 Cover image of the premiere issue ofHigh Times (Summer 1974) featuring model Elizabeth Donoghue.[1] | |
| Editor-in-Chief | Javier Hasse (July 2025–present) |
|---|---|
| Former editors |
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| Categories | Recreational drugs |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Circulation | 500,000 (1987) |
| Publisher | Trans-High Corporation (1974–2016) Hightimes Holding Corp. (2017–2024) |
| Founder | Tom Forçade |
| Founded | 1974; 51 years ago (1974) |
| First issue | Summer 1974 (1974) |
| Company | Hightimes Holding Corp. |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | Los Angeles |
| Language | English |
| Website | hightimes |
| ISSN | 0362-630X |
High Times is an Americancannabis culture brand that first gained success as a monthlymagazine.[4] Founded in 1974 byTom Forçade, the magazine advocated thelegalization of cannabis and relatedcounterculture ideas, eventually expanding to include the media divisions High Times Books and High Times Records.[5][6]
High Times magazine was published by Trans-High Corporation (THC) from 1974 to 2016.[7] Hightimes Holding Corp. acquired THC and the magazine in 2017;[8][9] financial difficulties forced the magazine to cease publication in 2024.[10] In 2025, Josh Kesselman, the founder ofRAW, bought the publication for $3.5 million.[11]
High Times covers a wide range of topics, including politics, activism, drugs, education,[5] sex, music, and film, as well as photography.[12]
LikePlayboy, each issue ofHigh Times contains acenterfold photo; however, instead of a nude woman,High Times typically features acannabis plant.[13][3] (The magazine, however, often featured women—occasionally crowned as "Ms. High Times"[14]—on the cover to help newsstand sales.)[5] In addition, the magazine "published writers likeHunter S. Thompson,William S. Burroughs,Charles Bukowski,Allen Ginsberg, andTruman Capote."[5]
Forçade's previous attempt—via theUnderground Press Syndicate/Alternative Press Syndicate—to reach a widecounterculture audience ofunderground papers had failed, even though he had the support of several noteworthy writers, photographers, and artists.[15] ThroughHigh Times, Forçade was able to get his message to the masses without relying on mainstream media.[16][17] Forçade was quoted as saying, "Those cavemen must've been stoned, no pun intended."[citation needed]
High Times was originally meant to be a joke: a single-issue lampoon ofPlayboy, substituting marijuana for sex.[18][5][3] Brainstorming for the first issue's contents was conducted by a group that included Forcade, Rex Weiner, Ed Dwyer, Robert Singer,A. J. Weberman,Dana Beal,Ed Rosenthal, the underground cartoonist Yossarian a.k.a. Alan Shenker,[19] and Cindy Ornsteen a.k.a. Anastasia Sirocco.[1]
The first issue, 50 pages in total, with the tagline, "The Magazine of High Society," appeared in the summer of 1974.[1] Advertising for the first issue had been pre-sold at that year's National Fashion and Boutique Show. "High Times #1 made its debut at the June 1974 show and was an instant success, selling out its first run of 10,000 copies and getting reprinted twice."[1]
The magazine's first editor was Ed Dwyer, who had earlier written the text of theWoodstock music festival program booklet (as well as theWoodstock film program booklet).[20] The magazine was initially distributed byHomestead Book Company[21] andBig Rapids Distribution.
