Does High Times share any blame for that “stoner” label being heaped on marijuana users?
MAILER: It was certainly playing into that stereotype. NOCENTI: Things get funnier when you’re stoned. That’s just the way it is. There’s truth to the stoner cliché, and it’s an entertaining cliché, so it’s no wonder entertainment has focused on the laughing, bungling stoner. Yes, High Times has contributed to that over the years. But it’s also contributed to the constant reminder that pot also expands consciousness and has inspired brilliance, from Carl Sagan’s ideas to Louis Armstrong’s jazz riffs. And just as important is how the current High Times is using marijuana as a metaphor for all the ways our freedoms and civil liberties are being violated, a metaphor for embedded hypocrisies both in unfair drug sentencing and in which drugs are deemed “socially acceptable” and which are “socially unacceptable.” So, we’re moving way beyond Stonerville, with no disrespect to the very funny stoner cliché. DPA: Has anyone you wanted to interview been reluctant to talk with you because of the o
