The Founding of High Times Magazine
How a smuggler and underground press organizer built the first commercial cannabis glossy in 1974.
High Times was real — it launched in 1974 and became a durable platform for cannabis culture and drug-policy journalism. But the founding mythology has been exaggerated: the original print run and peak circulation figures are widely repeated but never independently audited; Forçade's exact donations to NORML aren't documented in detail; and treating suicide as caused by a single event oversimplifies. What's solid is the magazine's commercial success and longevity.
Background: Forçade and the Underground Press
Thomas King Forçade, born Gary Goodson in 1945, was a Vietnam-era draft resister and organizer of the Underground Press Syndicate (UPS), a network linking alternative weeklies such as the East Village Other and Berkeley Barb [1]. By the early 1970s, Forçade had relocated to New York and was funding publishing ventures through cannabis smuggling operations based in Colombia and Mexico [1]. The underground press of the late 1960s treated drugs as one issue among many — antiwar politics, sex, music, and radical politics dominated. Forçade's innovation was the insight that cannabis itself could anchor a commercially viable, newsstand-format magazine [1]. Unlike activist pamphlets or underground newspapers, this would be a glossy consumer publication.
The 1974 Launch
The first issue of High Times appeared in summer 1974. Forçade pitched the magazine to associates as a parody of Playboy, with a cannabis bud centerfold replacing the nude model — initially conceived as a one-shot joke [1]. The format borrowed directly from men's magazines: glossy color photography, long-form interviews, investigative features, and classified advertising. Early issues included regular features listing wholesale and retail cannabis prices in various cities, formatted like stock-market tables [1].
Early circulation figures are widely cited but lack independent audit-bureau confirmation. Claims of a first-issue print run between 10,000 and 25,000 copies appear in retrospective accounts but have never been verified by a third party Weak / limited. Similarly, peak circulation is often reported around 500,000 copies by the late 1970s, but this figure rests on internal company claims rather than audited circulation data Weak / limited.
Editorial Identity and Early Contributors
Early High Times blended cannabis advocacy with broader countercultural journalism and celebrity interviews. Contributors and editors included Larry 'Ratso' Sloman, Glenn O'Brien, and others who had worked in the underground press [1]. The magazine published interviews with mainstream literary and art-world figures — including William S. Burroughs and Andy Warhol — deliberately positioning cannabis culture alongside established cultural authority [1].
The cannabis bud centerfold, a high-resolution photograph of a single specimen with cultivar name, origin, and sometimes reported potency, became the magazine's most recognizable feature Strong evidence. Decades later, these centerfolds became a primary historical record of which cannabis strains were circulating in North America during the late 1970s and 1980s Strong evidence.
Relationship with NORML and Drug-Policy Journalism
High Times and The Founding of NORML developed a symbiotic relationship from the start. The magazine published NORML's contact information, covered its lobbying work, and Forçade personally made cash donations to the organization [1]. NORML founder Keith Stroup has acknowledged receiving contributions from Forçade, though the scale and frequency of these donations are not documented in public records Weak / limited.
Beyond NORML, High Times helped underwrite drug-policy journalism that mainstream media outlets would not publish in the 1970s and early 1980s [1]. The magazine also developed the Trans-High Market Quotations, a regular feature tracking cannabis prices and supply. This alignment with legalization advocacy was not purely ideological; legalization would expand the market and audience for the magazine itself.
Forçade's Death and Magazine Succession
Thomas King Forçade died on November 16, 1978, at age 33 [1]. Accounts in contemporary journalism reported that he had been struggling with depression, following the death of a friend in a smuggling-related aviation accident earlier that year [1] Weak / limited. Suicide is a complex phenomenon with multiple contributing factors; linking it to a single event oversimplifies and can perpetuate misleading narratives Strong evidence.
Ownership of High Times passed to the Trans-High Corporation under a trust structure Forçade had established [1]. During the 1980s, the magazine weathered Reagan-era drug-war enforcement, advertiser flight, and internal management disputes documented in later journalism and in Sloman's history Reefer Madness [1].
Founding Myths and Corrections
Several persistent claims about High Times' founding warrant scrutiny:
'High Times invented the Cannabis Cup.' False. The first Cannabis Cup was held in Amsterdam in 1988, organized by then-editor Steven Hager Strong evidence. See High Times Cannabis Cup for details.
'Forçade founded the magazine as a serious cannabis-advocacy project.' Disputed. Multiple staff accounts describe the original pitch as a parody or joke that succeeded commercially beyond expectation [1] Disputed.
'High Times was the first cannabis magazine.' Misleading. Underground newspapers had covered cannabis extensively since the 1960s. High Times was the first commercially distributed, mass-market glossy magazine dedicated to cannabis as its primary subject [1] Strong evidence. Earlier underground publications and activist newsletters existed; High Times was novel for its glossy format, newsstand distribution, and mainstream-magazine design.
'Circulation reached a million copies.' Unverified. The widely cited peak figure is approximately 500,000 copies in the late 1970s, but this rests on internal company reporting rather than audited circulation data from the era Weak / limited.
Legacy and Historical Significance
High Times outlasted nearly every other publication from the 1970s underground press, remaining in print through the 21st century. Its founding proved that a commercial, glossy magazine dedicated to cannabis culture could reach newsstand distribution and build a sustainable readership without immediate legal suppression — a significant fact for the normalization of cannabis in mainstream media [1].
The magazine's role in documenting cannabis strains, prices, and legalization advocacy in the 1970s and 1980s is historically important, even as specific circulation claims and donation details remain unaudited. Whether this commercial success mattered more to cannabis normalization than editorial journalism is a matter of interpretation rather than verifiable fact.
Sources
- Book Sloman, Larry 'Ratso'. Reefer Madness: A History of Marijuana. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998 (revised edition).
- Book McMillian, John. Smoking Typewriters: The Sixties Underground Press and the Rise of Alternative Media in America. Oxford University Press, 2011.
- Reported Forçade, Thomas King (obituary). The New York Times, November 18, 1978.
How this page was made
Generation history
Drafted with AI assistance and checked by a separate automated fact-check pass. Not every article has been read by a person. See how articles are made.
Related
- Cannabis Trafficking in Mexico During the 1960s — How U.S. demand explosion reshaped Mexican cannabis from smallholder crops to organized sm...
- High Times Cannabis Cup — The cannabis industry's first major competition, from Amsterdam coffeeshop roots to intern...
- The League of Nations and Cannabis — How a 1925 League of Nations treaty pulled cannabis into international drug control — and...
- The Founding of NORML — How Keith Stroup launched America's oldest marijuana reform lobby in 1970.