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Jack Herer, RIP
Jacob Sullum | April 16, 2010
I first read Jack Herer's book The Emperor Wears No Clothes back in 1993, while researching a Reason cover story about the marijuana reform movement. It was the 1990 edition, designed and edited by Chris Conrad, who called the original, 1985 version "a diamond in the rough." It was still pretty rough: an outsized paperback with newsprint pages and a cover featuring what looked like a green clip-art collage that included images of cannabis plants, a printing press, a tractor, a coiled rope, a fuel pump, a deer flanked by a butterfly and a bird, and Earth as seen from space. Perhaps because the title itself was so vague, the cover included a kicker—"HEMP & THE MARIJUANA CONSPIRACY"—as well as a subtitle: "The Authoritative Historical Record of the Cannabis Plant, Hemp Prohibition, and How Marijuana Can Still Save the World." Writing that "the problems with the hemp-as-wonder-plant strategy are pretty obvious," I quoted Kevin Zeese, then vice president of the Drug Policy Foundation:
That wing [of the movement] presents the marijuana user as a stereotype that frightens society–the long-haired hippie. It scares people....It comes across as, "This is the wonder drug that can save the world, the environment, the trees, the fuel supply; it can heal the blind and crippled." It really sounds like a snake-oil salesman, even though there's a lot of truth to it.
I also argued that Herer and his followers, no matter how sincere, risked being perceived as disingenuous:
After all, hemp's main use in the United States today is not for paper or cloth or fuel. Any mildly skeptical person, upon hearing a guy with a long beard in a tie-dyed shirt talk about the wonderful versatility of the hemp plant, is going to have a pretty good idea what’s really on his mind. The appearance of deceit only makes getting high seem all the more sinister: If there’s nothing wrong with it, what are they trying to hide?
I still think there is some validity to those concerns, but they should not detract from Herer's impressive accomplishments in arousing curiosity, generating enthusiasm, and making prohibitionists look bad. His book, published in the middle of the Just Say No era, demonstrated how our view of hemp has been warped by the government’s campaign against marijuana. For someone unfamiliar with this story, the most startling parts of The Emperor Wears No Clothes are not at all dubious. Regardless of whether William Randolph Hearst banged the drum against marijuana because he wanted to eliminate competition in the paper business, or whether pharmaceutical and petrochemical interests supported prohibition for similar reasons, the story of how this plant was banned is astonishing: the ignorance, the racism, the blitheness with which legislators voted to criminalize something they knew nothing about. Fully half of The Emperor Wears No Clothes, which according to Herer's website has sold more than 600,000 copies, consists of reproduced material, including transcripts of the Senate hearings on the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, anti-marijuana articles from that period, the script from the federal government's Hemp for Victory propaganda film, and scientific articles about hemp's uses, along with contemporary criticism of the war on drugs.
Contrary to my misgivings, the hemp movement and industry that Herer inspired helped bring marijuana reform into the mainstream by offering legal products (hemp bags, hemp clothes, hemp cometics, hemp food) that carried an implicit message about cannabis yet could be purchased and consumed with plausible deniability: I'm not a pothead; I just really like hemp seed granola. At the same time, the over-the-top reaction to this cultural threat from drug warriors showed that Herer was on to something. The Drug Enforcement Administration repeatedly tried to ban hemp foods, even though they are not psychoactive and are plainly permitted by federal law (as a federal appeals court pointed out). It insisted that the government could not simultaneously enforce marijuana prohibition and allow cultivation of industrial hemp, even though many other countries manage to do so. These positions can only be understood as a reaction against the symbolic significance of the hemp industry, which drug warriors see as a rebuke to their pharmacological fanaticism. We can thank Herer, who was born two years after Congress enacted marijuana prohibition and died yesterday at the age of 70, for helping to create an environment in which grown men tremble at the sight of hand cream and snack bars.
Jack Herer Speaks
Jack Herer, father of marijuana legalization movement, dies at age 70 in Eugene
By Anne Saker, The Oregonian
Writer and activist Jack Herer, whose 1985 book "The Emperor Wears No Clothes" ignited the modern marijuana legalization movement, died Thursday from complications from a September heart attack that felled him moments after speaking at a Portland rally. He was 70.
