On June 17, it was announced that High Times magazine had been sold to RAW Rolling Papers owner Josh Kesselman for $3.45 million. Hightimes Holdings Co. was placed in a receivership after the company collapsed due to more than $20 million of debt. High Times had been previously sold to Oreva Capital led by Adam Levin in 2017. Levin has since been found guilty of fraud related to a bogus stock offer that lured in thousands of gullible readers. The company’s reputation declined significantly since then. Kesselman and former High Times executive Matt Stang will attempt to revive the venerable pot publication and brand that was founded by Tom Forçade in 1974. The new company is named High Times Media. We spoke to Kesselman by phone two days after the deal made news.
How did this all happen?
I've been a fan of High Times for years. The first time I bought High Times it was wrapped in brown paper in a shop on 7th Ave. in New York. I was so excited. I hid it in my jacket. I had to hide it from my parents. The magazine opened my mind to a whole world of possibilities. I didn't know this life existed. High Times was the ultimate. Once I got into the rolling paper business, I started sending them to High Times, and I became friendly with the guys like Bobby Black, Danny Danko and Matt Stang. They all just loved my papers and we became friends over that. I was just so honored to be around them.
So you decided to make an offer when the company went up for sale?
A year or two ago they started trying to sell it. At that point, I poked my head in there, but all the money guys were still around trying to find every which way to capitalize on it. They were all trying to make money on High Times and live off what our forefathers had truly built. I couldn't get involved with any of them, but I'd talk to them just to see if any of them were likeminded to me, and none of them were. I'd say, "The goal here is not to make money. It's to build a community." They laughed at me, paid me lip service.
How did Stang enter the picture?
He told me not to work with these guys, “They're not your kind of guys.” The receiver died and then it came back on the auction block. Matt knew that I wanted it and he hit me up and said, "You can do this. It won't be that much." Once they accepted my offer, I learned there's a lot of mud I've got to dig this out of. There are squatters on the intellectual property, people claiming to own this or that, like High Times dog food. It cost me a couple of hundred grand in legal fees just to get through this mess and I haven't even started! I have half a million for lawyers to go crush all these squatters and scammers. I'm cleaning them all up. I've got another mil I'm putting into it to get started. Then I have another two mil earmarked for just-in-case runway money to make sure we make it to the end.
You're a rolling papers magnate. What do you know about media?
I'm very fortunate. Our rolling papers are doing very well. We had an incredible sales year in 2024. Nice big growth. At retail we estimate our sales at over a billion dollars. We're doing great, man. So I can afford to do things like this.
What’s the overall goal then if it’s not to make a profit?
High Times has to survive and thrive for the community. It was there for so many fucking years. I want future generations to have the enjoyment that I had. I want them to have their minds blown open to the incredible world we live in by High Times. ”I'm going to open a magazine to get wealthy,” said no one in the last 20 years.
Josh Kesselman: "We all got burned by the fall of High Times."
What are the immediate plans?
We're trying to find people to run it. It's not about profits, it's about community. My goal is to break even. We're trying to piece it together in a way that it's relevant for 2025 and beyond. We won't have the big headquarters with all the writers and all those kinds of costs. Instead, everybody stays at home and writes articles and whatever.
There won't be an office?
It might be at my office. I have 30,000 square feet in Phoenix. I just moved in there. We built a podcast studio. My job is really just to act as a guide. I'm not running High Times. The only part I'm running is to make sure it's truly about community over cash. My definition of success is that each year we break even and we continue putting money into it, and that the community loves it and is thriving with it.
Will the magazine be coming back as a monthly?
No. We're thinking bi-annually. It might turn into quarterly. Every six months there will be a collectible issue. My goal is zero will end up in a landfill. It ends up on your coffee table, period.
What sort of collectible issues?
It has to be relevant to this time period, so it can't just go into the past. It has to be about what's happening in cannabis now.
You're also planning on reviving the Cannabis Cup. How do you foresee the Cups going forward?
I remember the best of the Cups, like Denver in 2015, San Bernardino and Sacramento. I want people to experience the Cup like I got to experience it. The judging will be third party, ideally certified. It will be blind. It will be real. Whoever wins wins, period.
How are you going to rebuild the brand?
I had to wait until there was nothing left but ashes. It's just the absolute base. It's almost where it started in 1974. Part of the good thing about what happened in the past it gives me the opportunity to show how incredibly fair and just we will be. When people heard I was the one buying it they were extremely ecstatic. They know me. They know what I want to do with it.
What about the people who were burned by the stock deal?
I feel for them tremendously. There's nothing I can do. I don't even have their data. I've got nothing. All I can do is ask them to understand what happened and to watch as we rebuild it. Once they see it come back and see what we're doing with it, I think they'll join in. This is me giving back to that famed community that got burned. We all got burned by the fall of High Times. And I'm hoping we'll all get uplifted by the rise of High Times.
Will there be there be new High Times products like branded rolling papers?
No, nothing different than what's happened in the past. [RAW and High Times] are completely separate. We're going to do some High Times licensing. I want those tie-dyed t-shirts back. I want my High Time t-shirts that everyone stole from me. I don't have a single one left. I want them back.
Younger people don't know much about High Times.
They've heard about it. It's like if you mention Led Zeppelin to them.
Right, it's like a classic rock band.
They have a lot of respect for it. I have a lot of crossover. Gen Z loves my shit. When I introduce them to High Times that's one thing that will help.
Where will you find the time to run High Times Media?
If I’m lucky enough that it’s run out of my office, I’ll just walk down the hallway and talk to people. There’s always enough time. The main thing is finding the right people. Eventually you put together an amazing team. With High Times I have to just keep rolling the dice and eventually I’ll hit 11 or 7.
HT LINKS
See more of the latest CelebStoner news!
×
