The 1970s were a weird time, not least because you could apparently advertise cocaine in magazines despite this being the first decade of President Nixon's Controlled Substances Act.
In June 1971, Nixon declared a war on drugs. He said that drug abuse was "public enemy number one in the United States". Which is right where all of these ads were published.
In the last half of the decade there were a bunch of counterculture, drug-focused publications with names like Head, Rush, Flash, Stoned Age, Hi-Life, and the still-running-right-now High Times.
High Times actually started out as a joke, a parody of Playboy with weed instead of girls. Like, instead of a naked centrefold, they had a double-page spread of a cannabis plant. It was accidentally a major success.
High Times ended up being so legit it even tried out a travel magazine supplement called Nomad. But no one wanted it and it never made it out of the supplement stage. Drugs only, please.
Writers like Charles Bukowski, William S Burroughs, Truman Capote, Hunter S Thompson, and Andy Warhol all contributed work over the years.
These cocaine ads were dug up by David Wilfert in Los Angeles, who runs a creative agency called The World’s Best Ever, focusing on cannabis and drug stuff in the entertainment industry.
Since advertising and drugs are his wheelhouse, Wilfert started collecting these magazines. All of these ads are scanned from that old, smelly stack of mags.
He told BuzzFeed: “I like to be informed on the past to help shape the future, so I was interested to see what they were creating and how they were marketing marijuana.”
“I wanted to see how marijuana, advertising, and the surrounding culture were being presented to the public during the first Green Rush back in 1970s.”
“I'm a huge fan of novelty products too, and the cocaine stuff was just an added bonus.”
“Much like it is now, marijuana was becoming big business, and in 1978 the paraphernalia industry was netting $350 million annually. That's a lot of bongs and roach clips.”
“Since culture as a whole had not seen the effects of cocaine addiction, ‘snow’ was being marketed alongside grass in equal measure.”
“Although there is noticeable decline in this as we get later into the '70s and early '80s.”
“I’m preparing to launch my own cannabis lifestyle magazine and accompanying website in early 2016.”
"I cannot disclose the title yet, so I'll let you just picture a Condé Nast publication, but for weed."