Herer had been recuperating since March in Eugene. His wife, Jeannie, was at his side at the house the couple had rented when he died. "I never accepted that he was really going to go," Jeannie Herer said. "I'm sad that it happened, but I'm glad that it happened in Eugene. Everyone has been wonderful to us here."
Fellow activists expressed sorrow at losing the man who racked up hundreds of thousands of miles crossing the country for nearly 40 years campaigning to restore the hemp plant to American agriculture.
"He was one of my personal heroes," said Madeline Martinez of Portland, executive director of the Oregon chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
Herer died just as the movement is gaining momentum. Oregon and 13 other states plus the District of Columbia now permit medical marijuana. Last fall, the Obama administration said it will not prosecute for possession in medical marijuana states. In November, California residents will vote on a legalization initiative; activists in Oregon and Washington are gathering signatures now for similar initiatives.
That political advance grew from Jack Herer's crusade.
He was living in Portland in the early 1980s when he wrote "Emperor," now in its 11th printing.
The book says the government banned hemp in 1939 as part of a campaign to eliminate the scourge that went by the Mexican slang marijuana. But few people, Herer wrote, realized that marijuana was the dried flower of the female hemp plant, which humans had used as medicine for thousands of years.
The rest of the hemp plant, Herer argued, could do nothing less than save the world. For millennia, he said, people made fiber, clothing, rope, fuel, high-protein food from the fast-growing, easily cultivated plant, and they could again.
And Herer loudly proclaimed the right to get high, arguing that in fact, people ought to get high, morning, noon and night. He found medical research showing that marijuana can protect the body against cancer.
Born in New York City, Herer grew up in Buffalo, N.Y, the youngest of three children. He dropped out of high school and joined the Army, serving in Korea. After his hitch, he picked up work as a sign painter.
In the early 1960s, he moved his wife and family to Los Angeles. A short time later, he divorced but stayed close with his children. He married and divorced twice more before marrying Jeannie Hawkins in 2000.
Herer came to marijuana relatively late in life, smoking his first joint at 30. He chucked the sign business and opened a head shop on Venice Beach, then made a lifelong friend in "Capt." Ed Adair, another head shop owner and a longtime marijuana advocate in Los Angeles.
In 1973, the men pledged to campaign until marijuana was legal, everyone imprisoned for possession was freed or they turned 84. Adair died in 1991 and Herer fought on.
Herer was arrested in 1981 for trespassing on federal property while collecting signatures for a California ballot initiative. He served 14 days in prison and started writing, "The Emperor Wears No Clothes."
After his release, Herer moved to Portland to open a head shop called The Third Eye, now a fixture on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard. He completed the book in Portland, got it printed on hemp paper and began his years-long travels across the country.
In 2000, at a hemp festival near Eugene, Herer suffered a stroke and endured a long, agonizing recovery. He had improved in recent years and resumed his speaking schedule. He attributed his better health to daily use of a highly concentrated marijuana oil.
He resumed his heavy travel schedule, which included a Sept. 12 speech at Portland's Hempstalk at Kelley Point Park. He delivered a tub-thumbing speech, walked offstage and fell over from a heart attack.
He survived and eventually his wife rented a house in Eugene, where she cared for him until his death.
Herer is survived by his wife, six children, a brother and a sister. Funeral arrangements are not completed.
Herer had been recuperating since March in Eugene. His wife, Jeannie, was at his side at the house the couple had rented when he died.
"I never accepted that he was really going to go," Jeannie Herer said. "I'm sad that it happened, but I'm glad that it happened in Eugene. Everyone has been wonderful to us here."
Fellow activists expressed sorrow at losing the man who racked up hundreds of thousands of miles crossing the country for nearly 40 years campaigning to restore the hemp plant to American agriculture.
