HIGH TIMES MAGAZINE'S LAID-BACK IMAGE GOES TO POT

There are few icons as widely admired by pot smokers as High Times magazine.

Sure, there still are stoners who chuckle at the very mention of certain
Cheech and Chong routines, and there are people so fogged by cannabis haze
that they even get those arcane references to exotic marijuana on Bob
Marley albums. But High Times, with its pseudo- serious political reporting
and clever marketing of an illegal substance, is the devoted weedman's bible.

Pittsburgher Randy Prezkopf is more than a little familiar with the glossy
New York monthly. He'd read about the endless movements to legalize
marijuana and studied the magazine's weird centerfold photos of rare plant
types. Prezkopf eventually opened Slacker, a South Side lifestyle boutique
that specialized in things for the glassy-eyed.

Prezkopf so believes in the social, medical and recreational properties of
our country's favorite illegal herb that he's battled with local
authorities over the right to sell water pipes and other pot paraphernalia.

It must have felt like a divine calling when, just over a year ago, the
scholarly-looking hipster found himself with a job offer from High Times.

Dude! What luck! Prezkopf must have thought.

This was like renting an apartment downwind from the DEA's incinerator, or
so it seemed in March.

The reality today: Prezkopf told us it was a major buzzkill to find out
that America's leading drug monthly doesn't reflect the laid-back, tie-dyed
image offered in its pages. Prezkopf is back in Pittsburgh, working on a
lawsuit against the magazine's management who, he says, wore him down with
all their corporate rules and regulations.

Employees, Prezkopf complained, are required to behave with professionalism
and they're even required to register with building security when entering
or leaving the workplace. Recently, the High Times staff adopted a high
(pardon the pun) tech employee tracking system in which workers are
required to leave fingerprints with security when exiting the building.

"It just got to be ridiculous with all the rules and having to check in all
the time," a disgusted Prezkopf said with a shrug.

High Times is the last place you'd expect to find these work rules. This is
the magazine that gives out the Annual Stony Awards - this year's prize
went to rapper Snoop Dogg for enhancing the image of potheads worldwide -
and offers tips each issue on beating employee drug tests.

It's also worth noting that High Times, which was founded by pot advocate
Thomas Forcade in 1974, has long championed the legalization of drugs as a
civil liberties issue.

Maybe what Prezkopf and lots of other High Times faithful might have
overlooked is that the pot culture is not so much a counterculture as it is
a business. It might try to sell itself as radical, subversive and on the
opposite side of the law, but High Times is a business and was founded to
make money.

So go ahead: Be playful. Explore your inner-mind. Experiment. But make sure
your eyes and head are clear when you go to work. Follow the rules, and be
ready to offer three forms of ID, dude.