The magazine High Times, a bible for America’s cannabis users for 40 years, is broadening its horizons as few potheads have done before — by launching a private equity fund.
The High Times Growth Fund hopes to raise $100 million (£60 million) over two years to invest in cannabis-related businesses.
The expansion into the cut-throat world of finance may seem a dramatic departure for a publication whose website features recipes for cannabis brownies and advice on how to cultivate weed organically.
However, Rick Cusick, the associate publisher, believes that the move is entirely logical. “Nobody is better connected in this industry than we are,” he said.
The legalisation of marijuana for recreational use in the states of Washington and Colorado has stoked a “green rush”, with entrepreneurs scrambling to deliver products such as cannabis-infused fizzy drinks and ultra-secure vending machines.
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High Times has never been in better shape, Mr Cusick says. A cannabis event it hosted in Denver in April attracted 37,000 visitors. This month the 40th anniversary edition of the magazine went on sale — at 164 pages, it was the largest ever — and its website has soared in popularity, from about 300,000 unique visitors a month to five million.
In November the states of Alaska and Oregon will vote on legalising cannabis, and Mr Cusick believes that the green rush will continue. “This is just the beginning of the end of the war on drugs,” he said.