"He was one of my personal heroes," said Madeline Martinez of Portland, executive director of the Oregon chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
Herer died just as the movement is gaining momentum. Oregon and 13 other states plus the District of Columbia now permit medical marijuana. Last fall, the Obama administration said it will not prosecute for possession in medical marijuana states. In November, California residents will vote on a legalization initiative; activists in Oregon and Washington are gathering signatures now for similar initiatives.
That political advance grew from Jack Herer's crusade.
He was living in Portland in the early 1980s when he wrote "Emperor," now in its 11th printing.
The book says the government banned hemp in 1939 as part of a campaign to eliminate the scourge that went by the Mexican slang marijuana. But few people, Herer wrote, realized that marijuana was the dried flower of the female hemp plant, which humans had used as medicine for thousands of years.
The rest of the hemp plant, Herer argued, could do nothing less than save the world. For millennia, he said, people made fiber, clothing, rope, fuel, high-protein food from the fast-growing, easily cultivated plant, and they could again.
And Herer loudly proclaimed the right to get high, arguing that in fact, people ought to get high, morning, noon and night. He found medical research showing that marijuana can protect the body against cancer.
Born in New York City, Herer grew up in Buffalo, N.Y, the youngest of three children. He dropped out of high school and joined the Army, serving in Korea. After his hitch, he picked up work as a sign painter.
In the early 1960s, he moved his wife and family to Los Angeles. A short time later, he divorced but stayed close with his children. He married and divorced twice more before marrying Jeannie Hawkins in 2000.
Herer came to marijuana relatively late in life, smoking his first joint at 30. He chucked the sign business and opened a head shop on Venice Beach, then made a lifelong friend in "Capt." Ed Adair, another head shop owner and a longtime marijuana advocate in Los Angeles.
In 1973, the men pledged to campaign until marijuana was legal, everyone imprisoned for possession was freed or they turned 84. Adair died in 1991 and Herer fought on.
Herer was arrested in 1981 for trespassing on federal property while collecting signatures for a California ballot initiative. He served 14 days in prison and started writing, "The Emperor Wears No Clothes."
After his release, Herer moved to Portland to open a head shop called The Third Eye, now a fixture on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard. He completed the book in Portland, got it printed on hemp paper and began his years-long travels across the country.
In 2000, at a hemp festival near Eugene, Herer suffered a stroke and endured a long, agonizing recovery. He had improved in recent years and resumed his speaking schedule. He attributed his better health to daily use of a highly concentrated marijuana oil.
He resumed his heavy travel schedule, which included a Sept. 12 speech at Portland's Hempstalk at Kelley Point Park. He delivered a tub-thumbing speech, walked offstage and fell over from a heart attack.
He survived and eventually his wife rented a house in Eugene, where she cared for him until his death.
Herer is survived by his wife, six children, a brother and a sister. Funeral arrangements are not completed.
Initiative to legalize marijuana qualifies for November ballot
State election officials announced Wednesday that an initiative to legalize marijuana will be on the November ballot, triggering what will likely be an expensive, divisive and much-watched campaign to decide whether California will again lead the nation in softening drug laws.
Los Angeles County election officials Wednesday turned in their official estimate of the number of valid signatures, putting the statewide figure above the 433,971 needed for the measure to make the ballot. The county, where one-fifth of the signatures were collected, was the last to report its count, filing just before 5 p.m.
Polls have indicated that a majority of voters in California want marijuana legalized, but the margin is not enough to ensure the initiative will win. Two years ago, opponents defeated an attempt to relax the state's drug laws despite being outspent. "It's always easier for people to say no than to say yes for an initiative," said Mark Baldassare, the pollster for the Public Policy Institute of California. "Generally, all it takes is for people to find one reason to say no."
The initiative would allow adults 21 or older to possess up to an ounce for personal use. Possession of an ounce or less has been a misdemeanor with a $100 fine since 1975, when Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, who was then governor, signed a law that reduced tough marijuana penalties that had allowed judges to impose 10-year sentences. Legalization supporters note that misdemeanor arrests have risen dramatically in California in the last two decades. The initiative would also allow adults to grow up to 25 square feet of marijuana per residence or parcel.