High Times was at the beginning funded by drug money from the sale of illegal marijuana,[22][5] But the magazine found an audience, becoming a monthly publication with a growing circulation, and the staff quickly grew to 40 people.[when?] Marijuanahydroponics growers were a large part of the magazine's advertiser base.[5]
High Times founder Forçade committedsuicide in November 1978.[23][24] He bequeathedtrusts to benefitHigh Times and theNational Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).[6] (Forçade had been a supporter of NORML since the organization's founding in 1970.)[citation needed]
Following Forçade's death, the magazine was controlled by "mostly by Forçade’s relatives" and lawyerMichael John Kennedy.[4]
Under the editorship ofLarry Sloman (from 1979 to 1984),[25]the magazine consistently struggled against marijuana prohibition laws, and fought to keep itself alive and publishing in an anti-cannabis atmosphere.[5] Reflecting the time period,High Times began to feature positive coverage ofcocaine as a recreational drug.[3][5]
The magazine's former associate publisher, Rick Cusick, said the only wayHigh Times managed to stay in business and never miss a publication date for over four decades was, "Really, really good lawyers, even though everybody knew I was talking about just one—Michael Kennedy."[26] Kennedy served as the general counsel and chairman of the board forHigh Times for over 40 years until his death in 2016, when his wife and board member, Eleanora Kennedy, took the reins.[citation needed]
In 1987,High Times was audited by theAudit Bureau of Circulation as reaching 500,000 copies an issue, rivalingRolling Stone andNational Lampoon.[27]
In 1988,Steven Hager was hired as the magazine's editor. He changed the focus from the promotion of hard drugs (e.g., cocaine andheroin), and instead concentrated on advocating personal cultivation of cannabis.[5][28] Hager became the first editor to publish and promote the work ofhemp activistJack Herer.[29]
In 1988, under Hager's leadership, the magazine created theCannabis Cup, a cannabis awards ceremony held everyThanksgiving inAmsterdam that later expanded to a number of U.S. cities.[3] He also formed the High Times Freedom Fighters, the first hemplegalization group.[citation needed] The High Times Freedom Fighters were famous for dressing up inColonial outfits and organizing hemp rallies across theUnited States. One rally, the Boston Freedom Rally, quickly became the largest marijuana-related political event in the country,[5] drawing an audience of over 30,00 to theBoston Common in 2013.[5]
The magazine advocated for the widespread use ofhemp in the 1990s, publishing a quarterly magazine calledHemp Times and operating a retail location in Manhattan called Planet Hemp.[5]
In 1991, the magazine began featuring celebrities on the cover of the magazine. Over the years, these includedCypress Hill,The Black Crowes,Ziggy Marley,Beavis and Butt-Head,Milla Jovovich,Ice Cube,Wu-Tang Clan,George Carlin,Ozzy Osbourne,Kevin Smith,Frances McDormand,Pauly Shore,Sacha Baron Cohen,Willie Nelson,Woody Harrelson, andSnoop Dogg.[30]
In 1997, the magazine and Hager founded theCounterculture Hall of Fame, with inductions held annually onThanksgiving as part of the Amsterdam Cannabis Cup event.
In the late 1980sMike Edison began writing "Shoot the Tube," a featured column about television and politics forHigh Times. In 1998 Edison was named the magazine's publisher, and later took control of the editorial side of the magazine as well. As editor and publisher, he caused a furor among staffers by puttingBlack Sabbath singerOzzy Osbourne on the cover, and then leaking to theNew York Post'sPage Six gossip column that thousands of dollars of pot had gone missing from the photo shoot.[31] After taking the magazine to new heights in sales and advertising,[32] Edison was instrumental in producingHigh Times' first feature film,High Times' Potluck.[33] Edison leftHigh Times in 2001.
In 2000, the magazine established theStony Awards to recognize and celebrate notablestoner films andtelevision episodes about cannabis. SixHigh Times Stony Awards ceremonies were held in New York City beginning in 2000, before the Stonys moved to Los Angeles in 2007. Award winners received abong-shaped trophy.[34] Starting in 2002, the Stonys presented the Thomas King Forçade Award for "stony achievement" in film.[35]
In 2003, Steven Hager was fired, andHigh Times' board of directors shifted the magazine's focus from marijuana to more literary content, hiringJohn Buffalo Mailer as executive editor.[4][36] As a result, the magazine "lost a third of the circulation in nine months."[4] Mailer left the magazine within a year[4]—a succession of editors followed, including David Bienenstock, Rick Cusick, and Steve Bloom.[37]
In 2004,High Times returned to its roots, releasing theCDHigh Volume: The Stoner Rock Collection. Hager was rehired, first as thecreative director,[citation needed] and then in 2006, back to the position of editor-in-chief,[37] but by 2009 he had returned to the role of creative director.[14]
