From 67-71, BOEL had unimpeded smuggling from Afghanistan
Pretty cool to see they had already figured out Everclear was the best solvent
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Totally, I think some of these old lines that got flogged to death in the black market at a time when growers weren’t necessarily often doing the genetics justice are actually pretty interesting. When it comes to searching for “old school skunk” I think I’d rather go through some preserved nice examples of 80’s or 90’s commercial strains than some bagseed from even farther back to find some healthy and selected skunky strains. But I’m also too young to be seeking the RKS or any of the other semi mythological early skunks based on memory, so what I look for is just my nose thinking.
Edit: @StocktonT check this out
Like, this is a nice looking set of buds on a soda bottle grow!
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I am on a similar trip for sure, couldn’t agree more. M39/NL5Sk#1/Shiva Skunk is another one that was also a very good smoke.
That one looks real nice, can’t really read the text (stoned and lazy eyes hehe) that’s the Silver Pearl right? It didn’t always look that great but it had a real nice effect and hard to define flavor/smell. Especially it came through in the Silver Pearl Haze / Silver Haze which (to me, subjective I know) was a real old school flavor and hit even back at the beginning of the 00s when a friend grew out some 90s Sensi stock (so it was Silver Haze). Also combined with the HazeC male it kicked people’s ass but it wasn’t in the straight Haze way, the Pearl added something really deep and heavy.
I agree with you on following the nose, follow your pallet, effect is number one but like Nevil said ”why can’t I have everything” regarding finding something tasty too hehe. I don’t think the Pearl nor the Silver Haze was RKS in anyway but it was old flavor and smell and it was devastatingly strong.
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Yes, that thread and photos are of Silver Pearl someone has been growing since the 80s
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that ”fox tailing” or braiding bud type is the shining pearl for sure, when it’s really mature it will look really stellar but some of the plants can be a bit leafy thought they’re good smoke too. His plants look really good!
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I have about a dozen seeds left from an old grower who’s seed in the past put out 2-3 stinkers per dozen, with one typically being a skunk (the others being shit or cheese, never garlic or roadkill or grease or rubber or anything you’d think to hunt through). I’ve never been able to keep a cut around due to travel, maybe I’ll grow them out and sell limited edition unrooted cuts so everyone else can enjoy them. All I ever wanted was skunk in seed form, but I might just have to outsource the First Resort Skunk Increase Project.
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I have a fruity rancid sour pheno but not pure rks,I have some old beans unrelated to sams line but there not worth discussing much till I get them growing. I doubt that Sam aka Dave from Watsonville aka skunk man what ever his name may be ever had real skunk weed.
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Dave Watson from Watsonville… that’s a made up name cmon now 
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This old article is supposed to have been written by Dave in 1979. It shows an interesting wealth of knowledge about the plant, especially the genetics/propagation information.
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I actually came across that article from Todd McCormick after a completely offhand conversation about Skunk #1. I had emailed him a week or two ago to discuss Heime Cheeba’s RKS and his impressions of it to settle a dispute on another forum. I mentioned that I was growing out this 1979 Grandfather Skunk to make F2s and I copy/pasted the back story I received from the guy who gave me seeds.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, Todd completely destroyed the back story I was given, so now I’m left wondering what exactly is in my tent here. I don’t want to deceive anyone so I’ll be sure to mention it in my grow log also.
Todd continues to defend Dave. He has known him for 28 years and it is his opinion that Dave is probably one of the most underappreciated true visionaries of the field. This is very common throughout history as facts and stories are discovered over time.
Things I learned from Todd:
- Dave created Skunk #1 between 1972 and 1975 and released in 1976.
- There was no physical Sacred Seeds store
- He lived in Santa Cruz, not ever in Mendocino
- He has been married to the same woman for 52 years and in 71/72 “hitchhiked across Europe from London to Morocco, then from Morocco up to Germany, then Germany all the way across the Hindu Kush mountains to India, where he collected genetics and lived for a year”.
- He was never raided by the DEA in 1981, and to Todd’s knowledge, was never raided by DEA period.
- He did not leave for Amsterdam until 1985.
I know people have their beefs from wherever or whoever or however, but I have always found Todd to present as truthful and he has been a great advocate for Cannabis over the decades.
These guys may all have their business deals and schemes, but sometimes there’s just too much drama being heaped on top of the facts and it muddies up the water until nobody can see the truth.
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I don’t doubt that Todd believes everything he states about him , also I don’t think that bottom picture is Dave aka Sam pretty sure it’s a employee of gw pharma.
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Hmm, someone else sure seems to think it is him. Maybe a very old photo?
It is sure very similar to the anonymous author photo, but also not 100% clear, of course.
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The thing that gets me is all the advanced breeding information published before the 80’s. And then nobody else claimed credit for it?
Yeah, that’s not Sam…
There’s a video of a conference on YouTube where he took the stage for like 10 minutes and you can see his face…
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Sam wishes he was that skinny 
All the paranoid operation green merchant stuff aside, Sam and his work with hortapharm and gw pharma go against many of my core beliefs. The absolute refusal to show his face and the I invented weed attitude don’t sit well with me. Most people have only heard of him because of the controversy around him and the supposed connection to skunk weed even though he has no skunk buds only sweet floral mids.
Also if he really was the last person with any substantial amount of skunk beans and intentionally bred it out of existence that’s pretty lame also.
There were people who spoke against the indica style plants when they first became popular , claiming the musky skunky acrid plants they produced has a boring narcotic high that lacked depth, they insisted sativas with there uplifting and often enlightening high was what should be smoked.
That is a very selfish and narcissistic approach to tell other people what they should and should not like, maybe somebody has problems sleeping or nerve damage, needs the calming effects of the indica to deal with anger or social anxiety issues, there are many medicinal benefits to all ranges of cannabis and to single a group out like some used to is just ignorant.
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This is definitely a thing. I have seen some of that from prominent “legendary” breeders recently, in the past couple of weeks.
Well, everyone has a story, I’m still not convinced that he’s a fraud or anything like some seem to be.
I would like to see an actual picture of Dave to compare to that old article. He has got to be very old at this point, or anytime in the last 20 years even.
Would love to see the source if you can find it.
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I think it says a lot that Sam got a DEA license from USA and Britain to breed cannabis. And that his work was centered around increasing myrcene, which is what drug dogs key in on.
Though, he has shared the most scientific research on cannabis with the community - openly and for free.
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Haven’t found the video yet, but I believe it would be this conference if it wasn’t a more recent one:
“NVF Symposium-Marihuana as a Medicine
On April the 24th 1998, the Dutch Association for Phytotherapy (Nederlandse Vereniging voor Fyto-therapie, NVF) organized a symposium attended by 90 persons in Amsterdam focusing on “Marihuana as a medicine”.”
“Finally, David Watson from HortaPharm, Amsterdam gave a brief presentation on his company’s activities which are aimed at the development of various Cannabis strains with distinct chemical profiles to be used as raw material for cannabinoid-based pharmaceuticals. Maripharm from Rotterdam, which in spite of government guidelines, persists in supplying standardized and sterilized marihuana to more than 300 Dutch pharmacists, was also represented.”
Or one of the Bioresource conferences. I’m still digging. It seems like in the nineties Sam attended and presented at a number of conferences.
Edit: only photo I’ve found so far is this one of Dave/Sam on the left, Lester Grinspoon is in the middle, it’s in Frankfurt at a hemp conference in the nineties:
Edit 2: this comes up on Google images but seems to be not in the Beard Bros article anymore, best yet, Dave/Sam on the left:
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