venue was considerably larger than many of the spaces used during the event’s more improvised years and was advertised with a capacity of roughly 3,000 people. Opening ceremonies began there on November 18, judging and seminars continued throughout the week, and the awards show was scheduled for the evening of November 22. The final 4:20 closing ceremony took place the following afternoon at the winning coffeeshop.
A contemporary account from Hot Press gives a less polished but valuable picture of the venue. The writer described the PowerZone as being located in an industrial area rather than Amsterdam’s postcard-perfect center and found the interior hot, crowded and extremely smoky. That contrast captures something essential about the Cannabis Cup of this era: it had become professionally organized enough to fill a large entertainment complex, yet it retained the unpredictable atmosphere of an underground cannabis convention.
The Comedy Cup and Tommy Chong
The Comedy theme revolved around Tommy Chong, whose films and comedy albums with Cheech Marin had made cannabis humor part of mainstream popular culture decades before legalization became politically plausible in North America. Tommy appeared at the Cup with his wife Shelby Chong, performed comedy, participated as a celebrity judge and became a major focus of the anniversary festivities. High Times veterans later specifically remembered spending time with Chong at the 20th Amsterdam Cup.
The choice carried additional political weight because Chong had recently served nine months in federal prison following the U.S. government’s Operation Pipe Dreams crackdown on companies selling drug paraphernalia. High Times records associated with the Cannabis Cup identify Chong as the 2007 Freedom Fighter of the Year, while contemporary reporting describes witnessing his Freedom Fighter induction at the PowerZone. His appearance therefore combined comedy with a much more serious reminder that cannabis-associated businesses and cultural figures could still face federal imprisonment in the United States.
Cheech and Chong Enter the Counterculture Hall of Fame
High Times announced Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong for induction into the Counterculture Hall of Fame as part of the 20th-anniversary program. The Hall had begun in 1997 with Bob Marley and subsequently recognized Louis Armstrong, Beat Generation writers, Ina May Gaskin, Paul Krassner, Jack Herer, Stephen Gaskin, John Trudell and Rainbow Family figures. Adding Cheech & Chong acknowledged that comedy had been as influential as music or literature in normalizing cannabis within popular culture.
The historical record is clearest about Tommy Chong physically attending and participating. Contemporary coverage places him onstage, judging, performing and interacting with attendees, while later High Times recollections confirm his presence. Cheech Marin’s name was attached to the Hall of Fame induction, but the surviving firsthand reporting does not provide the same evidence that he attended the Amsterdam event personally. It is therefore more accurate to describe Cheech & Chong as the announced Hall of Fame honorees while identifying Tommy as the member who clearly participated in Cup week.
2007 High Times Cannabis Cup Winners in All Documented Categories
The event-specific 2007 archive preserves eight complete competitive categories: overall Cannabis Cup, Indica, Sativa, Import Hash, Dutch Hash, Product, Glass and Best Booth. SeedFinder and contemporary result postings independently confirm the principal flower podiums.
| 2007 Category | 1st Place | 2nd Place | 3rd Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cannabis Cup / Overall | G13 Haze — Barney’s | Chocolope — Grey Area | Super Silver Haze — Green House |
| Indica Cup | Top Dawg — Amnesia Seeds | Crimea Blue — Barney’s | Reserva Privada #18 — Reserva Privada |
| Sativa Cup | Kaia Kush — Apothecary | Tasman Haze — Kiwi Seeds | The Purps — BC Bud Depot |
| Import Hash Cup | Triple X — Barney’s | King Hassan Supreme — Green House | Rifman’s Habibi — De Dampkring |
| Dutch Hash / Nederhash Cup | Violator Ice-O-Lator — Barney’s | Bubble Mania — Green House | Grey Crystals — Grey Area |
| Product Cup | Barney’s Bag — Barney’s | Vapezilla — Wicked Roots | Vapostar — Vapostar |
| Glass Cup | SNOB — T.H. Seeds | Green Devil | Zong |
| Best Booth / Expo | Barney’s Farm | DNA Genetics | Green House |
| Freedom Fighter of the Year* | Tommy Chong | — | — |
| Counterculture Hall of Fame* | Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong | — | — |
*The Freedom Fighter and Hall of Fame recognitions were cultural honors rather than cannabis judging categories.
