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

Eric Schlosser (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 8, 2003

In Reefer Madness, the best-selling author of Fast Food Nation investigates America's black market and its far-reaching influence on our society through three of its mainstays -- pot, porn, and illegal immigrants. The underground economy is vast; it comprises perhaps 10 percent -- perhaps more -- of America's overall economy, and it's on the rise. Eric Schlosser charts this growth, and finds its roots in the nexus of ingenuity, greed, idealism, and hypocrisy that is American culture. He reveals the fascinating workings of the shadow economy by focusing on marijuana, one of the nation's largest cash crops; pornography, whose greatest beneficiaries include Fortune 100 companies; and illegal migrant workers, whose lot often resembles that of medieval serfs.
All three industries show how the black market has burgeoned over the past three decades, as America's reckless faith in the free market has combined with a deep-seated puritanism to create situations both preposterous and tragic. Through pot, porn, and migrants, Schlosser traces compelling parallels between underground and overground: how tycoons and gangsters rise and fall, how new technology shapes a market, how government intervention can reinvigorate black markets as well as mainstream ones, how big business learns -- and profits -- from the underground.
With intrepid reportage, rich history, and incisive argument, Schlosser illuminates the shadow economy and the culture that casts that shadow.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

As much as 10% of the American economy, and perhaps more, is comprised of illegal "underground" enterprises, according to author and Atlantic Monthly correspondent Eric Schlosser. And while this segment is never discussed in the newspaper business pages, Schlosser tackles it with the same in-depth analysis and compulsive readability that made his Fast Food Nation a best seller. Reefer Madness spotlights marijuana, migrant labor, and pornography, three of the most thriving black market industries, and analyzes the often-tenuous place each holds in society as a whole. While each of the three could be the subject of its own book, Schlosser keeps his scope narrow by concentrating on the lives of the participants in the underground economy, especially Mark Young, an Indiana man given a life sentence for participating in a marijuana sale, and Ohio porn magnate Reuben Sturman. At just 21 pages, the treatment of migrant laborers in the California strawberry fields is dealt with more briefly but is just as compelling thanks to the first-person narrative of Schlosser’s investigation. In telling these stories, which are both personal and universal, Schlosser deftly explores the manner in which his subjects are treated (and punished) compared to others in more above-ground ventures. Along the way, he asks hard questions as to what that treatment says about America. Schlosser writing is passionately opinionated, but this is no mere opinion piece: his perspective is amply supported by extensive research and clearly reasoned interpretation of data. His direct and forceful writing style makes the impact greater still. After reading Reefer Madness, readers are likely to be shocked, appalled, and flat-out bewildered by what’s happening in the cracks and crevices of American business. --John Moe

From Publishers Weekly

From the bestselling author of Fast Food Nation comes this captivating look at the underbelly of the American marketplace. In three sections, Schlosser, an Atlantic Monthly correspondent, examines the marijuana, migrant labor and pornography trades, offering compelling tales of crime and punishment as well as an illuminating glimpse at the inner workings of the underground economy. The book revolves around two figures: Mark Young of Indiana, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole for his relatively minor role in a marijuana deal; and Reuben Sturman, an enigmatic Ohio man who built and controlled a formidable pornography distribution empire before finally being convicted of tax evasion, after beating a string of obscenity charges. Through recounting Young's and Sturman's ordeals, and to a lesser extent, the lives of migrant strawberry pickers in California, Schlosser unravels an American society that has "become alienated and at odds with itself." Like Fast Food Nation, this is an eye-opening book, offering the same high level of reporting and research. But while Schlosser does put forth forceful and unique market-based arguments, he isn't the first to take aim at the nation's drug laws and the puritanical hypocrisy that seeks to jail pornographers while permitting indentured servitude in California's strawberry fields. Nevertheless, this is a solid-and timely-second effort from Schlosser. As world events force Americans to choose values worth fighting for, Schlosser reminds readers, "the price of freedom is often what freedom brings."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; First Edition edition (May 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618334661
• ISBN-13: 978-0618334667
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (118 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #411,775 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eric Schlosser is a correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly. He has received a number of journalistic honours, including a National Magazine Award for an Atlantic Review article, Reefer Madness.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining but slightly disappointing, June 7, 2003

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Malvin (Frederick, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market (Hardcover)

"Reefer Madness" is an uneven examination of the American underground economy. Mr. Schlosser does not attempt a comprehensive examination -- notably absent are software piracy, music downloading, prostitution, offshore banking and gambling --but appears instead to have selected three topics that, presumably, might help sell copies for his publisher. (Such are the perils, apparently, of having to follow up the classic "Fast Food Nation".)