But the measure, known as the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, goes further, allowing cities and counties to adopt ordinances that would authorize the cultivation, transportation and sale of marijuana, which could be taxed to raise revenues. It's this feature of the initiative that supporters hope will draw support from voters who are watching their local governments jettison employees and programs in the midst of a severe budget crisis.
The measure's main proponent, Richard Lee, savored the chance to press his case that the nation's decades-old ban on marijuana is a failed policy. "We're one step close to ending cannabis prohibition and the unjust laws that lock people up for cannabis while alcohol is not only sold openly but advertised on television to kids every day," he said. He said the measure would allow police to focus on serious crime, undercut Mexican drug cartels and make it harder for teenagers to buy marijuana.
Lee, who owns several marijuana businesses in Oakland, has already spent at least $1.3 million on the campaign, primarily on a professional signature-gathering operation. He has also recruited a team of accomplished political advisors, including Chris Lehane, a veteran operative who has worked in the White House and on presidential campaigns.
"There's all kind of big professional politicos who are coming on board now to take it to the next level," he said.
Lee has said that he hopes to raise as much as $20 million for the campaign, 10 times the amount that proponents spent in 1996 to pass Proposition 215, the state's medical marijuana initiative.
Opponents have also begun organizing. "There's going to be a very broad coalition opposing this that will include law enforcement," promised John Lovell, a Sacramento lobbyist who represents several law enforcement organizations. "We'll educate people as to what this measure really entails." Lovell said legalizing marijuana would lead to increased use, cause the same kind of social ills as alcohol and tobacco, and put more demands on law enforcement.
-- John Hoeffel
Hemp History Week
is looking for hundreds of volunteers nationwide to hold events on the history of hemp farming in their area with the focus of bringing back the versatile and profitable industrial hemp crop.
Volunteers will be asked to visit libraries and historical societies to find old newspaper articles and other documents about local hemp farming before the crop was banned. The research will be discussed at a scheduled public event in which members of the media and local officials would also be invited.
Hemp is our History Week is part of Vote Hemp's ongoing strategy to get the Department of Justice to change its approach to American farmers who intend to plant industrial hemp in 2010.
Please forward this announcement widely and get involved.
Save the Date: May 17-23, 2010 is Hemp is Our History Week!
Sign Up Today - Click here!
About the Hemp Industries Association
The Hemp Industries Association (HIA) represents the interests of the hemp industry and encourages the research and development of new products made from industrial hemp, oilseed and fiber varieties of Cannabis.
A joint project of Vote Hemp and the Hemp Industries Association, America's leading hemp advocacy organizations, Hemp History Week is looking for patriotic Americans to anchor and organize events in their hometown as part of a national grassroots, media and public education campaign.
We hope to collect at least 50,000 signed post cards urging President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder asking them to end the status quo and let farmers grow versatile and profitable industrial hemp. Hemp History Week wants you to sign up ASAP to be contacted by our coordinators to begin planning for local Town Hall meetings to present historical data about hemp farming in your area prior to its prohibition.
You will be connected to other like minded hemp advocates who will plan the events with you and help get the word out its time for change and you will receive coupons for hemp products as a thank you for being part of this historic movement to resume hemp farming in the U.S.
Hemp Industries Association
SIGN UP TODAY! Submit your information Here and someone will follow up with you shortly.The Hemp Industries Association (HIA) is a non-profit trade group representing hemp companies,
researchers and supporters. We are at the forefront of the drive for fair and equal treatment of industrial hemp. Since 1992, the HIA has been dedicated to education, industry development,
and the accelerated expansion of hemp world market supply and demand.
The hemp industry has positioned itself over the past decade to once again become a major global economic force in the 21st century. Hemp is one of
our planet's most important natural resources, and we advocate using it to its full potential.
If you are currently involved in the hemp industry, thinking of starting a hemp business, or support hemp commerce, please consider becoming a member.
Join us! Please click here for benefits, more information and an application.
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Last Updated (Monday, 19 July 2010 23:30)
