Jack Herer
Encyclopedia
Jack Herer was an American cannabis
activist and the author
of The Emperor Wears No Clothes
, a book which has been used in efforts to decriminalize cannabis.
Republican, Herer was a pro-cannabis (marijuana
) and hemp
activist. He wrote two books, the aforementioned The Emperor Wears No Clothes and Grass. There has also been a documentary
made about his life called, The Emperor of Hemp. He believed that the cannabis
plant should be decriminalized because it has been shown to be a renewable source of fuel
, food, and medicine
that can be grown in virtually any part of the world. He further asserts that the U.S. government deliberately hides the proof of this.
A specific strain of cannabis
has been named after Jack Herer in honor of his work. This strain has won several awards, including the 7th High Times Cannabis Cup
. Jack Herer was also inducted into the Counterculture Hall of Fame
at the 16th Cannabis Cup in recognition of his first book.
Herer ran for United States President twice, in 1988
(1,949 votes) and 1992
(3,875 votes) as the Grassroots Party
candidate.
, resulting in difficulties speaking and moving the right side of his body. Herer mostly recovered, and claimed in May 2004 that treatment with the amanita muscaria
, a psychoactive mushroom was the "secret".
On September 12, 2009 Herer suffered another heart attack while backstage at the Hempstalk Festival
in Portland, Oregon
. He spent nearly a month in critical condition in a Portland hospital, including several days in a medically induced coma
. He was discharged to another facility on October 13, 2009. Paul Stanford of The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation said "He is waking up and gazing appropriately when someone is talking... but he is not really communicating in any way." He died aged 70 on April 15, 2010 in Eugene, Oregon
, from complications related to the September 2009 heart attack. Herer was buried at the Eden Memorial Park Cemetery
in Mission Hills, California
.
- Herer claimed that hemp produces higher yields than other crops. Van der Werf argued that is simply wrong. Under most favorable growing conditions, other crops such as maize
, sugar beet
or potato
produced similar dry matter yields. Fiber hemp is in no way exceptional. Se also Hemp#Yield in modern agriculture
- Herer claimed that hemp hurds, which make up 60 to 80 % of the stem dry weight, contain 77 % cellulose. Van der Werf argued that is wrong. Cellulose content of hemp hurds has been found to vary between 32 and 38 % (Bedetti and Ciaralli 1976, van der Werf 1994). Possibly, Herer confused the hurds, which form the woody core of the hemp stem, with the bark, which forms the outer layer of the hemp stem. The bark contains the long bast fibers which are used in textile manufacturing.
- Herer claimed that hemp could be grown on 6 million hectares in the European Union
, something that should have produced millions of tons of hemp fiber. The present production of hemp fiber in EU is only around 0.023 million ton/year.Dr. Ivan Bûcsa argue that it was a great exaggeration to expect millions of tons since it is not worth transporting unprocessed hemp more than 40-50 km even in bales.
Cannabis
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...
activist and the author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
of The Emperor Wears No Clothes
The Emperor Wears No Clothes
The Emperor Wears No Clothes is a book written by Jack Herer. Starting in 1973, Jack Herer took the advice of his friend "Captain" Ed Adair and began compiling tidbits of information about cannabis and its numerous uses. After a dozen years of collecting and compiling historical data, Herer first...
, a book which has been used in efforts to decriminalize cannabis.
Biography
A former GoldwaterBarry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...
Republican, Herer was a pro-cannabis (marijuana
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
) and hemp
Hemp
Hemp is mostly used as a name for low tetrahydrocannabinol strains of the plant Cannabis sativa, of fiber and/or oilseed varieties. In modern times, hemp has been used for industrial purposes including paper, textiles, biodegradable plastics, construction, health food and fuel with modest...
activist. He wrote two books, the aforementioned The Emperor Wears No Clothes and Grass. There has also been a documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
made about his life called, The Emperor of Hemp. He believed that the cannabis
Cannabis
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...
plant should be decriminalized because it has been shown to be a renewable source of fuel
Fuel
Fuel is any material that stores energy that can later be extracted to perform mechanical work in a controlled manner. Most fuels used by humans undergo combustion, a redox reaction in which a combustible substance releases energy after it ignites and reacts with the oxygen in the air...
, food, and medicine
Medical cannabis
Medical cannabis refers to the use of parts of the herb cannabis as a physician-recommended form of medicine or herbal therapy, or to synthetic forms of specific cannabinoids such as THC as a physician-recommended form of medicine...
that can be grown in virtually any part of the world. He further asserts that the U.S. government deliberately hides the proof of this.
A specific strain of cannabis
Jack Herer (cannabis)
Jack Herer is a cannabis strain. This strain is a hybrid of Skunk #1, Northern Lights #5, and Haze. It was named after Jack Herer, author and cannabis decriminalization activist. It has sativa dominant characteristics. The flowering time is approximately 50–70 days and it usually reaches heights...
has been named after Jack Herer in honor of his work. This strain has won several awards, including the 7th High Times Cannabis Cup
Cannabis Cup
The High Times Cannabis Cup is the world’s preeminent Cannabis festival. Founded in 1987 by Steven Hager, the High Times Cannabis Cup takes place each November in Amsterdam. The event allows judges from around the world to sample and vote for their favorite marijuana strains...
