Vader Extracts became a recognizable name during Southern California's medical cannabis era, when it combined street-level distribution, affordable concentrates and elaborate event marketing.
1999–2006: Los Angeles Street Roots
The original account traces the Vader twins' beginnings to Los Angeles in the late 1990s. Their operation developed from street-level cannabis sales into dispensary supply. By 2004, they were supplying dispensaries. In 2006, they opened a pre-ICO dispensary. According to the caption, the storefront generated more than:
$30,000 per day.
The original account describes these early operations as the foundation of a vertically integrated cannabis business.
2011: Vader Extracts Launches
The twins launched Vader Extracts in 2011. The company focused on affordable butane hash oil (BHO) products, flooding SoCal with clean, affordable BHO. Its most recognizable packaging featured black envelopes carrying the name:
VADER.
The shatter became popular across:
Los Angeles.
The Inland Empire.
The original account claims that @vadercannabiscompany supplied more than 1,000 dispensaries. The company developed significant recognition within Southern California's medical cannabis market.
2012: First and Second at the Los Angeles Cannabis Cup
At the 2012 High Times Los Angeles Cannabis Cup, Vader's operation achieved two major placements. The original account identifies:
First place: F'n Ridiculous OG.
Second place: 310 OG Budder.
The entries were associated with:
Venice Med Center.
Crown Extracts.
The caption also states that the twins were out on $1 million bail at the time. That legal detail is retained as reported in the original account, without implying additional charges beyond what the caption states.
Dab City: Music and Cannabis Culture
The original account identifies a music video titled:
"Dab City."
The track was by Analyze Jonez and @EMT_KH. It was filmed at:
Kush House.
The caption describes the video as capturing the energy surrounding Vader's growing presence in cannabis culture.
2014–2015: Cannabis Cup Booth Awards
Vader's verified cup record from the period is anchored in 2014. The original account identifies Best Booth awards in Denver, Northern California and Michigan during 2014–2015 — the documented record confirms the Northern California win (Best Booth at the Bay Area Medical Cannabis Cup in Santa Rosa, June 2014) but not Denver or Michigan: Denver's 2015 cup had no Best Booth category at all, and Michigan's complete 2015 winners list contains neither a Best Booth category nor a Vader entry. The company became known not only for concentrates but also for elaborate event presentations.
First-Place Wins in Seattle and Jamaica
During the same period, Vader took first place in Seattle — Best Booth, Best Medical Concentrate and Best Product at the 2014 Seattle cup. The original account also claims a first place in Jamaica, but the documented Jamaica 2015 winners were all Jamaican growers; no Vader win appears in that record. The caption also names several winning cultivars or products:
Blue Dream × Tangie — a verified first place, Best Medical Concentrate in Seattle in 2014 (with Grateful Meds).
Agent Orange.
Skywalker OG — which placed third, as Best Hybrid Concentrate, at Denver in 2015, rather than winning.
These releases contributed to Vader's competition reputation.
Rae Sremmurd at the Stadium-Style Booth
Another defining moment involved Rae Sremmurd (@raesremmurd). The duo performed live at Vader's stadium-style booth. The original account places this appearance among the company's 2014–2015 highlights. The performance became an example of Vader's approach to combining cannabis marketing with live entertainment. Rather than treating the booth solely as a product display, the company turned it into a major event.
2018: Kush House Barcelona and Conectar
In 2018, the Vader twins expanded into Barcelona, Spain. They co-founded:
Kush House BCN (@kushhouse_bcn).
They also established Conectar. The original account identifies two collaborators:
Pete.
K.
The projects combined:
West Coast cannabis culture.
Music.
Media.
Hash.
According to the caption, Conectar eventually supported more than:
150 Spanish cannabis clubs.
The expansion connected Vader's Southern California roots with Spain's cannabis social-club culture.
2025: Tastemakers Returns
After seven years of delays, the original account describes Vader returning to California's licensed market. The licensed brand was called:
Tastemakers.
The caption identifies more than:
40 SKUs.
The product lineup included:
3.5-gram flower bags.
Half-ounce flower products.
1-gram rosin.
The company positioned its pricing to undercut larger corporate operations. The stated mission was to recreate the dominance it had achieved during California's Proposition 215 era.
Kushstock 2025: The OG Kush Lowrider
At Kushstock 2025, Vader returned with its first event booth in seven years. The activation featured a:
Green lowrider trailer.
The trailer displayed:
"OG KUSH."
According to the original account, dispensaries began contacting the company through direct messages after the appearance. The booth represented a public return to the event-marketing approach that had helped establish Vader.
Manufacturing, Distribution and Retail
The original account describes Vader's current operating philosophy as vertically integrated. Its business activities included:
Manufacturing.
Distribution.
Retail.
The caption emphasizes that these operations were handled in-house. It also identifies the company as:
Self-funded, with no venture capital.