There is a small archival discrepancy in the Product Cup. The event-specific Cannabis Cup archive lists Barney’s Bag first, Wicked Roots’ Vapezilla second and Vapostar third, while some later compilations substitute a Portable Vortex Gravity Bong in second place. Because the detailed event page was published with the 2007 results and retains all three named entries together, its ordering is used here. Spelling also varies between Top Dawg/Top Dog and Tasman/Tazman Haze in different databases.
G13 Haze Completes a Two-Year Climb to the Championship
G13 Haze from Barney’s had finished second overall behind Arjan’s Ultra Haze #1 in 2006. One year later, it returned and captured the main Cannabis Cup, making it another example of a cultivar building its reputation over consecutive competitions rather than appearing once and disappearing. Barney’s own historical records now identify G13 Haze as its 2007 overall High Times Cannabis Cup champion.
The strain’s pedigree is less straightforward than the trophy. Barney’s currently lists G13 Haze as G13 × Hawaiian Sativa on its cultivar page, while some older descriptions and marketing language simply describe it as G13 crossed with Haze. The G13 parent itself is surrounded by one of cannabis breeding’s most persistent legends—the claim that it originated in a U.S. government breeding program. High Times has repeated versions of that story, but there is no strong public documentary evidence proving the famous government-origin narrative. For an authority history, the safest distinction is that the 2007 Cup victory is well documented; the deeper G13 origin story remains partly folklore.
Barney’s Extends One of the Greatest Cannabis Cup Runs
The championship strengthened an already extraordinary Barney’s record. Between 2001 and 2007, the coffeeshop won the overall Cup with Sweet Tooth in 2001, Morning Glory in 2002, Amnesia Haze in 2004, Willie Nelson in 2005 and G13 Haze in 2007. The only interruptions during that span were Green House championships with Hawaiian Snow in 2003 and Arjan’s Ultra Haze #1 in 2006. Barney’s therefore captured five of seven overall Cups during one of the event’s most competitive periods.
Its 2007 performance extended far beyond G13 Haze. Barney’s also won Import Hash with Triple X, Nederhash with Violator Ice-O-Lator, the Product Cup with Barney’s Bag and Best Booth, while Crimea Blue finished second in Indica. Few organizations had ever controlled so many categories in the same edition. It resembled Green House’s massive 1998 performance and demonstrated how much competitive strength now depended on an integrated operation encompassing flower, concentrates, retail experience and branding.
Chocolope Announces DNA Genetics as a Major Power
Second place overall went to Grey Area’s Chocolope, genetics associated with DNA Genetics. The cultivar had originally been called D-Line before DNA renamed it Chocolope around the time of its competitive breakthrough. Historical descriptions identify the cross as Chocolate Thai × Cannalope Haze, with DNA attempting to preserve the Chocolate Thai character while improving flowering time and commercial practicality.
The second-place finish became one of the most important moments in DNA’s early history. Chocolope was also named High Times Strain of the Year 2007 and had placed second at the Hydro Highlife Cup that year. DNA Genetics had already made noise with Martian Mean Green and L.A. Confidential, but Chocolope gave the company a cultivar that appealed simultaneously to judges, coffeeshops and home growers. Its success anticipated the much larger influence DNA and its Reserva Privada line would have on the late-2000s and early-2010s cannabis market.
Super Silver Haze Returns to the Overall Podium
Perhaps the most remarkable result in the overall category was Super Silver Haze taking third for Green House. This was not a new cultivar chasing its first trophy. Super Silver Haze had won the Hydro Cup in 1997 before becoming overall Cannabis Cup champion in 1998 and 1999. Nearly a decade later, it was still competitive enough to reach the main podium.
