On a chilly Oregon evening, I find myself in my cluttered garage that smells of both old books and fresh herb. In one hand, I’m holding a well-worn copy of The Emperor Wears No Clothes; in the other, a joint of the strain Jack Herer. With each puff, it feels like the spirit of Jack Herer himself is sitting across from me – grinning through a cloud of smoke, ready to regale me with tales of hemp and heroism. “Who the hell is Jack Herer?” one might ask, seeing his name on a strain at a dispensary or a chapter in cannabis history. Well, buckle in. This is the story of a rebel, an activist, a true cannabis folk hero – a man so influential in the weed world that we named one of the greatest strains of all time after him.

The Hemperor of Cannabis Activism: Jack Herer (pronounced like “hurrah” but with an er at the end) was an American cannabis rights activist born in 1939, who became one of the most outspoken champions for hemp and marijuana legalization. Often called the “Emperor of Hemp” (a playful riff on his book’s title), Herer devoted his life to extolling the benefits of the cannabis plant . But let’s set the scene: It’s the 1970s in California. America is knee-deep in the War on Drugs, and pot smokers are villainized. Jack, a burly Army veteran and former Goldwater Republican (yes, he started as a Republican), has an epiphany – he loved weed and couldn’t stand the lies being spread about it. So he flipped the script on his life. He opened a head shop on Venice Beach in 1973, selling pipes and rolling papers to fellow heads, and soon became a fixture in the growing legalize it movement .

What really propelled Jack into legendary status was his book, “The Emperor Wears No Clothes,” first published in 1985 . If there’s a bible of hemp activism, this is it. Jack spent over a decade compiling research, historical data, and government archives to produce this book, which argues (quite persuasively) that cannabis – particularly hemp – is one of the most valuable plants on Earth. He boldly claimed that hemp could be used for paper, fiber, fuel, food, medicine, and that the U.S. government had conspired to suppress hemp to benefit certain industries . Sounds like a wild conspiracy? Maybe. But Jack backed it up with documents: everything from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 1940s films praising hemp for victory, to patents for hemp-based plastics, to evidence that the constitution’s drafts were written on hemp paper. Reading his book while high is a trip – one moment you’re nodding along to facts about biomass fuel, the next you’re wondering if Big Oil and Big Timber really did collude to kill hemp. Jack makes you believe. And that was his gift.

Gonzo Preacher of Hemp: Jack Herer’s style was gonzo before gonzo was cool. He toured the country in the 1980s and 90s like a cannabis evangelist, speaking at rallies, festivals, college campuses – anywhere people would listen. He was known to stand on stage, a hefty man with a booming voice, often wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a hemp leaf, shouting truth to power about weed. He’d hold up a flag made of hemp fiber or a sturdy hemp rope and declare how these were superior to their cotton or nylon counterparts. He’d assert, with a mischievous glint in his eye, that Henry Ford once built a car out of hemp plastic that ran on hemp ethanol (a factoid that blew my mind when I first heard it). Jack’s message was equal parts history lesson and call to arms: our ancestors revered this plant, our founding fathers grew it (indeed, George Washington cultivated hemp at Mount Vernon), and now it’s on us to liberate it from absurd prohibition.

He founded an organization called HEMP (Help End Marijuana Prohibition) and even twice ran for President of the United States under the Grassroots Party, purely to push the cannabis agenda (needless to say, he didn’t win, but the chutzpah!). Jack was nothing if not persistent. By the late 1980s, The Emperor Wears No Clothes was being passed around like samizdat literature among cannabis enthusiasts. It was the book you’d find on the coffee table in a hippie commune or quoted in High Times magazine. Remarkably, Jack kept updating the book with new editions – it has stayed in print continuously for 35+ years, a testament to its enduring relevance . This wasn’t just a book; it was a movement. It gave the cannabis community a sense of pride and outrage – pride in the plant’s legacy, outrage at how it’d been demonized.

Clashing with The Man: Of course, being such an unapologetic advocate in the 80s and 90s meant Jack had plenty of run-ins with the law. He was arrested multiple times for civil disobedience – famously in 1981 for registering voters at a federal building while wearing a shirt that read “I ❤️ My Country, It’s the Government I’m Afraid Of” and blowing pot smoke in public. He spent some time in jail, where, undeterred, he refused to wear anything but hemp clothing (legend has it he sat naked rather than don prison polyester – an image equal parts hilarious and heroic). Jack lived and breathed cannabis activism. He could be loud, obstinate, and even abrasive in his certainty that hemp could “save the world.” But his uncompromising stance made him a folk hero in cannabis circles.

