Illinois to Welcome Cannabis Cup Competition

The Cannabis Cup competition is coming to Illinois. The Cannabis Cup started in Amsterdam in the 1980s. It will come to Illinois in which all adults in the state will be able to vote for their favorite strain. High Times is the organizer of the competition. They call it the world’s leading marijuana competition.

For the first time, the organizers are making the public part of the judging process by offering testing kits at dispensaries around the state. Normally, the rankings would be determined by 28 to 35 expert judges. However, the competition has pivoted into crowdsourced rankings, offering 224 judge kits per category to consumers in Illinois.

In the past, celebrity judges were also part of the competition. Tommy Chong, rocker Patti Smith, and Snopp Dogg participated as judges. Illinois district manager for GTI Grows, Derrick Levy, who also owns Rise dispensaries, said after growers submit their entries, Illinoisans can participate in the People’s Choice competition.

Levy said, “Those entries will then be put into judge kits to which the public would be able to pick up those judge kits and then test them over a period of time and basically pick their favorites.” Illinois recently legalized marijuana in January. Since the legalization, the state exceeded the tax revenue expectations and collected more than $52 million. Levy said tax revenue will also be generated for the state and local municipalities through the sale of the kits.

Levy said, “The municipalities would get the same 6% tax that would fall under cannabis sales, so they would get the tax revenue from that as well.” On Sept. 27, during an online broadcast, the winners will be announced. High Times has called it the “Oscars of Cannabis.”