This film is the DEA's worst nightmare!
Brandon Brown
Pittsburgh, Pa.

Awesome!! I watched it for the first time with my parents. Remember I told you my mom wouldn't read Jack's book because she thought he was too radical? Well she felt vindicated when she learned NORML didn't respond to him at first either! Your film is the perfect teaching tool. I will continue to spread the word up North here. Times are changing for the better.
Gail McLean
Columbia Falls, Montana

"Emperor of Hemp" is a must-see film with a great message about how each of us can make global changes. A classic! Don't miss it!
Steve Kubby
Laguna Beach, CA

As a political activist and journalist, I have written about many issues but none with so much enthusiasm and clarity that I saw in this video.
Aaron Clemens
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

The video was great! I want to order $200 worth. My copy has already been used and abused. All my friends loved it too, so I figure they can purchase it off me. This is my way of helping the cause. I'll be anxiously awaiting their arrival so we can spread the truth. Thanks for producing such a fine documentary on Jack Herer for the world to see.
Scott Blackstock
Marshalltown, Iowa

I just got your video, it arrived in one piece, and I got 2 words for you: "KICK ASS"!!!. Great work, long overdue -- I sincerely hope you can get it on prime time television. The War on Drugs mentality has been f*****g with the American people long enough. May Good Fortune smile upon all your endeavors.
Gardner "Spud" Reynolds
McAllen, Texas

I loved your video!
Susan W. Wells
Chicago

Thank you for bringing "Emperor of Hemp" to the public. It is very informative, moving and affirming. I aplaud your efforts to bring an end to the insane, unjust policies and marijuana prohibition of our country.
Paul Loiselle
Locke, NY

The level of ignorance when it comes to this miraculous plant is staggering. Thank you for producing such a wonderful weapon in the war against ignorance.
Peter Bolton
San Diego

I got the video and it is wonderful. I have heard so much about Jack Herer but until this video I didn't know the man behind his good work! Thank you so very much! It really is a great video!
Martha Gierschick
Kimbolton, Ohio

What a wonderful film! I love it!
Rene Boje
Canada

I just watched the documentary. It is very informative and contains tons of enlightening facts about this great plant. Even if you know almost everything about this potential world saving plant you have to see this movie. It brings all the thoughts and ideas together into one well laid out story. A must-see for anyone concerned about the safety of the planet.!
Josh Gealy
Akron, Ohio

I received EMPEROR OF HEMP today. Watched it as soon as I got home. Fantastic job. You're going to make an impact.
David Wing
Palm Bay, Fla.

Wow! GREAT JOB!! That was a wonderful walk through hemp history and Jack Herer's unrelenting battle for the planet. Thank you so much for all your time and for a wonderful film. My companion is also a photographer, she loved it, and my brother is an actor so the artistic imagery was also very much appreciated and enjoyed.
Guidance,
Randall Bain
S. Lucia, West Indies

Congratulations. The video arrived yesterday and I anxiously viewed EMPEROR OF HEMP. Excellent job. With such an interesting biography for the plot, and far reaching implications of Jack's dedication, it is bound to be circulated far and wide. Nice narration by Peter (Coyote), and the music is anadded attraction. Thanks for making it!
Candi Penn
Occidental, Calif.

You created a terrific portrait of Jack Herer, revealing lots about the man that I did not know. I loved the interviews with (Keith) Stroup et al, who spoke about their conversion from skepticism to respect about Jack's premise. I also appreciated your treatment of his controversial and unproven thesis that Anslinger/Mellon/Hearst were advancing an anti-hemp campaign for ulterior purposes. I think Jack's accusation is important, even if a smoking gun is missing. After all, the effect was to destroy the nascent hemp industry even if that was NOT the intent.
Pat McCartney
Auburn, Calif.

You have done a wonderful job portraying my "controversial" brother. Hard to believe this "guru" of sorts is my younger brother who I always refer to as a little "nutsy"!!! His crusade has never been one that I've jumped on the bandwagon for, however, the way you have shown it has given me a better perspective. I have friends here whose children (post college age and up) are quite intrigued by the fact that Jack Herer is my brother and want to see the film. Would you believe my very conservative physician has asked to borrowit. He may not live in my world, but I still love my baby brother.
Jack Herer's sister
Norfolk, Va.

