Skunk #1

Bred in the mid-to-late 1970s in Santa Cruz County, California, by David Paul Watson — known as Sam the Skunkman — and the Sacred Seed Collective. Watson (1948?–January 27, 2025) was arguably the most influential cannabis breeder in history. After a 1982 raid on Sacred Seeds (some accounts say 1985) and a brief arrest, Watson relocated to Amsterdam in 1985 with a reported 250,000 seeds and founded Cultivator's Choice, Amsterdam's first cannabis seed company, in 1986. Skunk #1 is a stabilized three-way hybrid of Afghani indica × Acapulco Gold × Colombian Gold landraces — among the first genuinely stabilized hybrid cannabis cultivars, a foundational horticultural achievement. It won the inaugural High Times Cannabis Cup in 1988 and underpins an estimated majority of modern commercial strains. Watson's transfer of Skunk #1, Original Haze, Afghani #1, and related genetics to Dutch growers Nevil Schoenmakers, Ben Dronkers, and Wernard Bruining seeded the entire Dutch seed-bank industry. ⚠️ Unfounded rumors of DEA affiliation, publicly refuted by Mel Frank and others, circulated for decades.