Legends: Robert C. Clarke

The Authority on Cannabis Research

Robert C. Clarke discovered his passion for cannabis, smoking with other students while attending the University of California, Santa Cruz in the early ’70s. In 1975, he authored his undergraduate dissertation, The Botany and Ecology of Cannabis, which he self-published in 1977, selling more than 1,500 copies.

Robert followed up with his 1981 masterpiece, Marijuana Botany, which is still in print 49 years later and is testament to the quality of information that he presented so long ago.

In 1998, he released HASHISH!, which was the first comprehensive history and methodology of hash making to ever be printed about the subject. Prior to 1998 and HASHISH! being printed, hashish was rarely seen in North America and after the book was published, both dry sieve and water separation methods became commonplace. 

Robert’s research led him to Amsterdam in the late ’80s where he eventually started working with a group called HortaPharm BV, a research company based around collecting, selecting and breeding unique Cannabis genetics from around the world for both medicinal and industrial use. 

In the early ’90s, Robert was also a founder of the International Hemp Association (IHA), based out of Amsterdam, which published scholarly journals printed on 100-percent hemp paper for academic use. The IHA put out educational kits and sent them around to colleges and other educational organizations that contained everything from hemp fibers and paper to hemp seed-based shampoo and even crayons. 

Robert was also a co-author of Hemp Diseases and Pests: Management and Biological Control, published in 2000, which became a standard reference book for every professional grower. 

Being an avid student of the history of all things cannabis and hemp, Robert teamed up with Mark Merlin, who is a professor of biology at the University of Hawaii. Together, they spent 17 years working on the most thoroughly researched history book available on the subject: Cannabis: Evolution and Ethnobotany. Published in 2013 by California University Press Berkeley, it is the most accurate, academic history of cannabis available today. 

Along with an authoritative history of cannabis, Robert has rewritten the taxonomy of cannabis and separated the simplistic Indica/sativa terminology into a broader explanation of Northern and Equatorial varieties of both industrial and drug- type cannabis. 

Robert’s continued contribution to the cannabis community is second to none. Through his extensive research and generous sharing of science and knowledge through his books, Rob has set the foundation for future generations of serious students of cannabis for decades to come.

As published in:
Grow Magazine, Vol.5 Issue 6
January 2021