Jack Herer (; June 18, 1939 – April 15, 2010), sometimes called the "Emperor of Hemp", was an American cannabis rights activist and the author of the 1985 book The Emperor Wears No Clothes. Herer founded and served as the director of the organization Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP). As an activist, he advocated for the decriminalization of the cannabis plant and argued that it could be used as a renewable source of fuel, medicine, food, fiber, and paper/pulp and that it can be grown in virtually any part of the world for medicinal as well as economic purposes. He further asserted that the U.S. government has been deliberately hiding the proof of this from its own citizens. Biography An early glass pipe entrepreneur, Herer opened his first head shop in 1973. In 1985, Herer self-published The Emperor Wears No Clothes, a book — in 2020 in its fourteenth edition after having been continuously in print for 35 years — frequently cited in efforts to decriminalize and legalize cannabis and to expand the use of hemp for industrial use. In 1987, Herer opened the Third Eye Shoppe head shop in Portland, Oregon. Herer's son Mark Herer took over as the shop's owner in 2001. The Third Eye closed on March 31, 2017. A former Goldwater Republican, Herer twice ran for President of the United States, in 1988 (1,949 votes) and 1992 (3,875 votes), as the Grassroots Party candidate. Health problems and death In July 2000, Herer suffered a minor heart attack and a major stroke while attending the BioFach trade show, resulting in difficulties speaking and moving the right side of his body. Herer mostly recovered, and claimed in May 2004 that treatment with the Amanita muscaria, a psychoactive mushroom, was the "secret". On September 12, 2009, Herer suffered another heart attack while backstage at the Hempstalk Festival in Portland, Oregon. He was discharged to another facility on October 13, 2009. Paul Stanford of The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation said, "He is waking up and gazing appropriately when someone is talking... but he is not really communicating in any way." On April 15, 2010, Herer died in Eugene, Oregon, from complications related to the September 2009 heart attack. He was 70 years old at the time of his death. Herer was buried at the Eden Memorial Park Cemetery in Mission Hills, California. Criticism European experts on hemp, like Dr. Hayo