If and when you really want to get serious about sorting out all the information, and misinformation, about the cannabis plant, its real dangers and beneficial uses, and much of the conspiracy to demonize marijuana in the United States and elsewhere, then there is certainly one book that absolutely must be on your personal list of resources; Jack Herer’s wonderful and widely respected tomb “The Emperor Wears no Clothes”.

In this book, now heading into its 12th edition printing, Jack Herer, widely known as the “Emperor of Hemp”, makes a very strong case for why the marijuana plant should be reconsidered as an easily renewable resource for food, energy, fabric, and medicine. Throughout its sixteen chapters, Herer points to not only myriad reasons why this plant should be immediately decriminalized, but also lays out the history of how an intentional government propaganda campaign had forcefully driven the courts to criminalize it in the first place.

Herer, born in New York City, and initially a Goldwater republican, actually started out as an avid prohibitionist, and reportedly even threatened to leave his first wife after finding out that she had smoked pot. Herer was a military policeman in the Korean War. Not exactly the stereotype of what one would expect for someone that ended up with such an insatiable passion for marijuana legalization. But that was destined to take a radical change. In 1967, Jack met a girl he liked that talked him into trying marijuana, and that was the beginning of his complete reinvention of himself, and his views about cannabis, and the willingness for the U.S. government to freely and intentionally misinform its own people.

This book, since its 1985 debut, has been updated to the eleventh edition, with the twelfth edition currently in the works to include the latest updates. Updates to current laws, by the way, that can at least in some significant part be attributed to the efforts of Mr. Herer in writing this useful and informative book. That’s also likely a big part of why this book has already sold over 700,000 copies. So if you really want the honest scoop on the history of marijuana in this country, replete with source citations throughout, this one is definitely a must have informational resource for you.

The Emperor Wears No Clothes: The Authoritative Historical Record of Cannabis and the Conspiracy Against Marijuana