The first section is dedicated to illegal drugs. Mr. Schlosser does a very good job savaging the contradictions of legal and illegal drug policies in this country. In only 64 pages, the author provides background, statistics and case studies that make for very compelling reading. His conclusions are consistent with what most reformers have been arguing for some time. The draconian laws and failed policies of the so-called 'War on Drugs' are so out of step with mainstream American thought and practice that Mr. Schlosser's sly rewrite of a John Lennon anthem resonates with power: "this war is over, if you want it." This devastating critique was my favorite of the three essays, by far.

The second section on illegal labor is a scant 34 pages long. It is focused on the plight of strawberry pickers in California. Mr. Schlosser's keen powers of observation and solid research methodology combine to produce a scathing critique of the inhumane conditions that many migrant farmworkers endure. But by focusing on such a thin slice of the American labor market, it may be difficult to judge the validity of the author's generalized recommendations about rectifying labor abuses nationwide.

Personally, I was disappointed that the third section on the porn industry was as lengthy as the other two combined. The story was mostly a history lesson and biography centered around Reuben Sturman, who the author shows was primarily responsible for growing the porn industry through most of the post World War II era and who tirelessly defended it against its enemies. But while Mr. Schlosser's article makes it clear that porn was officially repressed for many years in the U.S., today that no longer seems to be the case. Consequently it doesn't seem to provide much support for the author's theme of the contemporary state of the underground economy, although the story was certainly interesting and extremely well-written.

In the end, one wishes that Mr. Schlosser had been able to fully develop these stories into three separate books. The stature that the author has gained as a result of "Fast Food Nation" guarantees that his views have power, but I'm afraid that diluting the subject matter probably takes away some of the punch. That's too bad, because in my view the drug laws and the labor laws, in particular, badly need reform.

Here's hoping that Mr. Schlosser's publisher gives this talented writer the opportunity to produce another gem on par with "Fast Food Nation" the next time around. But in the meantime, Mr. Schlosser's fans can get a quick fix by reading this entertaining but slighly disappointing book.

34 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Three Essays, One Book, Ruben Sturman, June 10, 2003

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"superflykai" (Seattle, Wa United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market (Hardcover)

Eric Schlosser returns in his second published expose' on three different underground economic topics, each an essay originally released in Rolling Stone Magazine. The three essays on marijuana, illegal immigrant workers, and pornography constitute this opus on America's underground economy which accounts for what Schlosser and others believe is 10 percent of the whole American economy constitute "Reefer Madness."

While not nearly as in depth as his first book "Fast Food Nation," Schlosser does more muckraking on topics that not only interest readers who know little about these underground economies, but can also keep the readers attention with experiences and biographies of participants in the underground economies.

I truly think that Schlosser went far more in depth to exhume scarce facts in "Fast Food Nation," while only briefly over-viewing these three topics in "Reefer Madness." To get to the point... it would have been better if "Reefer Madness" was Schlosser's first work instead of "Fast Food Nation - He obviously set the standard for himself too high with his first work.

Schlosser does an excellent job not only presenting these three essays, one leading into the other through prose vignette, but offers a preface of ideas to help set up the reader before the presentation of the three essays. Referencing points from Adam Smith's "On the Wealth of Nations" for the current reigning market system, Schlosser sees what many others refuse to see... Everyone has his or her vice and there is money to be made from this market!

Schlosser finishes "Reefer Madness" with personal points of view and his own ideas on these three portions of the underground American economy and how things about them can be progressively dealt with, and even legalized!?!?!

Eric Schlosser is currently working on another investigative report unfolding the secrets of the American prison system - I am not sure when this work will be released.

32 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Enlightening, April 22, 2003

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"zlozoff" (Sister Bay, WI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market (Hardcover)

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.