HempWorld is Born!
Back in 1992, I got ahold of the seminal tome, The Emperor Wears No clothes, Jack Herer’s guide to all that is good about cannabis hemp. The industrial non-psychoative type. Back then it was virtually unknown by the American population, so I decided to start a little newsletter to get the word out. This was before the World Wide Web, so print was my medium. With no budget, I used PageMaker (remember that?) on a used Mac SE to layout stories that I wrote about the few people in the business.
But first a move to Forestville, up in Sonoma County. I could work in wineries while working on the nascent HempWorld, what a dream! So in December of 1993, I launched my first newsletter, to rave reviews. I drew much inspiration from the Letters to the Editor and got referrals from the newly-formed Hemp Industries Association. My paid subscription list grew, but after a couple years after HempWorld became a magazine, I began to give away subscriptions to industry people.
Then Hemp Times was launched by the publishers of High Times, and they leaned into my audience, big time. They had a big budget and lots of sway in the entertainment world, so it was hard to compete. After a failed attempt to sell HempWorld to a Canadian buyer, I suddenly decided to fold it up. We were bleeding money. I could not afford to even print our last issue. Bummer.
Well, that was 30 years ago, and it took until 2018 for the Farm Bill to make it legal to grow hemp in the US. I had no idea it would take so long, but I knew in 1998 it would take a while and HempWorld could not hold out longer. The website I put up in 1999 was ok, but not worth it.
Today, there are hundreds if not thousands of hemp and cannabis business sprouted in North America. I don’t know any of these people anymore. Just the few old timers like me.
But, I feel a lot of satisfaction knowing that I helped to kick start the hemp industry back when people still snickered about the stuff.
Here are a few of the HempWorld covers
Please leave a comment with any questions.