When asked what it was that turned them onto hemp in the first place, 9 out of ten people we interview say they read the book ‘The Emperor Wears No Clothes’. Written and published by Jack Herer in 1985, it has been described as the Bible of Hemp. Jack tirelessly campaigned for the decriminalisation of Cannabis for many years until his death in April 2010.
Hemp Industry Insider recently caught up with Jack’s wife, Jeannie to find out what it was that made Jack an inspiration to so many people and how she is continuing the work Jack began.
Jeannie Herer
In the mid ‘90s, I was working as a legal secretary in Phoenix, Arizona. I was also involved in the theatre. My acting agent and her husband started a local marijuana reform group and part of the deal of joining was that you either got a free t-shirt or a copy of Jack’s book. My agent told me to get the book.
I read the book and it completely changed everything for me. I was shocked and angry that I had been lied to for so long and I became a Cannabis activist. I carried the book around and I told everybody about it.
Then a couple of years later I was moving to California and a friend mentioned that I should join Jack’s group, H.E.M.P. (Help End Marijuana Prohibition). I met Jack and we just hit it off right off the bat. He was the most amazing and interesting person I had ever met. He was knowledgeable about so many things and he opened up my mind completely to a lot of things that I had never even thought about before.
I was a drinker and had gone to Alcoholics Anonymous for 13 years. I had just basically given up that I would ever get off the alcohol but Jack helped me quit, which was a miracle because I didn’t think it was possible. A.A. discourages pot smoking but it turned out to be the cure for me.
Before we met Jack had written this little coloring book called ‘G.R.A.S.S.’ He started to get famous just from that and kids would come up to him and tell him little facts they had learned which inspired him to start collecting more facts about Cannabis. Then he met Dr. Michael Aldrich, who taught him a whole lot more. Jack put all of those pieces together and wrote his book, ‘The Emperor Wears No Clothes’ when he was sent to prison for two weeks for registering voters after dark on federal property. The documentary ‘The Emperor of Hemp’, tells a lot about that time.

Jack had so much tenacity for the hemp cause; he never gave up, he gave his all to it, all of the time, everyday. He would never say no to anybody and never say no to any event. Basically, if he could get there, he would. Jack had such an aura about him. You knew that if he started talking about something, it would be very interesting and you could learn a lot. He was sweet too, even if he did seem to be a bit grumpy. His bark was definitely worse than his bite. He was a big teddy bear.
Jack had been working on an initiative which is listed on the website – it’s pretty much been the same since the 70’s. Jack believed that we shouldn’t split Cannabis into medical marijuana or industrial hemp – It’s all the same regardless of whether we use it for industrial, medicinal, nutritional, religious, spiritual or recreational use. He was very courageous and honest in that way.
He very much wanted to free the people who are incarcerated for non-violent pot crimes. He felt like pot dealers are heroes, not criminals. Our friend, Eddy Lepp, is in prison right now for growing cannabis for his wife, Linda, who passed away from cancer. He is a Vietnam Veteran.
Since Jack passed away I’ve been continuing with the Jack Herer website (www.jackherer.com/) because I believe it’s important to find the positive stories about Cannabis and put them out there.
 
Read complete article here:
http://hempindustryinsider.com/jack-herer-the-father-of-hemp/

Emmy Award-winning television personality Montel Williams speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Jerusalem, Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011. Williams says Israel is at the forefront of providing patient access to medical marijuana. Williams was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999. He has since been an outspoken advocate of medical marijuana to relieve pain caused by disease. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

 
By ARON HELLER
Associated Press
 
JERUSALEM (AP) – Emmy Award-winning television personality and patient activist Montel Williams said Sunday he was impressed with Israel’s liberal attitude toward medical marijuana, and he believes the U.S. could learn a thing or two from the Jewish state.
Williams was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999 and he has since been an outspoken advocate of medical marijuana to relieve pain caused by the disease.
The former host of the popular long-running talk show “The Montel Williams Show” is in Israel on a fact-finding mission to learn about its medicinal cannabis practices. He is meeting with legislators, scientists and physicians.
At the height of his TV career, Williams was one of the most recognizable faces in America alongside fellow daytime TV hosts Oprah Winfrey, Phil Donahue and Geraldo Rivera.
“We need to get out of the dark ages and into the new ages,” he told The Associated Press. “Not every patient can use cannabis, but for those who can _ why deny it?”
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=267&sid=2613221

http://hempbuilding.com/

 
WASHINGTON, DC -Crimebeat- “Late Friday night the White House issued a typical evasive rejection of the several marijuana legalization petitions that collected more signatures than any other issue on its “We the People” website,” stated retired Baltimore narcotics cop Neill Franklin. “Even though recent polls show that more voters support marijuana legalization than approve of President Obama’s job performance, the White House categorically dismissed the notion of reforming any laws, focusing its response on the possible harms of marijuana use instead of addressing the many harms of prohibition detailed in the petitions”.
 
