Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #487384 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

From Amazon.com
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.

From AudioFile
The American black market accounts for 10 percent of the U.S. economy, according to this crusading journalist. "When much is wrong," he writes, "much needs to be hidden." Examining this dark world for injustices, Schlosser reports that punishment is more severe in some states for selling marijuana than for killing with a gun. Anti-porn laws are equally nonsensical, and illegal immigrants work in conditions so wretched as to throw a shadow on the land of the free. Three magazine articles are roped together here, with a brief essay to start and another to finish. While this book lacks the artful unity of the author's bestselling FAST FOOD NATION, Schlosser's precise outrage is as compelling off as on the page. B.H.C. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Must Read For Lovers of Free Markets
Free markets are a myth. Well functioning markets depend on a complex alignment of public and private values, culture and laws. When these causes are not aligned, the model breaks down. One measure of market malaise, if not social malaise, is the size of black markets in the economy.

In Reefer Madness, Eric Schlosser estimates that black markets in the U.S.A. are about 5% to 10% of the total economy. In less developed economies or transitional economies such as Russia, black markets represent 40% or more of the total economy.

Why is this of concern? According to Schlosser, black markets undermine government and democracy, both in respect and revenue, creates criminals of both producers and consumers of black market products and services, and creates unnecessary spending on litigation, the courts and prisons. Almost all Americans are guilty using black markets, even if it is paying the plumber or other trade in cash to evade taxes.

Schlosser explains his thesis with three cases studies: marijuana, illegal immigrants, and the porn industry.

With the marijuana black market, he effectively argues there is limited evidence that marijuana consumption is harmful, and that many people consume it. Indeed, it is difficult to make a case that it is any worse, and possibly better, for people than alcohol, which is legal. The greater harm has come from overzealous prosecution of dealers and users, filling prisons in record numbers. However, armed robbery and murder often carry lesser sentences. Current laws and prosecution of marijuana use are an abject failure. Both consumption and production have increased over the decades.

Marijuana is arguably the largest cash crop in the United State. Given the disconnect between public and private values, would not an alternative policy, such as decriminalizing the use of marijuana, regulating its use in the same manner as alcohol make some sense. Schlosser makes a clear case that it would produce a social net benefit, increasing tax revenues, reducing court cases, and start emptying prisons. There would also be less tangible benefits such as greater respect for the governing authority.

Illegal immigration is the second case study, focusing on the black market for Mexican labor in the California agricultural community. Schlosser shows how cheap illegal Mexican labor has distorted producing strawberries, ostensibly to California's advantage in the short term. But in the long term the effect will be painful, because the farming community is so far behind now in adopting new technology, because of the cheap labor. As well, cheap foreign labor has reduced the local standard of living and increased black markets, which some experts estimate to be as high as 30 percent in the LA area.

The long term effect if continued will be to create a homegrown peasant economy. The solution does not lie in building fences or other restraints to immigration. The most effective policy choice according to Schlosser is developing and ensuring fair labor practices, including a decent minimum wage for all workers, whether they are immigrants or not.

The porn industry over the past century is the subject of the third case study. Indeed, Schlosser provides a thumbnail history back to Comstock's antiporn crusades in the 19th century. The major focus is on the last 50 years and the remarkable cultural shift in American attitudes toward porn during that period. Schlosser focuses on the story of Reuben Sturman, the dark genius of the modern porn industry, and his battles with the government. While Sturman eventually goes to jail for tax evasion, his victories in the courts in fighting charges of porn pave the way for the modern porn industry.

Sturman's story also highlights the role of the courts in reflecting cultural change in community standards over the decades, a role well suited to judicial interpretation rather than legislative or administrative law. Arguably, the black market in porn is much less than it otherwise would have been without these decisions.

While Schlosser suggests that reason will win the day, his three case studies are less than reassuring. It seems irrationality, ignorance, and inertia play a powerful role, especially for marijuana and immigration. Problems that can extend for decades and generations eventually undermine the integrity if not the foundation of a society founded on the principles of free market democracy.

Schlosser's book is a must read for anyone interested in the health of their democracy and market system.

Very good but should actually be 3 books
A very good collection of 3 essays that each probably deserve a book of their own by this writer. The Strawberry Fields on Agriculture chapter in particular was the most interesting and insightful to me. It is discouraging and disappointing that people can go to jail for multi-year sentences for marijuana possesion and have longer terms than people convicted of assult

Strikes me that the easiest way to take on the undeground economy is to eliminate cash - make all transactions either stored value cards, credit cards, debit cards or cheque cards....

more, please
I now know more about drug and obscenity laws than I ever imagined I'd need the brain cell storage to accommodate ... and that's a peculiarly good thing. I came out of this book with a new set of unlikely personal heroes - men and women who first challenged the absurdly restrictive obscenity laws in order to make health and birth control information legal to ship through the US mail ... and even folks like the irrepressibly obnoxious Larry Flynt, who is in some respects our nation's last defense against enforced, legislated morality. Read about the bizarre, inconsistent and patently ridiculous drug laws that keep marijuana users under a heavier legal boot than convicted child rapists. Find out why I will never again, so long as I live, spend money at a Taco Bell. If this seems like a broad spread to cover in one book, that's because part of the beauty of Schlosser is his ability to ferret out the very real connections between legitimate business and the black markets that we (as the blindly consuming public) may never suspect.

In our present culture of conspicuous censorship and our lamely moral-high-ground-napping political climate, this is a highly instructive read. GO AND GET IT. Consider it your civic duty to educate yourself on what your government and its corporate cohorts are really up to while you're not watching.