High Times, the long-running magazine that has been the bible of blunts, bud, and bongs ever since it was founded in the 70’s, has been sold to a group of investors that includes Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, the son of legendary reggae musician Bob Marley.
Damian Marley is part of a group of 20 investors who have purchased a controlling, 60% interest in Trans High Corp., which owns High Times, and the deal also includes its digital properties and Cannabis Cup shows, which has multiple events each year attended by thousands.
Although the price was not revealed, the new CEO, Adam Levin, said the company is valued at $70 million- that’s a lot of green!
With just over half of the states in the USA legalizing cannabis in some form (recreational and/or medicinal), the investors saw this as the perfect opportunity to acquire High Times despite other traditional print media seeing declining fortunes in recent years. A big factor in the decision to purchase High Times was its loyal print subscribers that number in the hundreds of thousands and their online followers that number in the millions.
Nobody can argue with High Times’ brand name recognition and counter-culture reputation- it was originally funded in the 70’s with money from selling weed- and having a high-profile icon such as Damian Marley involved is the icing on the cake as marijuana increasingly goes mainstream.
High Times has certainly come a long way since the days their covers were obscured by the same plastic that shielded porn magazines from the general public.
As CEO Adam Levin said, “We’re the Wine Aficionado of the cannabis industry”.
For more from Damian Marley, check out our interview with him!