Read complete article here:
http://netnewsledger.com/2011/10/29/polls-show-marijuana-legalization-more-popular-than-president-obama/

Maastricht, the Netherlands–(ENEWSPF)–28 October 2011.  Experienced cannabis consumers exhibit tolerance to some of the drug’s acute impairing effects, according to clinical trial data to be published in the journal Psychopharmacology.
Investigators at Maastricht University in the Netherlands assessed behavioral performance following THC administration in 12 occasional cannabis consumers and 12 experienced cannabis consumers in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial.
Researchers reported that THC administration “decreased amplitude in occasional but not heavy cannabis users” on certain cognitive tasks, such as a divided attention task. Authors stated that the difference in the experienced users’ performance compared to inexperienced consumers was “not completely due to behavioral compensation.”
They concluded, “The present study confirms that heavy cannabis users develop tolerance to some of the impairing behavioral effects of cannabis.”
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/health-and-fitness/28299-experienced-pot-consumers-less-likely-to-exhibit-impaired-performance-study-says.html
 

By Joe G. Welz
Cannabis a federal issue?
 
Recently it was printed in the newspaper that a Lake County Supervisor was quoted as saying cannabis is a federal issue.
I believe an idea starts with a person, then a city, county, state and country. For an elected representative to say cannabis is a federal issue is a cop-out. With that kind of thinking we would still be under British rule?
I attended and spoke at the Board of Supervisors meetings regarding my opinion of cannabis cultivation in Lake County. When the ordinance passed, I didn’t like it.
I liked it less when I heard the same supervisor tell those people if they didn’t like it they could move to Mendocino County.
At this time, I would like to point out the importance of registering to vote. If your elected representative does not represent your views, remember to replace the supervisor in the next election.
Medical marijuana brought the old Lake County grower out of the back country and onto private property where cannabis can be better cared for.
Stopping cannabis cultivation will only send the gorilla grower back up into the back country to their old grow sites, which in some cases means right into direct conflict with drug trafficking organizations. The difference is where the old Lake County grower grew 15 or 20 plants, the drug trafficking organizations grow thousands of plants from the same water source.
So after growing in the backyard for a few years, the supervisors say no

more and if you do, the Lake County Sheriff’s Department will be stopping by. A misdemeanor means a $1,000 fine, six months in county jail and probation. No matter what, you are in trouble and the court system does not care.
The six-plant grower is pushed out by the supervisors, the gorilla grower can’t go back into the hills because of the water conflict with the drug trafficking organizations and for the drug trafficking organizations it is business as usual, ever expanding in our most precious public lands.
Taking cannabis away from the little guy will only burden the legal system, law enforcement, the county jail and the probation department, all at a cost to the county. At what cost to the grandparents, parents and children of Lake County?
Remember, register to vote. Vote for representatives supportive of your views. The future of cannabis is most certainly political.
Joe G. Welz
Spring Valley
 
http://www.record-bee.com/ci_19217405

by Jacob Sullum

 
In a recent interview with Metro, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos says he would support worldwide legalization of “softer drugs” such as marijuana “provided everyone does it at the same time.” He cannot act on his own, he says, “because for Colombia, this is a matter of national security.” Since “drug trafficking is what finances the violence and the irregular groups in our country,” Santos explains, “I would be crucified if I took the first step.” At the same time, he emphasizes that “the world needs to discuss new approaches. We are basically still thinking within the same framework as we have done for the last 40 years.”
Coming from a front-line drug warrior, these comments are significant. Latin American politicians have long complained that the demand for drugs in the United States leads to violence, corruption, and disorder in their countries. But lately the emphasis has been shifting from the demand for drugs to the laws that make it a crime to supply them, thereby delivering a highly lucrative business into the hands of armed thugs. Last week, for instance, Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who launched a bloody crackdown on his country’s drug cartels when he took office in December 2006, had this exchange with Time‘s Peter Hapak:

Is it true that you would like to see America legalize drugs?
I can hit the criminals, I can put them in jails, I can take control of their structures, I can rebuild the social fabric. But if Americans don’t reduce the demand or don’t reduce at least the profits coming from the black market for drugs, it will be impossible to solve this problem.
So the answer is yes? 
I want to see a serious analysis of the alternatives, and one alternative is to explore the different legal regimes about drugs.

Meanwhile, a leading candidate to replace Calderon says he would de-escalate Mexico’s drug war, which has led to more than 40,000 deaths since 2006. Santiago Creel, a former interior minister who is seeking the nomination of the ruling National Action Party, tells Reuters “the direct, frontal, expansive strategy is a strategy that should end with this administration.” Instead of a military solution, “he said priority should be given to attacking cartels’ revenue streams, cracking down on money laundering and cleaning up Mexico’s prisons, where top criminals are often able to continue running their crime gangs on the outside.”
 