Its return also illustrates how thoroughly Haze genetics dominated the mid-2000s Cup. Arjan’s Ultra Haze won in 2006, G13 Haze won in 2007, and Super Silver Haze remained in third. Even Chocolope contained Cannalope Haze ancestry. The eventual 2008 and 2009 championships for Super Lemon Haze would extend the trend further. Far from being displaced by the emerging Kush and Cheese families, Haze remained the dominant genetic framework at the top of Amsterdam competition.
Top Dawg Wins the Indica Cup
The Indica Cup went to Top Dawg from Amnesia Seeds, followed by Barney’s Crimea Blue and Reserva Privada #18. Event archives consistently preserve Amnesia Seeds’ first-place result, although the cultivar’s name is alternately rendered Top Dawg and Top Dog.
The podium reflects the broadening genetic marketplace of 2007. Barney’s Crimea Blue, commonly described as a Blueberry-influenced indica-dominant hybrid, represented the continued popularity of older fruit-oriented genetics. Third-place Reserva Privada #18 was especially significant because Reserva Privada was closely tied to DNA Genetics and the emerging influx of California-influenced breeding into Amsterdam. Within a few years, Reserva Privada would become strongly associated with OG Kush-based genetics and several major Cup victories.
Kaia Kush Wins Sativa
Apothecary’s Kaia Kush won the Sativa Cup, ahead of Kiwi Seeds’ Tasman Haze and BC Bud Depot’s The Purps. The result is well supported by the event archive and contemporary Cup listings, although some sources ascribe the winning entry to a G13 × Haze, while still identifying Apothecary as the winner. For historical purposes, the competition name Kaia Kush is the most appropriate label because that is how the event results recorded it.
Later descriptions present Kaia Kush as a sativa-leaning hybrid combining Super Silver Haze and OG Kush, an interesting genetic pairing for 2007. If that lineage is accurate, the cultivar sat directly at the meeting point between the Haze-dominated Dutch market and the OG Kush wave accelerating in North America. Tasman Haze kept Kiwi Seeds on the podium after its Mako Haze championship in 2006, while BC Bud Depot’s third-place The Purps demonstrated the continuing strength of Canadian breeders.
Triple X and Violator Ice-O-Lator Give Barney’s Both Hash Cups
Barney’s captured the Import Hash Cup with Triple X, beating Green House’s King Hassan Supreme and De Dampkring’s Rifman’s Habibi. Amsterdam’s imported-hash category had traditionally reflected the city’s access to Moroccan and other established resin-producing regions, and names such as King Hassan and Rifman continued that connection in 2007.
The Dutch Hash Cup represented the newer concentrate culture developing from locally grown cannabis. Barney’s Violator Ice-O-Lator took first, Green House’s Bubble Mania second and Grey Area’s Grey Crystals third. The terminology—Ice-O-Lator, Bubble and Crystals—shows how decisively modern mechanical and ice-water separation techniques had entered competition. Imported pressed hash and locally produced high-purity resin now occupied parallel categories, illustrating the transition from traditional hashish to the increasingly technical concentrate industry.
Product and Glass Awards Show a Broader Cannabis Industry
The Product Cup went to Barney’s Bag according to the event archive, with Wicked Roots’ Vapezilla second and Vapostar third. Vaporization was by then firmly established in Cannabis Cup culture. The Volcano had won in 2003, VapeZilla had taken the Product Cup in 2005 and Super Vapezilla followed in 2006. Even when a vaporizer did not win outright in 2007, two vapor-related products remained on the podium.
In glass, T.H. Seeds and SNOB took first place, followed by Green Devil and Zong. The result represented another stage in the growth of functional glass as a serious art and engineering category. By the late 2000s, Cannabis Cup attendees could evaluate genetics, concentrates, vaporizers and highly engineered glass pieces within the same event—an enormous expansion from the seed-focused competitions of 1988.
