From: [t--y] at [bach.udel.edu] (Anthony Beard) Newsgroups: alt.hemp,alt.drugs Subject: HIGH TIMES ARTICLE IN LOCAL NEWSPAPER Date: 15 May 1994 15:39:09 -0400 I ran across this article several weeks ago and I felt like sharing it with all you other netters, tokers, or whatever. It's an article talking about the last 20 years of High Times and its readers. At first I was shocked that the Philly Daily News would print it, but the writer is from Associated Press so I would assume that other newspapers printed the article as well. At any rate, to those who haven't read it or wish to, it's below. ------------- Quoted without permission, Philadelphia Daily News, Thursday April 28, 1994. "AFTER 20 YEARS, MAG STILL TOKING HIGH ROAD" -By Larry McShane, Associated Press ******************************************************************************* NEW YORK- It's been more than a decade since Nancy Reagan first told America to just say no, 25 years since Woodstock, and Keith Richards is on the wrong side of 50. Signs of the times? Not at High Times, where the counterculture lives on - and still inhales. As the magazine marks its own milestone - 20 years of publishing - High Times still covers marijuana ... and growing marijuana ... and the price of marijuana ... and, well, you get the idea. "We have always kept true to our grass roots," said publisher John Holmstrom. "We didn't turn into a culture magazine like Rolling Stone. Our role is the same as it was in the mid-'70s, the mid-'80s." Unlike Rolling Stone, the perception IS the reality at High Times: Cannabis is king at this publication. The magazine debuted on June 2, 1974 - the year of Patti Hearst's kidnapping and Richard Nixon's resignation. Its founder was Tom Forcade, a charter member of the Yippies with Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. It hasn't been all smooth smoking in the years since. High times was banned for content in Canada and Iraq. There were hits from the government over advertising, a backlash from the war on drugs, an increasingly conservative America in the 1980s, and its own lack of direction. Boosted in part by a new generation of musicians who back marijuana law reform, High Times is again flourishing. The magazine now sells 200,000 copies per month - down from its haze-day of the mid-1970s, but a solid base. "They have clearly stuck to their ideals," said Allen St. Pierre, assistant national director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "All the other magazines of the time - Head, Party Time, Buzz - turned into rags. High Times was never a rag." Or a mainstream magazine. Recent articles have included "Outdoor Megaweed in Minnesota," "Tips For Not Getting Caught Outdoors" - a cautionary piece for home growers - and "Prof. Afghani's Guide to Curing Cannabis." February featured a five-page spread on "The Battle for Medical Marijuana" and an update on Brett Kimberlin, the Indianapolis pot dealer who claims he sold to ex-veep Dan Quayle. In April, Beavis and Butt-head grabbed the cover - dressed in hippie garb, smoking a couple of joints. The magazine quickly carved a niche in the mid-'70s with its cutting -edge journalism and dedication to legalization. It was an early home for Tom Robbins, whose "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues: was excerpted in High Times, and Larry "Ratso" Sloman, now best known as Howard Stern's co-author. After Forcade's 1978 suicide, things got a little shaky at High Times. The magazine ventured into harder drugs and psychedelics, alienating some of its core readership and damaging its reputation. Marijuana - and readership - made a comeback when Steven Hager arrived as executive editor in 1986. Although the magazine today is leaner - 12 full time writers and five part-timers, down from a 50 person writing staff in the '70s - High Times was nominated in 1992 for a MagazineWeek award for editorial excellence. The monthly's typical reader is male, in his 20s, with some college education. One more thing: He's a toker. Nine out of 10 who answered a survey said they smoke pot. The politics include the promotion of hemp for other uses - clothes, paper, construction - and a constant focus on medical marijuana. Glaucoma patients, people with AIDS and a paraplegic with muscle spasms are among the people profiled in a spread on pot as a medicine. The magazine is a loose place to work. Music editor Steve Bloom recalls smoking a fat joint in his office during an interview with rapper Redman. And about drug testing for new staffers: "We always joke, 'If you don't flunk the test, you don't get the job,'" said Hager. Pot-smoking is not actually a prerequisite; support of decriminalization is. One major reason for the magazine's resurgence, particularly with young readers, is its links to the new wave of pro-pot musicians. The new bands appeal to younger readers, but the High Times brain trust says a lot of the older ones are still around. They might be suprised by one thing: Although it may never be respectable, High Times is increasingly respected. It's day and night now with how people view High Times," Holmstrom said. "People now respect us for sticking to our ideals, for fighting the good fight all the time."(EOF) -- "Good words do not last long unless they amount to something." -Chief "Joseph" Inmuttooyahlatlat, 1877