The voice paused, and then continued at a slower pace:

Of course, now there is another way to do it. Just pull out one E-Z Wider double-width paper and start to roll. That's it. E-Z Wider is double width so you don't have to stick two papers together. The next time you buy papers, ask for the brown and white pack that says, "E-Z Wider, E-Z Wider, E-Z Wider."[2]

    In 1978 E-Z Wider grossed over $7 million. Only 20 percent of the papers are distributed to headshops; the rest are sold in chain stores, like 7-11 and K-Mart.
    More recently, there is Instaroach, which manufactures a rolling paper with a special feature: each sheet has a very thin wire embedded along its length. When the joint is smoked, the heat-resistant stainless steel wire becomes increasingly exposed, and by the time the joint is near the end, the wire turns into a convenient and disposable roach-clip.
    During the late 1970s, the paraphernalia business underwent an enormous growth, enough to support High Times, the slick monthly magazine for drug users, as well as several less successful imitators. At its peak, High Times has claimed an audited circulation of over four hundred thousand copies, and, according to an independent survey, the magazine enjoys an unprecedented "pass-along readership" of 9.4 readers per copy. In this magazine, readers—who are, on the average, fairly affluent young men—can read the latest drug information, including prices of illicit drugs around the world, and news of drug busts at home and abroad. Equally important, they can browse through page after page of colorful paraphernalia advertising.
    "The magazine is not wealthy," one of its founding editors assured me. "We're adequately paid, but we don't have a big budget. Many people assume we must be rich because of all those ads, but we have to adjust our rates to the type of money that these
    advertisers can pay. We're not exactly dealing with Mobil Oil." Asked about the origins of the magazine, he told this story:

High Times was conceived in New York in 1973. A group of us were sitting around one night in the Village, passing around some nitrous oxide. We knew we had a great idea, and that the market was just right. If anything, we were too modest in our vision. We thought it would take several years before we reached the stage we attained in just one year.
    It began with a group of people who had a common interest: we liked to get high, liked to talk about it, and knew that there was a lot of money involved. Like anything else, the drug industry had to have a medium of communication, and we intended to fill that gap.
    We have our finger on the pulse of the drug consciousness in this country as it develops, and of course we help to develop it. There are millions of people out there who have lacked a magazine, a spokesman, a voice. That's what we give them. We have various interests, but we concentrate on drugs the way Playboy concentrates on sex.
    I think High Times fills a gap left by Rolling Stone when they became a big publication. They used to be the bad boys, but that period is over. There's a very important need in this country for a bad-boy press.
    But a bad-boy press isn't necessarily a left-wing press. We get a lot of criticism from some quarters for not being political enough, or because we sometimes use sex to sell magazines. And a lot of people confuse our editorial content with our advertising, which is unfortunate.
    We pay a lot of attention to the government, and to the various government agencies which enforce the drug laws. We feel that our readers should understand the thinking of the man who wants to stop them from getting high. Usually, the authorities cooperate with us, even when they come out looking bad, because they have to remain visible, and nobody else is interested in what they do.
    We at High Times are often approached by the straight media when they want information about drugs. Most of the media people who come to us like to get high, but they feel awkward and embarrassed about drugs. We usually give them some help, but we really don't like to be in the business of lending credibility to other people's stories.