Redman, John Sinclair and a Packed Music Schedule
The anniversary Cup had one of the busier entertainment schedules of the period. Redman appeared during the week and performed alongside Devin the Dude and Diego Roots during the Hemp Works/T.H. Seeds fashion show. Barney’s brought the band moe., while other events featured Eek-A-Mouse, Aceyalone, Muck Sticky, the Homegrown Band, HonkyTonk HomeSlice and Pyrx. Veteran counterculture poet and activist John Sinclair also performed with Mark Ritsema.
The variety reflected how wide the Cup’s cultural orbit had become. Reggae, hip-hop, jam bands, spoken word, comedy and cannabis-themed underground music coexisted rather than serving one clearly defined audience. The event had become less like a traditional trade show and more like an international cannabis arts festival with a championship competition at its center.
Jack Herer, Jorge Cervantes and the Education Program
Cultivation education remained a serious part of Cup week. The schedule included seminars from Arjan of Green House, DNA Genetics, Jorge Cervantes and Adam from T.H. Seeds, while Soma appeared for interviews and programming. Cervantes presented material connected with his cultivation videos, drawing a crowd for a master grow seminar.
Jack Herer also remained highly visible. A contemporary journalist described unexpectedly finding Herer sitting outside with Tommy Chong, while the official schedule advertised an “important announcement” from the longtime hemp activist. The continued presence of Herer and other veterans made the 20th Cup feel genuinely multigenerational: people who had shaped legalization activism in the 1970s and 1980s were sharing the event with new companies such as DNA Genetics and a younger generation of commercial breeders.
The 20th Anniversary Tarot and Cup Artwork
The anniversary generated unusual commemorative projects beyond the normal poster and trophy. A contemporary account describes Sweetbryar Ludwig creating a Cannabis Cup tarot deck, using strains and High Times personalities as elements of the cards. Robin “The Hammer” Ludwig, who had designed Cannabis Cup trophies for years, was also present and participated in the official program.
Historical retrospectives identify Jeff Wood as the 2007 Cup artist, following Alex Grey’s involvement with previous editions. The artistic projects reflected a recurring High Times belief that cannabis culture involved visual art, spirituality and counterculture symbolism as much as cannabis itself. Even a commercial anniversary event retained the strange, handcrafted cultural elements that had characterized earlier Cups.
Twenty Years After the First Cannabis Cup
The contrast with 1988 could hardly have been greater. The first Cannabis Cup involved a tiny group visiting seed companies and privately evaluating strains. Twenty Cups later, thousands of potential attendees were being directed toward a large nightclub, international seed companies were competing for exhibition attention, famous musicians and comedians performed throughout the week, a dedicated film crew documented the event, and categories ranged from hash to glass and vaporizers.
Yet some elements had not changed. Haze and Skunk-derived genetics that shaped the early competitions remained central. Super Silver Haze could still make the podium nearly ten years after its first championship, while the culture remained heavily connected to activists such as Jack Herer and performers whose careers predated the Cup itself. The event had expanded dramatically without completely severing itself from its underground origins.
Legacy of the 2007 High Times Cannabis Cup
The 2007 High Times Cannabis Cup ultimately became a celebration of both Barney’s dominance and the event’s own survival. G13 Haze improved on its 2006 runner-up result to become overall champion. Chocolope announced itself as one of DNA Genetics’ defining cultivars, while Super Silver Haze demonstrated extraordinary competitive longevity. Top Dawg and Kaia Kush claimed the seed-company divisions, Barney’s swept both hash categories and Best Booth, and vaporization and functional glass continued to expand the meaning of a cannabis-industry competition.
The culture surrounding the trophies made the anniversary equally important. Tommy Chong became the face of the Comedy Cup, Cheech & Chong were honored by the Counterculture Hall of Fame, Redman helped drive the music program, Jack Herer and Jorge Cervantes represented veteran cannabis education and activism, and the entire week was preserved in a 20th-anniversary documentary. Two decades after High Times staged its first small Amsterdam harvest competition, the Cannabis Cup had become something much larger: part championship, part festival, part political gathering and part historical archive of cannabis culture. The 2007 Cup captured all four roles at once—and Barney’s G13 Haze supplied the strain that ultimately carried home the anniversary trophy.
