Thomas King Forçade (September 11, 1945 – November 17, 1978), also known as Gary Goodson, was an American underground journalist and

cannabis rights Cannabis rights or marijuana rights (sometimes more specifically cannabis consumer rights or stoner rights) are individual civil and human rights that vary by jurisdiction. The rights of people who consume cannabis include the right to be free f ...

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

in the 1970s. For many years he ran the

Underground Press Syndicate The Underground Press Syndicate (UPS), later known as the Alternative Press Syndicate (APS), was a network of countercultural newspapers and magazines that operated from 1966 into the late 1970s. As it evolved, the Underground Press Syndicate crea ...

(later called the Alternative Press Syndicate), and was the founder of ''

High Times ''High Times'' is an American monthly magazine (and cannabis brand) that advocates the Legalization of non-medical cannabis in the United States, legalization of cannabis as well as other counterculture ideas. The magazine was founded in 1974 by ...

'' magazine. Forçade published several other publications, such as ''Stoned'', ''National Weed'', ''Dealer'' and others, that, veiled as

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...

entertainment magazines, were laced with humor and savvy coverage of politics and popular culture, and served as a forum for some of the industry's best writers and artists. Many of Forçade's publications' writers went on to be published in premiere papers and magazines in North America.

Life and career

He was born in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

. His father, engineer and

hot rod Hot rods are typically American cars that might be old, classic, or modern and that have been rebuilt or modified with large engines optimised for speed and acceleration. One definition is: "a car that's been stripped down, souped up and made ...

enthusiast Kenneth Goodson, died in a car crash when Forçade was a child. Forçade graduated from the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

in 1967 with a degree in business administration. He went into the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

but was discharged after a few months. He used the skills he learned, however, to fly across the border for several years, trafficking drugs from Mexico and Colombia, and used his proceeds to form a hippie commune and

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground (S ...

magazine called ''Orpheus''. After this, he moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where he first took over management of the

, a network of countercultural newspapers and magazines that he helped found. The name was changed to the Alternative Press Syndicate in 1973. In 1970, Forçade was the first documented activist to use

pieing Pieing or a pie attack is the act of throwing a pie at a person. In pieing, the goal is usually to humiliate the victim while avoiding actual injury. For this reason the pie is traditionally of the cream pie, cream variety without a top crust, an ...

as a form of protest, hitting Chairman Otto Larsen during the

President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography In 1969, the United States Supreme Court ruled in ''Stanley v. Georgia'' that people could view whatever they wished in the privacy of their own homes. In response, the United States Congress funded the President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornog ...

.Staff report (May 13, 1970)
Witness Presents Pornography Commissioner With a Pie (in the Face)
''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' In summer 1974, he founded ''

'', and contributed funding to the

Yippie The Youth International Party (YIP), whose members were commonly called Yippies, was an American youth-oriented radical and countercultural revolutionary offshoot of the free speech and anti-war movements of the late 1960s. It was founded on D ...

newspaper, ''Yipster Times'', (Chapter titled "''Zeitgeist: The Ballad of Tom Forçade''" by

Steve Conliff Steven Conliff (November 24, 1949 – June 1, 2006) was a Midwestern-based Native American writer, historian, social satirist, alternative-media publisher and political activist in the 1960s and 1970s. Conliff is chiefly remembered for throwing ...

) while also bankrolling the ailing ''Punk'' magazine.Armstrong, David (1981). ''A trumpet to arms: alternative media in America.'' J.P. Tarcher, ''High Times'' ran articles calling

marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...

a "medical wonder drug" and ridiculing the US

Drug Enforcement Administration The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within th ...

. It became a huge success, with a circulation of more than 500,000 copies a month and revenues approaching $10 million by 1977, and was embraced by the young adult market as the bible of the alternative life culture. By 1977 ''High Times'' was selling as many copies an issue as''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

''and '' National Lampoon''. According to the 1990 nonfiction book ''12 Days on the Road: The Sex Pistols and America'', by Noel E. Monk, Forçade and his film crew followed the

Sex Pistols The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they were one of the most groundbreaking acts in the history of popular music. They were responsible for ...

through their chaotic January 1978 concerts of the U.S. South and West, using high-pressure tactics in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade the band's management and record company to let him document the tour.

Death

Forçade committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

by gunshot to the head in November 1978 in his

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

apartment after the death of his best friend, Jack Coombs. Forçade had attempted suicide before and bequeathed

trusts A trust is a legal relationship in which the holder of a right gives it to another person or entity who must keep and use it solely for another's benefit. In the Anglo-American common law, the party who entrusts the right is known as the "settl ...

to benefit ''High Times'' and

NORML The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML ) is a social welfare organization based in Washington, D.C., that advocates for the reform of marijuana laws in the United States regarding both medical and non-medical use. Acc ...

References

External links

Biography of Forçade from World War 4 Report
*
Tom Forçade Interview
(published posthumously in HiLife magazine, Sept 1979)
Yippies vs. Zippies: New Rubin book reveals ’70s counterculture feud
( ''The Villager'' article by Mary Reinholz, 25 February 2018) {{DEFAULTSORT:Forçade, Tom 1945 births 1978 deaths 1978 suicides 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American writers American cannabis activists American male journalists American political writers American publishers (people) Cannabis writers Free speech activists Suicides by firearm in New York City University of Utah alumni Writers from Phoenix, Arizona Yippies