Bowl or cup?

Amid a tumultuous summer for California weed, there will be a number of positive developments at this weekend’s third-annual High Times Medical Cannabis Cup.

Thousands of California patients and supporters are snatching up tickets. The 38-year-old weed-culture publication is bringing its 25-year-old contest from Amsterdam to the Bay Area for the third time in as many years, part of its new, medical-cannabis cup circuit, which now includes annual events in Los Angeles, Denver and Detroit.

First off, the 2012 cup will be held in Richmond, as opposed to San Francisco. Second, the cup is outdoing itself with its music headliner this year: legendary Northern California rapper Del the Funky Homosapien. Third, the event has grown into an essential industry meet and greet. Dozens of dispensaries, seed breeders, hemp-product makers, and activist groups will staff booths for a cup expo all day Saturday and Sunday. Panelists include expert High Times grower and writers Nico Escondido and Danny Danko.

Oaksterdam University founder Richard Lee will receive a lifetime-achievement award for his work at the five-year-old cannabis college. In 2010, Lee personally bankrolled Proposition 19, which nearly legalized weed in California. Now, Lee faces the possibility of federal drug-trafficking charges for operating his city-permitted medical-marijuana dispensary Coffeeshop Blue Sky in Oakland.

Eight months into a coordinated campaign by U.S. attorneys to shut down lawful dispensaries in California, the Sacramento lost a model dispensary this past week, with El Camino Wellness Center.

Meanwhile, support for medical cannabis is above 70 percent in California polls. A recent poll by Rasmussen pegged national support for selling pot at pharmacies at 58 percent. A Colorado adult-use initiative on the ballot this fall is polling at 61 percent. Oliver Stone is on the cover High Times this August puffing on perhaps the fattest joint a Hollywood A-lister has dared to smoke. It’s a potent symbol of sinsemilla’s new swagger.

And, as California goes, so goes the country, many say. California grows the best weed in the world these days, Stone says in the August issue of High Times. Its finest cuts will be judged and awarded trophies in a Sunday, June 24, ceremony at the cup, honoring the best sativas, indicas, hybrids and highest cannabidiol strains.

So, will Florin Wellness Center defend its titles or possibly take the 2012 cup? And which strains will win? A NorCal Purple? Some OG Kush offshoot? An alien Haze?

High Times senior editor David Bienenstock wouldn’t speculate. “The field is so broad and diverse and of such high quality,” he said, “that making a prediction is just a fool’s errand.”