Legal Dope Soon, says ad-man

Marijuana will become legal in the U.S. within one year, predicts the first issue of the Chicago Mirror, an underground satire magazine slated for publication this month.

According to the author of the article, whose source is an art director of an unidentified Chicago advertising agency, the legalization of pot “will be the result of one of the most fantastic public relations campaigns in the history of this country.”

The Mirror‘s source says that one of the earlier steps in the heavily financed p.r. campaign will be “the appearance of pro-marijuana articles in such journals of puritanical evangelism as American Weekly, Parade and other Sunday supplement magazines.” The Parade article has already appeared.

“Whoever is financing the campaign on behalf of grass must have great amounts of capital behind their efforts—perhaps even (tobacco or liquor industry forces) who have seen the profitable light,” the article speculates. “After all,” The Mirror’s story continues, “the commercial manufacture of marijuana cigarettes could be a tremendous financial boost to any corporation.”

The new Chicago Mirror is edited and published by cartoonist-satirist Jay Lynch. Lynch’s cartoons and those of Mirror staffer Skip Williamson frequently appear in the Fifth Estate.