To prepare for this weekend`s High Times Medical Cannabis Cup, The Clinic, a pair of Denver dispensaries, spared no effort.

The shops enlisted their best growers, provided them with premium equipment and plant nutrients and set them up in specialized garden spaces, all in the hopes of producing marijuana that will be judged tops in the competition.

“We`re going all out,” said Ryan Cook, one of The Clinic`s owners.

In its first year, the Medical Cannabis Cup — to be held today and Sunday at the Exdo Event Center in north Denver — illustrates a relatively new phenomenon in the state`s medical-marijuana community. Statewide, there are now at least three such competitions, in which medical-marijuana growers submit samples and a panel of experts picks a winner. Awards are given in a number of categories, sometimes by strain type — upper “sativas” or sedative “indicas,” for instance — or sometimes in areas such as best-smelling, prettiest-looking and most potent.

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