Jack Herer Cup
A cup named for a famous hemp activist, with a well-documented namesake and almost no record of its own.
- 482results on record
- 2016–2025years in our data
- 10editions
- 188matched to strains
- Germanylatest location
01Beginnings: a name before a story
The Jack Herer Cup is named after the American activist Jack Herer1. Beyond that, the cup's own origin is a blank page. Its founding date, organiser and schedule were not found in the material gathered for this entry, so none of them are stated here1.
The namesake is much easier to trace. Herer was born on 18 June 1939 and was sometimes called the "Emperor of Hemp"2. He founded and directed an organisation called Help End Marijuana Prohibition, known as HEMP2. Everything below about Herer's life is about the man, not the cup.
02The story: the man behind the name
Before activism took over, Herer was an early glass-pipe entrepreneur who opened his first head shop in 19732. In 1985 he self-published The Emperor Wears No Clothes, a book that had reached a fourteenth edition by 20202. In 1987 he opened the Third Eye Shoppe in Portland, Oregon. His son Mark took over as owner in 2001, and the shop closed on 31 March 20172.
Herer also tried electoral politics. He ran for US President twice as the Grassroots Party candidate, winning 1,949 votes in 1988 and 3,875 in 19922. Not everyone agreed with him: European hemp experts criticised his claims about hemp's potential as unrealistic, including his figures on crop yields and the cellulose content of hemp hurds2. Herer died on 15 April 2010 in Eugene, Oregon, aged 70, and was buried in Mission Hills, California2.
03Culture: a name that travels
Herer's name has spread well beyond his own work. A sativa-dominant hybrid strain was named after him in honour of his work. It was originally created by Sensi Seeds, and most seed banks now offer their own version2. That strain is reported to have won several awards, including at the 7th High Times Cannabis Cup, which is a different event from the Jack Herer Cup2.
Herer himself was inducted into the Counterculture Hall of Fame at the 16th Cannabis Cup, in recognition of his first book2. A documentary about his life, Emperor of Hemp, aired on PBS stations across the US and was translated into French and Spanish2. One low-reliability site links a Jack Herer High Times Cup to Amsterdam, Las Vegas, Jamaica, Germany, Oklahoma City and Thailand. That claim is unverified, so treat it with caution1. This entry is also separate from the Emerald Cup, where an unrelated Jack Herer strain win took place1.
04Now: status unknown
Whether the Jack Herer Cup is running today is not documented. The sources gathered for this entry give no dated current status1. One source mentioned an official site, but it did not appear in search results, so nothing from it is reported here1. Until a reliable, dated source turns up, its current activity is unconfirmed.
The results, in our data
CannaLib holds 482 results from this cup across 10 years (2016 to 2025), 188 of them matched to a strain in the catalogue.
Recent first-place strains
| Year | Strain | Category | Entrant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Lemon Kush Pop | CBD Flower | We Need Weed |
| 2024 | Frozen Bananas | Dry Sift | Pressure LABZ |
| 2024 | Apples Bananas | Hybrid Flower | |
| 2024 | Lemon Haze | Sativa Flower | |
| 2024 | Tee Time | USA Flower | Burning Rope |
| 2023 | Banana Haze | Best Sativa Flower | Yanks Indian Club |
| 2023 | Lemon Cherry Gelato | Best Import Flower | Balou Amsterdam |
| 2023 | Mandarin Sorbet | Best Import Hash | The Box |
| 2023 | Banana Haze | Best Sativa Flower | Yanks Indian Club |
| 2023 | Lemon Cherry Gelato | Best Import Flower | Balou Amsterdam |
| 2023 | Mandarin Sorbet | Best Import Hash | The Box |
| 2023 | Ketama | Best CBD Hash | Lucky Hemp |
| 2023 | Gummies | Best CBD Special | Naturlich CBD |
| 2022 | Dark Rainbow | Vape Pen – Indica | CAMP |
Editions on record
- 2016 · Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- 2017 · Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- 2018 · Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- 2019 · Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- 2019 · Netherlands
- 2019 · Thailand
- 2019 · Jamaica
- 2020 · Hard Rock Cafe, Las Vegas Strip, Nevada, USA (3 Dec 2020)
- 2020 · Amsterdam, Netherlands (online)
- 2021 · Hard Rock Cafe, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (16 Dec 2021)
- 2022 · Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (16 Nov 2022)
- 2022 · TamTam Beachclub, Zandvoort, Netherlands (10 Sep 2022)
- 2023 · Mary Jane | Arena Berlin
- 2023 · Netherlands (10 Sep 2023)
- 2023 · Berlin, Germany
- 2024 · Messe Berlin (Mary Jane Berlin), 14-16 June 2024
- 2024 · Messe Berlin, Germany (14-16 Jun 2024)
- 2024 · Zandvoort, Netherlands (31 Aug 2024)
Sources
Written from the sources above and checked on 2026-10-29. Spot an error? Tell us on the contact page.