Oliver Stone, Smoking Joint on High Times Cover, Talks Up Laguna Beach Film and California Weed

There's a new editor-in-chief over at High Times magazine. Chris Simunek, author of Paradise Burning: Adventures of a HIGH TIMES Journalist, says he wants to reverse the rag's slow descent into pot porn and bring back its more ancient tradition of hard-hitting reporting on the drug war. Helping to inaugurate that effort is Oliver Stone, who appears on the cover of HT's latest issue, smoking a marijuana joint.

Stone has never been a big fan of America's war on weed and, if memory serves, is probably the most famous person to be busted with highly concentrated hash oil, which must be what he was smoking when he directed Natural Born Killers. Now, Stone is promoting his newest flick, Savages, which takes place and was filmed in Laguna Beach, based on the recent novel by best-selling writer Don Winslow.

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The film's plot involves a wealthy surfer, who doubles as a genius high-quality pot grower, and his Navy Seal buddy who go mano a mano with a bloodthirsty Mexican cartel led, somewhat improbably, by Salma Hayek. In his interview, Stone talks about his love of California's main cash crop, even saying that he'd like to go into the business himself.

“[Savages] was a chance for me to get back into another side of myself, which is still anarchic and rebellious,” Stone says. “Certainly if you appreciate California weed, which I have for many years, you'll realize that we're somewhat close to the money when we say that California has surpassed Thailand, Jamaica, and certainly Mexico as the king and queen of quality weed. I'm thinking of getting into the business myself, although I suspect there'd be a lot of stress with the Feds changing the rules all the time. Those bastards.”

Crazy talk, but then again, it's coming from a guy who actually volunteered for Vietnam, so …