I just finished my first viewing of the EMPEROR OF HEMP video and wantedto write to express my appreciation on a fine effort. The video should serve as an excellent documentary and educational resource on issues of cannabis prohibition, the medical uses of cannabis, and its utility as a source of durable fiber, biomass, and nutrition for our planet. Its use of juxtaposing quotations on differing cannabis viewpoints was particularly compelling in demonstratingthe irrationality of cannabis prohibition. This video should be widely viewed and distributed. One would hope that PBS would have the courage to broadcast it, since its veracity is clear and convincing. Congratulations for the information and the courage to make it available.
Ethan B. Russo, M.D.
Bonner, Montana

I just must stop and write ... I just saw the film, and it was absolutely,positively, one of the best things I've seen in a long time. We have the bookand we were really hoping this film would be a good companion to it …and it is. Thank you for all the time, money, and effort to make this film possible,
Jeni
Portland, Oregon

Well, we got the video a few days ago. It's Great. It is about time for this information to be widely distributed in the video format.
Bob Hormell
Durango, Colo.

I wanted to take a few minutes to thank you from my soul for your efforts and diligence in educating the world about hemp. Both the book and the movie are educational, enlightening and entertaining. I've recommended them to as many people as I know (whom I don't think will try to have me arrested). Keep up all of your good work! And God bless you. May peace and sanity prevail before it's too late.
Casey
Dallas, Texas

I strongly believe this video should be aired on television on a regular basis till the idiots in Congress get the message. Everyone should buy the video and the book by Jack Herer. Keep on truckin'.
John Lambert
Memphis, Tenn.

By RICHARD COWAN, former NORML Director
Frankly, when you spend your days as I do, reading and writing about marijuana prohibition, watching a film on the subject did not sound like a lot of fun. Yes, the film is written and produced by my friend Jeff Meyers, and it is about my friend Jack Herer, but give me a break!

Well, I was wrong. "Emperor of Hemp" is not only fun, it's entertaining, informative and powerful. It keeps a lively pace and uses pop music by the likes of Bonnie Raitt, Joe Walsh and Cheap Trick to set the mood. It is narrated by Peter Coyote, who has one of the best voices in the business. And it has a story as weird as only the truth could be. I actually enjoyed it more the second time I watched it.

Meyers is a former L. A Times reporter and occasional contributor to Marijuananews. Anita Roddick of the Body Shop financed the film. The result -- as expected -- is a journalistically credible film and a real treat. As they say in Hollywood, it's a must-see for those in the movement, although I think it will definitely appeal to a mainstream audience. As such it should be used as tool by the movement, because, if this film is eventually seen by millions of people, or just the right people, it could hit hemp and marijuana prohibition like a bombshell. Maybe, even finish the revolution Jack Herer started.

Although the film tackles serious issues, I got a giggle from some of the things that I didn't know. For example, Jack Herer, the "Emperor of Hemp," used to be an MP, not a member of parliament, but Military Police! You've come a long way baby!

Actually, that one aforementioned fact could stand as the best example of the alienation caused by another MP, marijuana prohibition. Jack went from being a polyester-clad pro-war Republican prohibitionist to the leader of the hemp movement. What a conversion! St. Paul had to be struck blind. Jack just had to smoke a joint -- and find out that marijuana was really hemp. And that is the real story here. What the hell is hemp? What difference does it make? That, of course, was the reaction of the leaders of the marijuana reform movement, including yours truly. We tended to give Jack a polite brush-off. "Yeah, Jack, isn't that nice. See you next year."

Of all the many goofy things about the suppression of cannabis, the notion that a plant that was an agricultural staple for millennia could be air-brushed from the history books, like some erstwhile friend of Joe Stalin, was improbable enough. But that it should be rediscovered by a headshop owner from LaLaLand, well ... "Yeah, Jack, isn't that nice. See you next year."

While the film serves as an excellent introduction to the general subject of hemp, medical marijuana, and the sordid origin of marijuana prohibition, this is really the story behind the story, Jack's struggle to convince even his friends and allies that hemp could save American farmers and quite possibly even the Earth. This part of the story tells us something very important about how we learn -- and don't learn.

In that regard, I hope that "Emperor of Hemp" is shown on every campus in DEAland, because students who haven't seen this film are missing an important part of their education. They may have read about hemp, probably in Jack's book, "The Emperor Wears No Clothes," which has sold over 600,000 copies in eleven editions, but unless they understand the struggle that Jack had to go through to get taken seriously, they are missing something.

Let me explain why I take that so seriously. I was the National Director of NORML in 1994 when I heard that the Drug Policy Foundation was going to give Jack an award at its annual conference. I called my friend Arnold Trebach, the founder of the DPF, and told him that I wanted to help present the award. The reason that I wanted to do this was to acknowledge my own personal debt of gratitude to Jack, for teaching me something important that I needed to know. I had written about marijuana prohibition - and had smoked marijuana - then for almost two decades, without knowing that it was hemp, or even knowing what hemp was. Even after Jack told me, I really didn't understand. "Yeah, Jack, isn't that nice. See you next year."

Jack Herer is an entrepreneur of an idea, and of important knowledge that would certainly have surfaced sooner or later, but later might have been too late. For example, the Library of Congress and the Agriculture Department somehow "lost" all records regarding the making of the World War II film, Hemp For Victory. Jack was being accused of forging a hoax. How he and his friends found the "lost" records would make the whole film worth watching, even if there was nothing else. And there is much more.

The hemp movement is now being "mainstreamed" by people in suits who are going around saying, "Me no want marijuana!"

They want the "hempsters"-and especially Jack -- to go away. But Jack isn't going to go away. I can guarantee them that. I speak from personal experience! Instead, they all ought to get together and go see "Emperor of Hemp." They would learn a lot. And like me, they might even learn a little humility. Then they won't say, "Yeah, Jack, isn't that nice. See you next year.

June 1999

By PETE BRADY, Cannabis Culture Magazine

"Emperor of Hemp", journalist Jeff Meyers's compelling documentary film about the life and cannabis advocacy of author-activist Jack Herer, is comprehensive, educational and powerful.

It's the first marijuana film that weaves a coherent tapestry connecting cannabis, hemp, youth culture and prohibition. And because Meyers and director Jeff Jones have a great eye for detail, finely-honed editing and a compelling audiovisual style, the film packs an emotional and intellectual punch that will hit people on all sides of the cannabis debate.

Using Herer's life as an anchor for the film's major themes, "Emperor of Hemp" shows how American government propaganda convinced Herer and most other Americans coming of age in the 1950's that marijuana was a demon weed that caused reefer madness. Herer hated marijuana and "believed America was always the good guy," he tells us in the film. Amidst a backdrop of poignant footage showing 1960's hippies and anti- war protesters dancing, smoking herb and getting beat up by police, Meyers chronicles Herer's enlightenment, culminating in his realization that a government that lies about marijuana probably lies about everything else.

The formerly conservative family man turned against the repressive values of the status quo he had embraced, and in 1973 co-authored a marijuana cartoon book called "Grass." He instantly became famous as a pot expert, even though he was still wearing plastic jackets and polyester pants, even though he knew hardly anything about pot. When people started telling Herer that marijuana was hemp, he started his lifelong crusade of research and advocacy, a crusade that led him to the startling and prophetic conclusion that hemp and marijuana could beneficially replace almost every other source of food, fiber building material, paper, fuel, and medicine.

Herer opened the modern world's first hemp store, in wacky Venice Beach, CA, began political activism to legalize cannabis, single-handedly proved that the U.S. government had lied when it said it never made the 1940s pro-hemp film "Hemp for Victory," and spent time in federal prison (thanks to Ronald Reagan), during which he finally had enough solitude to write the first draft of "The Emperor Wears No Clothes."

The rest is history, and Meyers uses historical footage, cartoons, still photos and music to vividly recreate events and ideas that influenced Herer and the war on cannabis. Onscreen are many heroes of the cannabis revival -- Dennis Peron, Ed Rosenthal, Keith Stroup among them. And there are also great one-liners from Herer: "This used to be the land of the free, now it's the land of the pee."

"Emperor" is a professional documentary, but it is also art, a poetic plea to end the drug war, and a frightening portrayal of governmental and police abuses. You'll find yourself angry and heartbroken watching DEA agents bust people and street police bust the heads of unarmed protesters. You'll be moved by the piano interludes that accompany shots of Herer passionately stating that it's an "injustice" if even one person is in jail for marijuana. You'll laugh at clever juxtapositions of quotes from political leaders and activists from different eras, showing the sinister stupidity of drug war propaganda.

"Emperor of Hemp" is a movie that can be shown to your conservative granny, police cadets, or a group of teenagers. They'll all get the message -- delivered with subtlety, fun and classy movie tricks -- that cannabis prohibition is a war crime. This compelling film is not just a tool for changing hearts and minds -- it's also an homage to 60-year-old Jack Herer, a mortal with severe health problems whose zeal to legalize cannabis probably endangers his life.

The man is literally giving his life for the cause. Jack's strong, caring voice, delivered from his bearded face in between tokes of the powerful cannabis named "Jack Herer," may not always be with us in the flesh. But Meyers has forever memorialized the righteous spirit of this heroic man, and the plant and people he loves.

July 1999

By DAN SKYE, High Times Magazine

At the recent Santa Cruz, CA Hemp Expo Jack Herer served as keynote speaker and once again voiced his outrage over a government gone berserck, aptly describing the War on Drugs as "an atrocity." He also signed hundreds of copies of the new edition of "The Emperor Wears No Clothes" for fans and posed for photos. Wherever HE walked, the buzz that accompanies authentic celebs was oft-repeated, "That's Jack Herer."

The hemp movement has been aware of Jack Herer's star power for years. Now the rest of the planet can be let in on the secret. "Emperor of Hemp", a just-completed documentary produced and written by Jeff Meyers and directed by Jeff Jones, is a tale of a suburban man who smokes pot, discovers himself, explores himself, redefines himself, then writes a book about cannabis that shakes foundations. In time, he leads the equivalent of the Hemp Crusades.

Anita Roddick of The Body Shop recognized a good subject for a film when she saw it. She funded "Emperor of Hemp," and the result is a super-duper film bio and a great intro to hemp for anyone on Earth who hasn't been listening.

July 1999

By STEVE ROBLES, San Francisco Bay Guardian

Wanna know how important cannabis crusader Jack Herer is to the pro-marijuana movement? There's actually a strain of pot which bears his name. Forget the NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) plaques, the High Times accolades, the international notoriety -- if you're in the decriminalization movement, there is simply no greater honor than to have some kid in Arcata selling pot and referring to it in your name.

You may not have ever heard of Herer (rhymes with terror), but in underground culture, this bearded old man is an icon. Beginning with the comic zine Grass, which he published in the '70s, on through to his classic 1985 anti-drug war epic "The Emperor Wears No Clothes," Herer has transformed himself from a flag-waving veteran who supported the Vietnam War to the single most important voice in the fight to decriminalize marijuana and its non-intoxicating twin, hemp.

In the documentary Emperor of Hemp, Jeff Jones seeks to illustrate Herer's journey from Goldwater Republican to decrim activist. And while Jones makes a good case for his stature in the pro-marijuana community, this film is the equivalent of the glossy job Moonlighting's production crew used to do on the aging Cybill Shepherd. What, for instance, ever became of the family the straight Jack had before he freaked out smoking dope to CSN&Y or whatever?

Still, for those uninitiated to the movement or sketchy on details of Herer's early days (when NORML's leaders would refuse his calls and generally thought of his hemp angle as flakey at best, dangerous at worst), the film provides a decent, if somewhat sycophantic, framework. Where it excels is in the moments where it gets under the surface of Herer's experiences as an activist.

For instance, the film explains how Herer's 1983 stint at Terminal Island (a federal prison generally reserved for non-violent offenders -- John Delorean served his cocaine sentence there) led to his working on the long-conceived "Emperor." If he hadn't spent the time he did there, he likely would have never had the time and focus to put into such a project. The irony that the government, through his incarceration, helped bring about the most popular pro-decrim book in the history of modern prohibition is thick, indeed.

Equally fascinating is Jones' exploration of the controversy behind one of Herer's favorite weapons, a wartime Department of Agriculture film called "Hemp for Victory," which implores farmers to apply for the usually unobtainable license to grow hemp.

Herer would screen the film with glee at personal appearances, taking delight in the 14-minute newsreel that showed the government's ease in backing off the vilification of hemp it had advanced less than a decade before, desperate to take advantage of the plant George Washington urged to seed in every nook and cranny of America. You see, as Herer has always maintained, hemp makes a rather handy fiber (as well as having myriad other uses), as has been known for thousands of years.

Well, someone from inside the government "warned" Herer that the newsreel was, in fact, a hoax. And once you see the bits of it shown in "Emperor of Hemp," you notice that it is so perfect in its hypocrisy (and that classic government propoganda newsreel voiceover intoning, "Hemp for Victory!") that it could very well have been a fake. Luckily for Herer, some research at the Library of Congress unearthed proof that it had, indeed, been filmed by the Deparment of Agriculture. The excerpts shown in this documentary are priceless.

Spicing up the film are musical contributions by Bonnie Raitt, Joe Walsh ('natch!) and Cheap Trick -- these tracks lend a weight to "Emperor of Hemp" that would be lacking if it relied on the usual "hippie-esque" scores many documentaries use when addressing matters generally deemed "hippie-esque" in nature. And while the film sometimes plays as pure PR for Herer, at least it doesn't patronize the assumedly, pro-decrim audience.