High Times Magazine

High Times magazine began publishing in 1974, and this glossy monthly is still being published by Trans High corporation, 235 Park Avenue South in New York City. It is unusual among the dissident media in that all of the attitudes and many of its departments have remained consistent.

The advertising department at High Times stated in a telephone interview that the paid circulation of the magazine is 237,411 and its pass-along circulation (a figure determined by the projected number of readers who will read each copy of the magazine) of more than 2 million. With that figure, the magazine asks and receives $12,000 for a full page color ad (Weisman, 1998).

The $12,000 figure is significant (or ironic, perhaps) since that is the exact amount that the magazine was founded for. High Times magazine was created in the summer of 1974, by a convicted drug dealer and smuggler named Tom Forcade, who also considered himself to be "writer, editor, publisher, pilot, smuggler, political activist, filmmaker, and bookstore owner, and he was successful at all those things. He created an underground news service, produced the annual Yippie smoke-in across from the White House, and founded a spectacularly successful magazine" (Anderson, 1981, 144).

Patrick Anderson, the journalist and author who had befriended Forcade, in 1981 write a book entitled High in America, and he devotes much of Chapter 10 to an illuminating view of this most unusual publisher. That section o

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passed a burly joint in my direction' is the way that the article "Perfect 10" begins (Eudaley, 1998, 34). This is from the November 1998 Best of High Times which provides a blow-by-blow (or puff-by-puff) description of the 11th Annual Cannabis Cup festival, and this entire issue is devoted to the joys of being in the World's most open city (Amsterdam) with the world's most exciting people (dopers). The writing in this section shows an acute sensibility for cultural criticism and reflects a wit through which the author humorous value judgements about everyone and everything. "The Odeon is one of those multilevel supermarket clubs with different scenes going on in different rooms" (Eudaley, 1998, 41). Studying the writing of the various writers over the years, there is a style and attitude that can be attributed to Forcade's "in your face" attitude towards life, since one of his many nicknames was "Pieman," referring to his penchant for throwing pies in the faces of people in authority who got a little too self-important. Getting Busted is Uncool In the world of High Times, the mythical characters are clearly labeled: dopers are good, cops (and almost anyone else in power) is bad. This is most clear in the regular section

Category: Government - H