New owner of ‘High Times’ bets on counterculture comeback

A longtime fan of High Times magazine has purchased the stoner bible for $3.5 million, with a pledge to bring back its counterculture ethos — even as marijuana has gone mainstream.

- EMMETT LINDNER

Josh Kesselman, the founder of Raw, a brand of rolling papers, bought the publication for $3.5 million, he announced Tuesday.

Founded in 1974, High Times was once a home to heavyweight contributors including William S. Burroughs and Charles Bukowski. In its heyday were headlines such as Best Smuggling Ships, and its covers in the 1970s were graced by titans of the anti-establishment, including Bob Marley and Andy Warhol.

But a private equity takeover in 2017 seemed to change the tone; one article explained Popular Ways to Consume Cannabis and it added gift guides. After the publication’s parent company, the Hightimes Holding Corp, failed to make loan payments last year, the magazine and its assets were taken over by a lender and put up for sale, and the September issue was its last.