Reggae star Marley becomes an investor in High Times
LOS ANGELES — Put this in your pipe and smoke it.
An investment group that includes legendary ganga guru Bob Marley’s son has bought a controlling interest in High Times, the magazine that for decades has separated the stems and seeds from the leaves when it comes to showing people the best ways to grow, roll and consume the finest blends of marijuana.
Damian “Junior Gong” Marley, whose forthcoming reggae album is appropriately titled “Stony Hill,” is one of 20 investors who announced Thursday they have acquired 60 percent interest in Trans-High Corp., owner of High Times, its digital platforms and its Cannabis Cup trade shows.
THC (the acronym is the same as that of marijuana’s key ingredient) will be renamed High Times Holding Co.
“It’s an exciting day,” said Adam Levin, the company’s new CEO. “We have really the largest brand in cannabis, really the trusted brand, that we’ve been able to acquire at a time when obviously legalization trends are burgeoning and the industry as a whole is exploding.”
The purchase price wasn’t revealed, but Levin, whose Los Angeles-based investment firm, Oreva Capital, put the deal together, said the company is valued at $70 million.
With marijuana legal in some form in 26 states and the District of Columbia, Levin and his partners believe it’s the perfect time to acquire the company with a mainstream brand name and a colorful reputation.
They could be right, said Gabriel Kahn, an expert on changing media trends and a professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
“The marijuana business is increasingly becoming professionalized and mainstream,” Kahn said. “That opens up a space for a news outfit to lay claim to being the voice of the industry and establish credibility.”
Although High Times has competitors, Levin said he’s confident it will prevail because of its reputation.
Ellen Komp, deputy director of the California’s chapter of the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws, agreed that the magazine has credibility in the pothead community.
“I respect their reporting,” she said. “Their editors have been more aggressive about factchecking than other cannabis publications.”
While many magazines have struggled in recent years, High Times says it has retained a loyal print subscriber base of more than 200,000, with millions more following it online.
Perhaps High Times’ most lucrative source of income, however, is its Cannabis Cup trade shows. What began as a single, somewhat clandestine meeting in an Amsterdam hotel room in 1988 has grown to 11 events this year.