The history of Critical Jack

Timeline

1. Mid-1990sSensi Seeds creates Jack Herer in the Netherlands; Dutch pharmacies later distribute it as a medical-grade strain.^6,7
2. 2005Dinafem is "born in 2005 as a collective project by a group of old-timer growers" who had bred since the late 1980s; the same year it releases Critical+, "created by crossing Big Bud x Skunk".^1,8,9
3. 2009–2011Dinafem reports second prizes for Critical+ at Spanish cups: Cup Bitox (2009), Cup Marina Baixa (2010), the THC Cup in Valencia and the Summer Cup in the Canary Islands (2011).⁹
4. By 2015Critical Jack, Dinafem’s Critical+ × Jack Herer, is on the market; no release year is published.^2,3
5. 2015Dinafem reports first prize for Best Shatter at the San Bernardino Hempcon Cup, USA.^2,10
6. 2016Dinafem reports first prize for Outdoor Sativa at the UCLA cup (Unión Cannábica Latinoamericana).^3,10
7. 2016–2022The eight state lab tests of Critical Jack flower in our dataset, from Massachusetts (4) and Michigan (4), date from these years.¹¹
8. Mar 2019High Times interviews Dinafem as "Europe’s king of feminized seeds"; the company says feminized seeds hold 90% of the European market.¹
9. Sep 2019Dinafem reports first prize in the Outdoor category at the V Copa Cata Zona Norte in Buenos Aires.²
10. Sep 15–17, 2020Operación Inxer-Toro: the Guardia Civil and the Tax Agency, under the Audiencia Nacional, search 17 premises in Gipuzkoa and Navarre, detain 14 people and seize 20 million seeds; Dinafem’s owner Pot Sistemak SL, with 97 workers and €18 million in 2019 sales, is placed under judicial intervention and halts operations. A detained executive, in our translation: "We buy seeds and sell them. We have done this for 21 years."^4,12,13
11. May 2022Silent Seeds launches a strain with rapper Booba; its release calls the company "the spectacular return of Dinafem".¹⁴
12. Dec 2022Silent Seeds’ CEO describes "our strategic action plan since we took over Dinafem’s historic genetics bank".¹⁵
13. Nov 2023Dinafem breaks a three-year silence: it has not resumed seed sales because the judicial authority forbids it, and a trial is scheduled for spring 2024.¹⁶
14. 2025Critical Jack is absent from Leafly’s best-selling strains of 2025.¹⁷
15. Oct 3, 2026On Oct 3, 2026, Weedmaps showed Critical Jack flower at 2 store listings in 1 of 27 US markets, all within 50 miles of Detroit; the other 26 markets, including Los Angeles, Denver and New York, had none.¹⁸

Why it spread

Dinafem built it for a market it led. High Times called the company "Europe’s king of feminized seeds" in 2019, when Dinafem said feminized seeds had grown to 90% of the European market; Público counted 97 workers, €18 million in 2019 sales and exports to 20 countries, and Dutch press called it Europe’s largest seed bank.^1,4,13 Critical Jack paired that company’s signature plant, a Critical+ that finishes in 45–50 days with heavy yields, with Jack Herer’s Haze character, and Silent Seeds still sells it on exactly that promise: "Critical+’s fast and profuse flowering and Jack Herer’s vigour and Haze character".^9,19

The cups it won were in Dinafem’s orbit rather than the US mainstream: a shatter category in San Bernardino, a Latin American growers’ union cup and a Buenos Aires cup.^2,3 Silent Seeds markets the line today as a three-time cup winner.²⁰

A Spanish strain in US data

In the US the name barely registers: only eight tests in state lab records, from Massachusetts (4) and Michigan (4), none from California, and no place in the 2025 sales rankings.^11,17,21 On Oct 3, 2026, Weedmaps showed Critical Jack flower at 2 store listings in 1 of 27 US markets, all within 50 miles of Detroit; the other 26 markets, including Los Angeles, Denver and New York, had none.¹⁸ The flower tested under the name cannot be traced to Dinafem’s seeds; names are not genetics.¹¹

The disputed parts of the story

• Critical+’s origin: Big Bud × Skunk per Dinafem and Leafly; a selection from Critical Mass per SeedFinder (see genetics).^9,22,23
• The 2020 case: the figures differ between reports (14 detained per Público and Newsweed, 15 per Cáñamo; 97 or 93 workers), the allegations, trafficking, criminal organisation and money laundering, were denied by the company, and no verdict had been reported when Dinafem last spoke publicly, in November 2023.^4,12,16
• Who inherits the strain: Silent Seeds says it is Dinafem’s "sole heir" and gives Rotterdam as its base, while its 2022 press releases placed it in Paris and Amsterdam; Dinafem’s own site still carries the catalogue.^5,15,24
• Release year: none is published anywhere; the first dated event is the 2015 Hempcon award.²