. Jack Herer was also inducted into the Counterculture Hall of Fame
Counterculture Hall of Fame
The Counterculture Hall of Fame was created in 1997 by High Times Editor Steven Hager. The purpose of the Hall of Fame was to help focus ceremonies at the annual Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam, and to celebrate the history of the counterculture by recognizing its saints. The inductions are done in...
at the 16th Cannabis Cup in recognition of his first book.
Herer ran for United States President twice, in 1988
United States presidential election, 1988
The United States presidential election of 1988 featured no incumbent president, as President Ronald Reagan was unable to seek re-election after serving the maximum two terms allowed by the Twenty-second Amendment. Reagan's Vice President, George H. W. Bush, won the Republican nomination, while the...
(1,949 votes) and 1992
United States presidential election, 1992
The United States presidential election of 1992 had three major candidates: Incumbent Republican President George Bush; Democratic Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, and independent Texas businessman Ross Perot....
(3,875 votes) as the Grassroots Party
Grassroots Party
The Grassroots Party is a minor political party. It was created in the 1980s to oppose drug prohibition. The party shares the political leftist values of the Greens but with a greater emphasis on marijuana/hemp legalization issues....
candidate.
Health problems and death
In July 2000, Herer suffered a minor heart attack and a major strokeStroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
, resulting in difficulties speaking and moving the right side of his body. Herer mostly recovered, and claimed in May 2004 that treatment with the amanita muscaria
Amanita muscaria
Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric or fly amanita , is a poisonous and psychoactive basidiomycete fungus, one of many in the genus Amanita...
, a psychoactive mushroom was the "secret".
On September 12, 2009 Herer suffered another heart attack while backstage at the Hempstalk Festival
Portland Hempstalk Festival
Portland's Hempstalk Festival is an annual event in Portland, Oregon advocating decriminalization of marijuana for medicinal, industrial, and recreational use. Founded in 2005, the festival often takes place the weekend after Labor Day and features food vendors, live music, and information booths...
in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
. He spent nearly a month in critical condition in a Portland hospital, including several days in a medically induced coma
Induced coma
A barbiturate-induced coma, or barb coma, is a temporary coma brought on by a controlled dose of a barbiturate drug, usually pentobarbital or thiopental...
. He was discharged to another facility on October 13, 2009. Paul Stanford of The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation said "He is waking up and gazing appropriately when someone is talking... but he is not really communicating in any way." He died aged 70 on April 15, 2010 in Eugene, Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Eugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...
, from complications related to the September 2009 heart attack. Herer was buried at the Eden Memorial Park Cemetery
Eden Memorial Park Cemetery
Eden Memorial Park Cemetery is a cemetery located at 11500 Sepulveda Boulevard, Mission Hills, California, in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.-Notable interments:*John Brown , actor*Lenny Bruce , comedian...
in Mission Hills, California
Mission Hills, California
Mission Hills is a census-designated place in Santa Barbara County, California, a short distance north of Lompoc on Highway 1. The population was 3,576 at the 2010 census, up from 3,142 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...
.
Criticism
European experts on hemp, like Dr. Hayo M.G. van der Werf author of the doctoral thesis Crop physiology of fibre hemp (1994) and Dr. Ivan Bûcsa, criticized Herer' for making unrealistic claims regarding the potential of hemp, for example:- Herer claimed that hemp produces higher yields than other crops. Van der Werf argued that is simply wrong. Under most favorable growing conditions, other crops such as maize
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
, sugar beet
Sugar beet
Sugar beet, a cultivated plant of Beta vulgaris, is a plant whose tuber contains a high concentration of sucrose. It is grown commercially for sugar production. Sugar beets and other B...
or potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
produced similar dry matter yields. Fiber hemp is in no way exceptional. Se also Hemp#Yield in modern agriculture
- Herer claimed that hemp hurds, which make up 60 to 80 % of the stem dry weight, contain 77 % cellulose. Van der Werf argued that is wrong. Cellulose content of hemp hurds has been found to vary between 32 and 38 % (Bedetti and Ciaralli 1976, van der Werf 1994). Possibly, Herer confused the hurds, which form the woody core of the hemp stem, with the bark, which forms the outer layer of the hemp stem. The bark contains the long bast fibers which are used in textile manufacturing.
- Herer claimed that hemp could be grown on 6 million hectares in the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, something that should have produced millions of tons of hemp fiber. The present production of hemp fiber in EU is only around 0.023 million ton/year.Dr. Ivan Bûcsa argue that it was a great exaggeration to expect millions of tons since it is not worth transporting unprocessed hemp more than 40-50 km even in bales.