The Hemperor, Jack Herer
One of the hemp industry’s greatest champions, Jack Herer, passed away on April 15th at the age of 70. Affectionately known as the Hemperor, Jack inspired an entire generation of hemp activists. And as the Salem News reports, Jack was not only a hemp hero, but an unlikely one:
Jack Herer was born June 18th, 1939, in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York. [...] A “normal American nerd”, he grew into a respectable young man, joining the military, getting married and starting a family.
And then, at age thirty, he completely changed direction, becoming one of the very first American Cannabis activists, and inevitably the most world renowned leader for hemp education.
Jack didn’t start out as the “kind of guy” who smoked pot. He was a Goldwater Republican, in the sign maintenance business. In 1969, recently divorced, he was introduced to cannabis by a girlfriend. [...]
In 1973, Jack published his first book, G.R.A.S.S. (Great Revolutionary American Standard System) [...]
Jack believed that the cannabis sativa plant should not be illegal because it has been shown to be a renewable source of fuel, food, fiber and medicine, and it can be grown in virtually any part of the world. [...]
In 1982, Jack was at a party and had the opportunity to outline the hemp story to Tom Rutherford, a state senator from New Mexico. The senator told Jack that if the facts were real and if they were put into a book, then pot would be legalized.That’s all Jack needed to hear, and he went to work on The Emperor Wears No Clothes, which would become one of the seminal books on the history of hemp and marijuana prohibition, used by experts and laymen alike as an essential research tool and a catalyst in the advocacy to decriminalize cannabis since it was first published in 1985. Over 600,000 books have been sold, it is translated into a dozen languages and there is an online version available on JackHerer.com.
In 1988, Jack ran for United States President, (1,949 votes) and again in 1992 (3,875 votes) as the Grassroots Party candidate.
As the hemp industry mourns his loss, we also can’t help but to celebrate his legacy. He gave so much to the hemp community, including his life’s work.