The founders wanted to operate without outside investors or unnecessary middlemen.
Lou Dogg Returns
The original account identifies co-founder:
Lou Dogg.
It states that he returned after imprisonment, home from prison, in what the caption describes as one of the world's toughest prisons. The original story does not identify the prison, sentence or specific legal circumstances, so those details are not added here. The caption presents his return as an important part of the twins' effort to complete the business team for the return.
Raids, Prison, Bans and Bureaucracy
The original account describes Vader's history as including:
Raids.
Imprisonment.
Bans.
Regulatory bureaucracy.
It connects those experiences with the company's survival across different cannabis markets and regulatory eras. The brand's evolution is summarized through three transitions:
From the traditional market to Spain.
From BHO to rosin.
From Proposition 215 to Proposition 64.
The Return of Vader
The Vader twins' story began with late-1990s Los Angeles street sales and expanded into dispensary supply by 2004, with a pre-ICO dispensary reportedly generating more than $30,000 per day by 2006. After launching Vader Extracts in 2011, they built a recognizable BHO brand supplying more than 1,000 dispensaries with black-envelope "VADER" shatter, earned first and second place at the 2012 High Times LA Cup with F'n Ridiculous OG and 310 OG Budder (via Venice Med Center and Crown Extracts) while out on $1M bail, and produced "Dab City" by Analyze Jonez and EMT_KH, filmed at Kush House. In 2014 they won Best Booth in Seattle and at the Bay Area (NorCal) cup, plus first place in Seattle for Best Medical Concentrate (Blue Dream × Tangie) and Best Product; Skywalker OG Kush placed third at Denver in 2015. In 2018 they co-founded Kush House BCN and Conectar in Barcelona, with Conectar now powering 150+ Spanish clubs. Following seven years of delays, the twins returned in 2025 with Tastemakers, a licensed product line of 40+ SKUs — 3.5g bags, half-ounces, 1G rosin — debuted at Kushstock 2025, their first booth in 7 years, with a green lowrider trailer stamped "OG KUSH," operating vertically, self-funded, with no VC, and with co-founder Lou Dogg home from prison. The original account presents Vader as a brand attempting to carry its medical-market legacy into California's licensed market.
YouTube Video
Sources
Nugg Notes. "Vader Extracts: Return of the Twins." Instagram, May 4, 2025. https://www.instagram.com/p/DJP0pQcSf-C/
The original Instagram post behind this article.
Medical Jane. "Seattle HIGH TIMES 2014 Cannabis Cup Recap And Winners Announced." Medical Jane, September 18, 2014. https://www.medicaljane.com/2014/09/18/seattle-high-times-2014-cannabis-cup-recap-and-winners-announced/?amp
Verifies Seattle 2014: Best Booth, 1st Place — Vader Extracts; Best Medical Concentrate, 1st Place — Blue Dream x Tangie (Vader Extracts & Grateful Meds); and Best Product, 1st Place — Cypress Hill's Phuncky Feel Tips by Vader Extracts. The post's Seattle first-place claim and the Blue Dream × Tangie win are verified.
Bonnie King. Bay Area Medical Cannabis Cup report. Salem-News, July 15, 2014. http://Salem-News.com/articles/july152014/hightimes-medcc-bk.php
Verifies Best Booth, 1st Place — Vader Extracts at the Bay Area (Santa Rosa) Medical Cannabis Cup, June 28–29, 2014 — the post's "Best Booth NorCal" claim is verified.
Bailey Rahn. "The 2015 Denver Cannabis Cup Winners." Leafly, April 22, 2015. https://www.leafly.ca/news/strains-products/the-2015-denver-cannabis-cup-winners
Verifies the complete Denver 2015 winners list: its categories are flower, concentrate, non-solvent hash, CBD and People's Choice only — no Best Booth category existed — and Vader's only placing is Best Hybrid Concentrate, 3rd Place, "Skywalker OG Kush by Dab Vader/Vader Extracts."
Bailey Rahn. "New Strains Alert: The 2015 Michigan Cannabis Cup Winners." Leafly, August 28, 2015. https://www.leafly.ca/news/strains-products/new-strains-alert-the-2015-michigan-cannabis-cup-winners
Verifies the complete Michigan 2015 winners list: it contains no Best Booth category, and Vader Extracts appears nowhere in it.
Reggaeville. "Report: High Times World Cannabis Cup in Jamaica 2015." Reggaeville, 2015. https://www.REGGAEVILLE.com/dates/festival-details/high-times-world-cannabis-cup-2015/news/news/report-high-times-world-cannabis-cup-in-jamaica-2015/
Verifies the Jamaica 2015 (Negril, Rastafari Rootzfest) winners in full — Best Indica Flowers, Best Sativa Flowers, Best Hash and Best New-style Farming all went to Jamaican growers; Vader Extracts is not among the winners.
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