Ellen Komp

Ellen Komp became a hemp/marijuana activist in December 1991, helping to plan a series of quarterly hemp rallies held at the Federal Building in Los Angeles aimed at reviving the lost history of hemp, and at broad reform of our cannabis laws. She edited the 9th edition of Jack Herer’s book The Emperor Wears No Clothes: Hemp and the Marijuana Conspiracy. She founded VeryImportantPotheads.com in 2002, which publishes research about luminaries associated with cannabis, seeking out verification in biographies and news articles. Ellen spun off her award-winning VIP blog into the Tokin’ Woman blog in 2011. Ellen worked as a volunteer activist for LA NORML, gathered signatures for California’s Proposition 215, and was a program associate at the Lindesmith Center / Drug Policy Alliance in San Francisco. Since 2008 she has been Deputy Director of California NORML, where she helped plan historical conferences on Prop. 215 and the original Prop. 19 legalization measure in 1972. She worked at HempWorld magazine and co-founded the 215 Reporter, the first journal to report on Prop. 215’s aftermath. Ellen published her book, Tokin’ Women: A 4000-Year Herstory of Women and Marijuana in 2015.