Buenos Aires on October 23, San Juan on December 5. Dates, categories, judges, deadlines and how to enter both.
The High Times Cannabis Cup started in Amsterdam in 1988 and has since run in the Netherlands, across legal U.S. markets and, during the pandemic, through judge kits consumers bought at dispensaries. This year it comes to Latin America.
Two editions, six weeks apart, both in medical-only markets and both licensed by High Times to local operators. Here is what each one looks like.
Argentina
The High Times Medical Cannabis Cup Argentina 2026 awards on Friday, October 23 at Guid Club in Buenos Aires. It is produced and operated locally by Universal Growing S.A., an independent Argentine company, under license from High Times.
Only growers with an active REPROCANN registration can enter. That is Argentina’s national registry for controlled medical cultivation, and it covers self-cultivators, linked cultivators, authorized legal entities and participants in registered research projects. Every sample has to come from that registered cultivation.
There are five categories: indoor flower, outdoor flower, solventless rosin, BHO and hash holes. Entry is $100 per sample, which includes lab characterization, and competitors can submit up to two samples per category.
Judging happens in two layers. Judges evaluate appearance, structure and aroma using optical instruments, and a lab runs the numbers on Valenveras equipment: cannabinoid profile with THC, THCA, CBD and CBN, terpene profile, and residual solvents in the BHO category. Scores run 1 to 10 per criterion, with a written comment required from every judge on every sample. Containers carry no branding, so judges only ever see a code.
The format was built around Argentina’s rules, which means the sample never leaves its owner. Competitors watch their entry get weighed, photographed, coded and sealed, then place it in an individual locker and keep the only key. Everyone is present for the evaluation of their own sample and leaves the same day with whatever is left of it. The published rules state that High Times does not receive, possess, transport, store or handle cannabis samples in Argentina.
The judging panel is an international lineup that will be announced shortly. Each category winner gets a trophy, and the first-place prizes in solventless rosin and BHO are custom glass pieces made by glassblower Ryan Fitt. Winners run in the next U.S. print edition of High Times alongside a photo of their sample.
The awards night doubles as the launch of High Times en Español, the first print edition of the magazine created originally in Spanish in its 52-year history. Argentine rapper Duki shares the cover with his cultivator, Mau Lamónica.
- October 10: competitor registration closes
- October 15 and 16: sample registration and coding
- October 17: judging, closed to the public
- October 23: awards at Guid Club
- Enter at argentina.cannabiscup.com. Sponsorships: argentina@hightimes.com
Puerto Rico
The High Times Cannabis Cup and Cannabiz Awards run on Saturday, December 5 at the Cuartel de Ballajá in San Juan, produced locally by CannaID Medical Center under license from High Times. The night marks ten years of Puerto Rico’s medical cannabis program.
The Cup has ten product categories in three blocks. Flower splits into indica, sativa and hybrid. Concentrates and vapes splits into solvent concentrates, non-solvent concentrates and vapes. Edibles and wellness covers gummies, non-gummy edibles, beverages, and topicals and tinctures.
Sharing the stage are the Cannabiz Awards, Puerto Rico’s own industry awards, which have been running since 2021. Borincanna took Best Cultivator that first year, Best Buds won it in 2023 and 2024, and Revista Crónicas was named Publication of the Year in 2021 and 2024. They are judged separately from the Cup, in three blocks of their own, and have their own nomination form.
Thirteen judges evaluate the entries. Cultivator and breeder Kyle Kushman. ElectraLeaf New York founder Pedro Sotomayor. Pharmaceutical scientist Riley Kirk, author of Reefer Wellness. Neuroscientist Garrett Seale. Psychiatrist and neurologist José A. Franceschini Carlo, who chairs psychiatry at Universidad Central del Caribe. Family medicine professor Jaime Claudio Villamil. Attorneys José Aleczer Rivera, of G9 Alliance, and Goodwin Aldarondo, of Puerto Rico Legal Marijuana. Fab 5 Freddy, the original host of Yo! MTV Raps and director of Grass Is Greener. Latin trap artist Jon Z. White Lion Records founder Elías de León. And industry pioneer Raúl Mangual.
Farruko and RAW founder Josh Kesselman attend as special guests, with Kesselman presenting one of the night’s top awards. Noemí Pérez, founder of CannaID, hosts.
Cannabis in Puerto Rico is authorized for medical use only, under Law 42-2017 and Regulation 9038 of the Department of Health’s Medical Cannabis Program. This is not a recreational event: no cannabis is sold, dispensed, distributed or provided on site, and a ticket does not replace a patient card. Eligible visiting patients from other U.S. jurisdictions can access medical cannabis through Puerto Rico’s reciprocity provisions, subject to current requirements, which patients should verify before traveling.
The organizers say a share of proceeds will go to addiction prevention and education, and another share to scientific research.
- October 16: submissions close
- December 5: Cup and Cannabiz Awards at the Cuartel de Ballajá, San Juan
- 21 and over with government-issued photo ID
- Tickets on Eventbrite. Enter and nominate at hightimescuppr.com. Sponsorships: sponsors@hightimescuppr.com
