Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market

Eric Schlosser is an amazing journalist. He picks interesting topics and writes about them beautifully in a highly informative manner. This is the first book of his I've read, and I will definitely be reading more.

Everyone here seems to be commenting on what a great writer Schlosser is and I couldn't agree more. For a non-fiction book to be such a page turner is quite a rarity. This is a lucid, well-researched, and rational look into "taboo" subjects people tend to have extremely strong opinions on. Reefer Madness strips the subjects of their stereotypes: the pothead, the illegal mexican stealing American jobs, the sleazy porn industry and looks into why these things are so loathed in public and yet remain so relentlessly prolific and lucrative. I found the segment on porn some of the most engrossing....growing up mostly in the internet age it's hard for me to imagine supreme court cases and federal investigations into what is basically considered tame by modern standards (and probably available for sale at your nearest mall). But it was the research on marijuana "madness" that fascinated/perplexed me the most. When we look at other countries which have legalized the possession or sale of drugs and see that they have not collapsed in some doomsday scenario...... When we consider how many criminals we've created/locked up simply for possessing a joint.......it simply defies logic. By reading this book I hope we will all finally be able to base our opinions on facts and reason and not propaganda and unfounded fear, opening the way for a genuine dialouge.

After reading the fantastic book Fast Food Nation, I'm willing to read anything that Eric Schlosser publishes. When I heard what the subject matter was for his new book (pot, porn, and illegal labor) I wasn't that interested but I wanted to find out what Schlosser had to say. In the introduction, Schlosser writes that the book is made up of three essays that are mostly unrelated, but these essays were tied together with the idea of the American Underground Economy which pervades the book. Reefer Madness is Schlosser's attempt to show how large the underground economy (meaning, non-taxed and illegal money) is in America. Schlosser discusses the laws and the social conditions that have allowed these things to occur. The first essay is on Marijuana. Apparently, marijuana is America's number one cash crop, but it is illegal to buy, sell, grow, or possess any amount of marijuana in America. Schlosser gives the history of marijuana legislation and reveals the severity of the punishments regarding marijuana violations (even compared to murder). This essay looks at the applications of marijuana laws throughout United States history. It highlights some of the absurdly harsh penalties given for first time convictions of even trace amounts of pot; this essay also shows the disparity in verdicts for the children of politicians compared to the poor. There are comparisons with the drug laws of other nations and a discussion on the health risks and health concerns regarding marijuana. Very interesting essay.The second essay deals with illegal labor in California. Specifically, the essay is on the illegal labor in the strawberry industry. This is the shortest essay of the three, but it does a good job in explaining the rise of migrant labor since the 1970's and why farm companies would use this labor. Surprisingly, most of America's strawberries are grown in California and at least half of the labor provided is illegal. The conditions that these workers (from Mexico) live in is horrible and the labor itself is one of the most physically demanding work that one can do on a farm. Illegal labor is becoming a larger and larger sector of some industries as these men (mostly) will work for significantly lower wages just so that they can have work. This essay had more of a human story to it and was more emotionally involving than the Marijuana essay. However, this essay didn't seem to have the societal import that the discussion on marijuana law did.The third essay focuses on pornography. Schlosser does not touch on the morality side of the pornography issue, but instead deals with the economics of porn. Like the other two essays, this one details the history of pornography in America and happens to be the longest of the three essays. Pornography is big business and the U.S. government has been cracking down on the industry on an off for years. For many years, the leading figure in the industry was one man, Reuben Sturman. The legality of porn is

Some critics have mentioned here and elsewhere their difficulty of finding the connecting thread of the three articles that make up this book. Reefer Madness is an entirely different animal than Fast Food Nation, which I think gained a large part of its appeal because it explored the impact of a single industry so thoroughly. The argument in this book is looser but I think no less compelling. It builds upon one of the central ideas of Fast Food Nation, where Mr. Schlosser shows how companies who claimed to support free market values are actually benefitting from a whole host of government subsidies such as SBA loans for franchises, or federal tax credits for worker training where no real training is provided. Here he shows through separate stories how some of the legislators who are the staunchest advocates of the "free market" also want to create or uphold punitive laws that punish people inordinately for marijuana possession and pornography, while these same people seem to have no qualms about letting industry folks exploit the cheap labor of Mexican immigrants to pick strawberries. One of the most telling sections describes congressmen who pushed for punitive drug laws but then later did everything they could to get their sons off when they were convicted. What Schlosser does so effectively here is show that the "free market" proponents do intervene in the marketplace all the time on behalf of their own interests, while often ignoring the plight of those less immediate to them. As a cohesive argument, this is a more difficult book to wrap your head around than FFN, but it demonstrates the same compassion and clarity and fact-based reporting that marked the other book, and it is a voice desperately needed in a time when dissent against the political right is often more angry than cogently reasoned. The book offers us a vision of another America we could be, where our private morality is consistent with our public one.

Eric Schlosser returns after "Fast Food Nation" with more interesting and researched material. He has the thoughtfulness of keeping his personal opinions out of his work and presents the facts.The black markets in America today, though a significant part of the economy, functioning in free-market form, exist everywhere. However, they don't seem to get much media coverage. This review is in regards to the portion of the book focusing on Marijuana. For example, the local television media in Seattle has repeatedly stated over the years, though seldom, that Washington state's number one export is not Apples but Marijuana. So, why the hysterical legislation, laws, Feds, and police presence regarding it. It's number 1 because there's a demand, and there will always entrepreneurs to supply a product that people want. Schlosser also examines the War on Drugs. No one can argue today, that it has even been minimally successfully. One example of the failed war on drugs in addition to price increases and violence, is the case of an Ohio man. Mark Young is now serving life in prison without possibility of parole for participating in a minor marijuana deal. In a comparison, you could approach someone, say a mother walking with her children, and blow her head off with a shot-gun and serve less time in America in most states. Whether in a moral, legal, or economic sense, we live in a nation that has simply lost most of its' common sense. One of Schlosser's solutions to reducing the sweepingly negative societal negative effects are decriminalizing marijuana. Interestingly, he doesn't support the government regulating and taxing it. Many proponents of decriminalizing Mary Jane believe they can reduce or retract Marijuana laws by giving the government a motivation to do so: more revenue via taxes, and, allowing the government to regulate it. And, regulation = control. All this would do would give the government the impetus of taking more money out of citizens' pockets. Imagine, how high those taxes would be, considering green-13 is a "sin" and would be under the guise of "sin taxes," like cigarretes and alcohol. The government would also control who gets to grow it, how they can grow it, where they can grow it, where they can sell it, and how much they can sell it for. Like farming in America today, can you imagine large Corporate Marijuana growers? These newly government appointed bureaucratic corporate fat-cats would have lobbyists on their behalf, dig for federal subsidies, loans, federal land, and who knows what else. Schlosser is one of the nation's most insightful and effective writers in contemporary America.

This book should be required reading for all the law and policy makers in this country. In plain, simple language, the author puts forth scathing attack on the wars on drugs and porn, and informs us of the often-ignored plight of migrant workers. He also gives the reader an idea of the immense size and scope of the underground economy in this country. An excellent book.