Meeting Jack Herer

By Michael R. Aldrich

Jack Herer, Mike Aldrich, and Michael Krawitz, looking over my pipe collection in our apartment in July 2006

In June 1972 we were trying frantically to raise enough signatures by June 19th to qualify the California Marijuana Initiative (CMI) for the November ballot. At that time, each signature had to be precincted before the petitions could be turned in. This meant we had volunteers looking up the address of the signer in huge volumes the county provided, and writing in the precinct number in the right column of the petition.

One day a very ordinary looking man with short hair—not a hippie-- walked in to our Los Angeles CMI office and said he’d like to help legalize marijuana. We asked him to help with the precincting and he was happy to do so. He said his name was Jack Herer and he’d just gotten out of the military. I was there to help coordinate the signature gatherers, taking in new petitions and distributing more to the volunteers.

As we were talking, I showed Jack a packet of our Acapulco Gold rolling papers, the green pack made with hemp paper. He was astonished and said, “You mean there’s something else you can do with it besides smoke it?” That aroused his interest and he spent the next several years researching hemp paper. His research would result in his ground-breaking book, “The Emperor Wears No Clothes” (1985). Jack also got Michelle and I to proofread his book, correcting mistakes or suggesting additions. I believe he asked Chris Conrad and Mikki Norris to do the same. The book was a huge success and he reprinted it at least a dozen times.

I’m proud that we got Jack interested in hemp paper. His book greatly broadened our understanding that legalization should include all the industrial uses of hemp. He changed our world.