Pubdate: Sun, 22 Sep 2002
Source: Tribune Review (PA)
Copyright: 2002 Tribune-Review Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://triblive.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/460
Author: Mike Seate
Cited: High Times http://www.hightimes.com/

HIGH TIMES MAGAZINE'S LAID-BACK IMAGE GOES TO POT

There are few icons as widely admired by pot smokers as High Times magazine.

Sure, there still are stoners who chuckle at the very mention of certain 
Cheech and Chong routines, and there are people so fogged by cannabis haze 
that they even get those arcane references to exotic marijuana on Bob 
Marley albums. But High Times, with its pseudo- serious political reporting 
and clever marketing of an illegal substance, is the devoted weedman's bible.

Pittsburgher Randy Prezkopf is more than a little familiar with the glossy 
New York monthly. He'd read about the endless movements to legalize 
marijuana and studied the magazine's weird centerfold photos of rare plant 
types. Prezkopf eventually opened Slacker, a South Side lifestyle boutique 
that specialized in things for the glassy-eyed.

Prezkopf so believes in the social, medical and recreational properties of 
our country's favorite illegal herb that he's battled with local 
authorities over the right to sell water pipes and other pot paraphernalia.

It must have felt like a divine calling when, just over a year ago, the 
scholarly-looking hipster found himself with a job offer from High Times.

Dude! What luck! Prezkopf must have thought.

This was like renting an apartment downwind from the DEA's incinerator, or 
so it seemed in March.

The reality today: Prezkopf told us it was a major buzzkill to find out 
that America's leading drug monthly doesn't reflect the laid-back, tie-dyed 
image offered in its pages. Prezkopf is back in Pittsburgh, working on a 
lawsuit against the magazine's management who, he says, wore him down with 
all their corporate rules and regulations.

Employees, Prezkopf complained, are required to behave with professionalism 
and they're even required to register with building security when entering 
or leaving the workplace. Recently, the High Times staff adopted a high 
(pardon the pun) tech employee tracking system in which workers are 
required to leave fingerprints with security when exiting the building.

"It just got to be ridiculous with all the rules and having to check in all 
the time," a disgusted Prezkopf said with a shrug.

High Times is the last place you'd expect to find these work rules. This is 
the magazine that gives out the Annual Stony Awards - this year's prize 
went to rapper Snoop Dogg for enhancing the image of potheads worldwide - 
and offers tips each issue on beating employee drug tests.

It's also worth noting that High Times, which was founded by pot advocate 
Thomas Forcade in 1974, has long championed the legalization of drugs as a 
civil liberties issue.

Maybe what Prezkopf and lots of other High Times faithful might have 
overlooked is that the pot culture is not so much a counterculture as it is 
a business. It might try to sell itself as radical, subversive and on the 
opposite side of the law, but High Times is a business and was founded to 
make money.

So go ahead: Be playful. Explore your inner-mind. Experiment. But make sure 
your eyes and head are clear when you go to work. Follow the rules, and be 
ready to offer three forms of ID, dude.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake