Customer Reviews

Hemp & The Marijuana Conspiracy: The Emperor Wears No Clothes, The Authoritative Historical Record of the Cannabis Plant, Marijuana Prohibition & How Hemp Can Still Save the World

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I believe that this book is a wonderful resource in learning the truth and facts about hemp. You wouldn't believe everything that this plant can do for you and the planet. If you find this to be wrong because of what you heard, try reading this and you will learn the truth,and will wonder why the government has been keeping this plant illegal even with all of its resourses that it has for us to use. I have learned a lot from this guy and I really would like to thank him for all his dedication and efforts to making it legal! Also try his video too! Very Useful!!!!

Jack Herer's book contains xeroxes of many original documents and newspaper articles which together with his commentary make this book invaluable to hempsters. From ancient times right up until the present day, hemp's history and man's use of the plant are documentented in detail. This book is freqently revised and updated as it sells fast.

This book tells the truth about marijuana and it effects. It tell how the government rigged the marijuana tests on monkeys. It even tells the medical uses of marijuana. If you think the prohibition of marijuana should be lifted, read this book.

Although, I didn't learn anything new from this book (because I had already done extensive research, myself), for those that don't know the history of Hemp, this is a must-read.

This book is a bunch of incredible nonsense that Jack Herer just made up about industrial hemp and its history, uses, environmental qualities, and agriculture. He exaggerates its productivity, lies about its economic history, and fabricates all kinds of bogus claims for the crop. Rather than dig into minutiae, I'll just point out some major areas where the author's claims are ludicrous:
hemp was not made illegal in 1937; that didn't happen until 1971
hemp was never a major crop in the US
hemp does not produce even close to 10 tons of biomass per acre
hemp does not outproduce trees in terms of paper pulp
hemp was never even close to being the world's largest industry

if you want more info on industrial hemp and Herer's misinformation campaign, check out hemphoax.org

This guy speaks the truth. Before reading forget all prior knowledge to hemp and marijuana. You are in for an enlighting experience. So sit back, take a toke, and be prepared to learn. :)

the book is a very detailed description of how we've been cheated by our own government

I want to thank Jack Herer for his useful information. In writing a research paper on the history of Hemp Farming and the reasons why it should be legalized, I found myself thoroughly disguisted with our government and it's policies on cannabis. To think that in a country where we are trying to look forward, we're letting the government still have such mind numbing control over nature, makes me wonder why nothing is being done about it. I'm 16 years old now, and I can honestly say I'm not a regular marijuana user, and still with the information and insight Jack Herer gave me, I feel even stronger about protesting and bringing back cannabis farming. I also want to let you know, the movie Emporer of Hemp led me to this book. Thank you Mr. Herer.

Historians strongly disagree with this book's claim to be an "authoritative historical" work: there is very little 'history' here. As a researcher myself, I would make the following brief comments on a mere handful of the book's distortions to serve as examples: 1) There was no accusation of cannabis possession or other drug usage in the trial of Joan of Arc: the transcript of that trial is one of those which I myself have translated from the original manuscripts, and no such charge is listed anywhere in either set of articles against her (not in the initial 70 articles nor in the final 12), nor was it ever mentioned in the course of the trial; the author simply made that up. There was never any suggestion that she used cannabis to produce her "voices": instead, her judges claimed (in Article XI of the final set) that the beings which she identified as angels and saints might be fallen angels instead.
2) The oft-cited claim that the presence of "unique" THC receptors is evidence of some sort of crucial link between human evolution and pot usage shows a profound misunderstanding of the way such receptors work: they do not typically bind only with a single "unique" substance, and in fact the receptors with which THC interacts (CB1, CB2, and an interaction with the opiate receptor which is still under study) were designed for chemicals in the body (anandamide and 2-arachidonoyl-glycerol); the opiate receptor was designed to react to endorphins and similar chemicals in the body. Just as certain drugs happen to bind with the opiate receptor due to a chance similarity in molecular structure, THC binds with CB1 because its structure happens to be just close enough to "fit". Arsenic and other poisons happen to interact with certain sites in the body for the same reason; presumably, we will now have to deal with the claim that the body was designed to consume arsenic, too.
3) Medieval books were expensive because they had to be painstakingly hand-written (and later, printed using a clumsy and laborious process), not because of any ban against paper, hemp-based or otherwise. This should hardly need to be said.
4) While the author is correct in saying that the ancient Scythians (for example) did use a cannabis-based substance, there seems to be a persistent attempt to add other ancient cultures to the list by deliberate distortion of the context (such as misinterpreting certain Hebrew words in order to claim that early Jews and Christians were using cannabis, too).
5) In another obvious gaffe, the book tries to claim that the Bible (of all things) supports pot usage by deliberately misinterpreting certain English translations (such as the one which uses an archaic definition of the word "herb" to translate Hebrew words such as "zara'on", which means "vegetable"), or by taking out of context Paul's comments about Jewish dietary laws (which banned certain meats, such as pork, which were common in the Greek-speaking world in which Paul was trying to win converts; hence the statement that any "creature" or "animal" ("ktisma" in the Greek version of the original manuscripts) is valid for consumption. Marijuana is not an "animal", although I've literally seen people try to argue that it somehow qualifies as such in order to support the author's views on this particular subject). A similar argument is invoked when dealing with a passage preaching against the outlawing of foods, with smoked marijuana suddenly being reclassified as a "food" in this case so the claim can be made that the Bible is hostile to current drug laws, all the while ignoring the passages which specifically forbid people to be under the influence of any such substance. The list can go on.
It's hard to know what to say in summary to a book like this: as many scholars have pointed out, it's little more than fiction and fluff, and certainly does not qualify as "history" in any sense of the term.

Well, shall we say this is not really very authoritative? I picked up this book hoping to learn something. I have adult children who smoke M and I wanted to be able to agree or disagree based on objective research. I cannot draw any conclusions from this book. The book certainly gives no answers to any objective thinker. It is entirely biased. He gives very poor citing. A careful analysis of the book indicates Mr. Herer believes the entire world is involved in a conspiracy. The result is a propaganda like tar and feathering of all his enemies including religion. I was particularly offended by Mr. Herers interpretations of history. I found his history to be so suspect that it completely undermined any credibility he had.