Picture a rebel with a gray beard, eyes alight with fervor, telling you that a single plant could replace petroleum, deforestation, AND a bunch of pharmaceuticals – and that the only thing stopping it is corporate greed and government corruption. That was Jack Herer. Whether you bought the entire gospel or not, you couldn’t help but admire the man’s passion. And many did buy in – his work helped ignite the modern hemp movement that eventually led to the loosening of laws around non-psychoactive hemp agriculture in the 2000s. The current CBD craze? The hemp fiber resurgence? Jack was talking about all of it decades ago, when it was decidedly uncool and deeply illegal to do so.

The Strain – A Living Legacy: Now, about that Jack Herer strain you see on dispensary menus – how did a political firebrand become the namesake of a sativa-dominant hybrid? In the 1990s, as cannabis breeding took off in the Netherlands (where it was quasi-legal to experiment), the famous seed bank Sensi Seeds wanted to honor the great activist. They bred a three-way cross of Haze (a sativa), Northern Lights #5 (a famed indica), and Shiva Skunk, creating a 55% sativa, 45% indica hybrid with uplifting effects . The strain was christened “Jack Herer”. Imagine being alive to have a strain named after you! Jack was reportedly humbled and thrilled. The Jack Herer strain quickly gained renown: it delivered a clear-headed, creative euphoria (just the kind of high you’d want when writing manifestos or painting protest banners) combined with a gentle body relaxation. It packed a pungent aroma of pine and spice, as if the earthiness of activism seeped into the plant’s terpene profile. The strain won multiple Cannabis Cup awards in the ‘90s, solidifying its legendary status.

Jack Herer (the man) became a frequent guest of honor at Amsterdam cannabis events, a bridge between the old-school activists and the new-school breeders. In his later years, Jack suffered a heart attack in 2000 and a serious stroke in 2009 after – fittingly – delivering an impassioned speech at a Portland hemp festival. He fought his way back to health enough to continue speaking and advocating. When Jack passed away in April 2010 at age 70, the cannabis community mourned deeply. In tribute, growers everywhere lit up fat joints of Jack Herer strain, smoke swirling like incense for a fallen prophet.

Jack’s Lasting Impact: So, who was Jack Herer? He was a man who saw through the smoke – and fought the fire with fire. A first-person account: I had the honor of briefly meeting Jack at a hemp expo in the mid-2000s. He was sitting behind a table of books and pamphlets, looking like a friendly grandpa who perhaps got into Santa’s “special” cookies. I nervously told him that his book changed my life. He took a hefty drag off a vaporizer (the man was vaping before it was a thing) and exhaled while grasping my hand. “You spread the truth, kid,” he told me, eyes twinkling. “Once people know, really know, they can’t un-know. And the truth will set the plant free.” That was Jack – ever the true believer, instilling purpose in a random young fan like me.

Today, cannabis is more accepted than ever. Hemp is legal to grow across the U.S. again, CBD is a household name, and full legalization is a rising tide. Jack Herer’s contributions are etched in those victories. The strain bearing his name continues to be a bestseller, a living legacy in plant form, spreading bliss and creativity to those who consume it – just as Jack intended. There are even Jack Herer Cups (cannabis awards) held in Amsterdam and Las Vegas to honor his memory. When you spark up Jack Herer (the strain) and feel that cerebral zing, you’re communing with the spirit of a man who refused to shut up about cannabis until the world listened.

In the pantheon of cannabis legends, alongside the likes of Bob Marley and Tommy Chong, Jack Herer holds a special spot – he wasn’t an entertainer; he was an agitator and educator. A happy warrior for hemp. If Gonzo journalism legend Hunter S. Thompson had a slightly saner, more activist twin, it might have been Jack. And fittingly, Thompson too has a strain named after him (Gonzo T#). Perhaps they’re both somewhere in the great beyond, sharing a joint and a laugh at how far things have come.

So next time you see that Jack Herer strain on a shelf, tip your hat. It’s not just ganja – it’s history. It’s a tribute to a man who proved that one person can make a difference, even against Goliath-like odds. Jack’s life was a testament to the idea that truth and persistence can change the world, one toke at a time. I exhale the last bit of my joint, the garage now thoroughly hotboxed, and I swear I hear a hearty laugh in the rafters. The Hemperor lives on.