In November 2009,High Times celebrated its 35th anniversary.[38]
In the period 2010–2013, the magazine put out a standalone publication that advocated formedical marijuana.[5]
Hager was again let go by the magazine in 2013, eventually successfully suingHigh Times for defrauding him of his ownership shares in the company.[39] Hager subsequently released a 20-part series onYouTube, titledThe Strategic Meeting, showing the internal machinations inside the company. The video series asserts thatMichael Kennedy stole the company from the rightful employees and subverted the original mission for his own private gain.[40]
In October 2014, the magazine celebrated its 40th anniversary with a party attended by celebrities such asSusan Sarandon.[3] In 2014, theHigh Times website was read by 500,000 to five million users each month.[3][41]
With thelegalization of marijuana in several West Coast states, including California,[42] the magazine announced in January 2017 that it would permanently relocate from New York to Los Angeles.[22]
In the summer of 2017,High Times was sold to a group of investors led by Adam Levin[4] of Oreva Capital for an amount estimated from $42 million[43][39] to $70 million.[4]
High Times acquired cannabis media company Green Rush Daily, Inc. on April 5, 2018.[44] The deal was valued at $6.9 million. Green Rush Daily founder Scott McGovern joined the magazine as senior executive vice president.[45] Financial difficulties forced the magazine to cease publication in 2024.[10]
Josh Kesselman, founder ofRAW, bought the publication for $3.5 million in 2025.[46]
By 1976,High Times was publishing comics in its pages, by the likes ofunderground comix creators such asGilbert Shelton ("The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers"),Kim Deitch,Josh Alan andDrew Friedman,Bill Griffith ("Zippy the Pinhead"),Paul Kirchner ("Dope Rider"),Milton Knight ("Zoe"),Spain Rodriguez ("Trashman"),Dave Sheridan,Frank Thorne, andSkip Williamson ("Snappy Sammy Smoot"). Later, artists likeBob Fingerman andMary Wilshire contributed comics toHigh Times as well.[7]
Andrew Weil was a regular contributor toHigh Times from 1975 to 1983.[55] For a time,William Levy served as the magazine's European editor.
In 1976,Bruce Eisner became a contributing editor for the magazine.Chip Berlet was the magazine's Washington, D.C. bureau chief in the Seventies.Jeff Goldberg was an editor in 1978–1979.
Kyle Kushman is a former cultivation reporter forHigh Times and has been a contributing writer for over 20 years.
Bobby Black had a long association withHigh Times, from 1994 to 2015,[56][57][58][59] including being a senior editor[60] and columnist. His involvement atHigh Times included production director and associate art director; writing the monthly lifestyle and entertainment column "Almost Infamous"; writing feature articles and interviews; creator and producer of the magazine's annual Miss High Times beauty pageant;[14] producer and host of the annual High Times Doobie Awards for music;[61][62] lead reporter, judge, and competition coordinator for theCannabis Cup and theHigh Times Medical Cannabis Cup; and A&R, producer, liner notes and art director forHigh Volume: The Stoner Rock Collection CD (High Times Records).[63]
At age 19,Zena Tsarfin started as an intern for the magazine.[64] She later returned toHigh Times, serving as the magazine's managing editor until 2001 and then again from March 2006 to January 2007. From 2014 to 2016, Tsarfin wasHigh Times' director of digital media.
Danny Danko is the magazine's former Senior Cultivation Editor.[5]
The careers of a number of writers/editors from thecomics industry overlapped withHigh Times, including Tsarfin,Josh Alan Friedman (High Times managing editor, 1983),Lou Stathis (High Times editor, late 1980s),Ann Nocenti (High Times editor, 2004), and most significantly,John Holmstrom, who began to work for the magazine as managing editor in 1987, was soon promoted to executive editor, and in 1991 was promoted to publisher and president. In 1996 he stepped aside to launch and oversee theHigh Times website, and left the magazine for good in 2000.
Andrew James Parker, a.k.a. Chewberto420, is a cannabis photographer and author, based out of the Western United States (predominantlyHuntington Beach, California andPagosa Springs, Colorado), who has made contributions to the magazine since 2016. Parker is known for his images based inmacro photography. He discovered naturally occurring purple hash through experimentation withanthocyanins within cannabis.[65][66][67]
INCORPORATED 12/02/2016
[A] Force of the Cannabis Industry Since 1974 | Hightimes Holding Corp. is the parent corporation of High Times... publication of monthly print and online magazines, as well as the production and sponsorship of trade shows and events...
I understoodHigh Times had lost their way promoting cocaine and other white powders and needed to get back to the original hippie spirit. Coke and heroin were ruining too many lives.
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