High Times, the flagship
publication of a cannabis counterculture that is rapidly going
mainstream, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. “We have
been steadfast soldiers in this so-called War on Drugs,” writes
Editor in Chief Chris Simunek in a special issue that hits
newsstands this week, “with truth as our sword and the First
Amendment as our shield.”
The First Amendment has protected High Times,
Jacob Sullum writes, and High Times has tried to
return the favor. Last year the magazine was the lead plaintiff in
a lawsuit challenging a Colorado law that required
merchants to keep marijuana-focused publications behind the
counter. The sponsor of that provision, a Republican representative
from Colorado Springs named Bob Gardner, likened such periodicals
to pornography. The law was so clearly unconstitutional that
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers decided not to
enforce it. Now High Times is seeking to
overturn Colorado’s onerous restrictions on marijuana
advertising, which ostensibly are aimed at protecting
impressionable children but probably have more to do with
protecting disapproving adults.
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