Read complete article here:
http://reason.com/blog/2011/10/27/colombias-president-wants-to-g

Stephen Downing – Former LAPD Deputy Chief

 
Dear Fellow Law Enforcers,
The federal government has put up another $72 million in “war-on-drugs-grants” to redirect your police resources once again from true public safety duties in order to extend their failed war on drugs; this time with a savage assault on California’s 15-year-old medical marijuana law. Are you going to take the money and enforce federal law in lieu of upholding the will of the people of California or are you going to honor your sworn oath to uphold the laws of our sovereign state and send the money back?
August Vollmer, the police chief whose name is synonymous with the origins of professionalism in American policing, would urge you to send it back.
In his work as president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the Wickersham Commission Vollmer contributed to the successful campaign that led to the repeal of alcohol Prohibition. In an address to the IACP he stated “drug addiction is not a police problem; it never has and never can be solved by policemen, but by scientific and competently trained medical experts…”
Unfortunately Vollmer wasn’t around when Nixon decided to wage his war on drugs against the American people in 1971. I was a police commander in South Central Los Angeles at the time, and most of us believed Nixon’s propaganda; that it was a just war, that the “druggies” were evil and comprised a threat to our communities.
We saw our resources dedicated to public safety bought off by Department of Justice and White House grants so that we could leverage their political priorities at the expense of our communities. Using their grant money and the lure of budget dollars though asset seizures they co-opted our public safety priorities and our role as public servants in deciding what was best for our communities. Evidence based budgeting and responsible, prioritized policing went out the window in favor of the war on drugs. We morphed from public servant to drug warrior; blindly serving their interests and their agreements with those who benefited most by a continuation of their war on drugs. We helped them invade and occupy our poorer communities. Their money allowed us to build war machines to batter down doors, purchase sophisticated weapons, surveillance equipment and intelligence apparatus. We arrested and imprisoned thousands and then hundreds of thousands, and while most users were white, the majority we sent to prison were from our minority communities.
Most of us stood proudly at the show and tells hovering over tons of drugs, mountains of cash and hundreds of weapons as a compliant media snapped our pictures and hailed our progress toward winning Nixon’s war on drugs.
But, many of us came to see that we were not winning. We saw the gangs grow, fueled by drug money, the cartels better armed, death squads trained by our own military unleashed across Mexico and our border states. The bodies began to stack up, the gangs became more and more violent, the cartels outgunned us and many of our police officers, our public servants, were killed and maimed for life while the communities we were sworn to protect and serve huddled in their homes dodging bullets and watching their children die by gunfire, night after night after night. For what?
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-downing/an-open-letter-to-califor_1_b_1028628.html
 

BY FRANCES THOMPSON

DOING THEIR BIT: Jerrys Plains farmers Paul and Vicki Nichols have just finished sowing a crop of hemp on their property, above, and a hemp crop in the region, below. – Main Picture by Max Mason-Hubers

AN ADVOCATE of industrial hemp says the Hunter’s mining industry and farmers have a lot to gain from the plant’s large-scale production and processing in the region.
Ecofibre Industries managing director Phil Warner has supplied seed to about eight Upper Hunter properties this season, including farmer, miner and Singleton councillor Paul Nichols and his wife Vicki at Jerrys Plains.
It is the couple’s first hemp crop and they have sown a 20-hectare paddock.
‘‘We have to diversify,’’ Mr Nichols said.
Cattle and feed crops, such as lucerne, are the Nichols’ traditional mainstay.
Ecofibre Industries distributed CHG, a sub-tropical fibre hemp variety, for the Hunter trials.
The Nichols’ crop is due for harvest in February.
‘‘The summer storms can knock out the leaves because we only need the stalk,’’ Mr Nichols said.
‘‘While it’s growing the leaves keep the sun off and they cut down on weeds.’’
That saves on fertilisers because the leaves are removed in harvesting and ploughed back into the soil.
In the Hunter, Mr Warner said hemp could be used in mine rehabilitation as soil stabiliser, a compost or spray mulch.
The dry fibre could be used for horse bedding, erosion control, wine storage or even building products.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.theherald.com.au/news/local/news/general/industrial-hemps-benefit-to-hunter-region/2332835.aspx
 

Brought to London for the first time, the unique feature of the cheese is the use of hemp in its production.
Made of unpasteurised cows’ milk, the cheese is smooth and creamy and the small hemp seeds pop between your teeth like a cross between popcorn kernels and flaxseed.
The texture of Hanfmutschli is semi soft and slightly springy with an interior paste the colour of old ivory, punctuated with hemp seeds. The rind is a soft orange-brown, with the distinctive hemp leaf design on the top surface.
The Joint is just one of the extensive range of artisan cheeses available from Borough Market‘s newest traders, Jumi. You can find their stall in the Jubilee Market on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
 
http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/5614