Speaker: Dr John Jiggens, Cannabis Historian
About: In 1995 John Jiggens helped organise an Australian tour for Jack Herer, the author of a book called The Emperor Wears No Clothes, on the history of cannabis hemp. Herer was an amateur historian and a crusader against marijuana prohibition who had discovered that marijuana was also this plant called hemp, which had once been an extremely important plant, but was now banned because it was said to be an evil drug plant. During his research Herer discovered the founding fathers of the US, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, had grown hemp, while the sixth president, John Quincy Adams had even written an essay on the growing of hemp in Russia when he was Consul there. Hemp, Herer concluded had been the most important plant on the planet.
Dr. Jiggens says: “As a historian I found Herer’s history of cannabis remarkable. I set to work researching the history of hemp in Australia and discovered that Herer’s claims about hemp’s historical importance were justified. As the basis for rope, cordage and sail, hemp’s strategic importance in the Age of Sail was as important as oil is in our era. From reading the documents about the founding of Australia and from reading books like Blainey’s The Tyranny of Distance I came to see how central concerns about hemp supply were in Britain in 1786 when the decision for New South Wales was made. The convicts were the cover story. The real aim was to build a hemp colony.”
“Just as the founding fathers of the USA grew hemp, the founding father of Australia, Sir Joseph Banks, called himself a hemp zealot, and was charged with securing hemp supplies during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, growing large quantities of hemp in both India and New South Wales.
Bio: Dr John Jiggens is a cannabis historian and citizen journalist who has published several books on the history of cannabis in Australia, including Marijuana Australiana, Sir Joseph Banks and the Question of Hemp, and The Joke: a history of cannabis prohibition in Australia. His Ph.D was ‘Marijuana Australiana: Cannabis Use, Popular Culture and the Americanisation of Drugs Policy in Australia 1938 – 1988‘.
