Fantastic history of marijuana and migrant farm workers. The theme of the book is the underground industries where people are paid "under the table". The 3 themes are the marijuana market, migrant farm workers, and the porn industry. Eric Schlosser has done some great research and has presented enough facts and data to make strong conclusions on these topics. The writer states his own beliefs and the end of each section but the facts are so compelling that the reader can figure it out on their own. I never really knew the real story behind the war on drugs and the mandatory sentencing for non-violent drug offenders. It's amazing that there are so many hundreds of life sentences based on non-violent marijuana offenders. It really has to do with how well they play ball and how many names they can give. One of the characters they examined had been a middle-man on a large marijuana sale but he received a life sentence because he had no names or people to rat out and he was too stubborn to play ball. A life sentence for no real reason is just a waste of millions of tax-payer dollars and is another sign of how America is in a state of decay compared to Europe. There have been something like 700,000 Federal sentences handed out for marijuana related crimes. Each one of them will cost at least a million dollars in prison costs and the damage becomes multiplied considering the damage done to family members. Meanwhile in the Netherlands, all drugs are legal and the amount of drug use is much lower that the US. There is much more to it than that but this book shows the war on drugs to be the worst sign of government incompetence. I was amused to read that the citizens of the Virginia colony were required by law to grow hemp and that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew marijuana plants as part of their farm. Yet today Virginians can receive multi-year prison sentences for growing marijuana plants.

The section on migrant farm workers is also very informative and eye opening. Anyone who thinks these illegals are taking American jobs have no idea what these jobs consist of. The people picking strawberries are making good money in terms of Oaxacan peasants in the poorest area of Mexico. The idea of Americans happily taking jobs which pay a small fraction of minimum wage is silly. These migrant workers live in caves and shanty-towns filled with garbage. They work solely to send money back to desperately poor communities in places like the Mixtec indian areas of Oaxaca, Mexico. Picking strawberries is so hard that college students trying to make extra money couldn't last an hour. But the free labor is a major support for the economy of California and most people don't realize it. Americans can't do the work and it needs to be done meaning that we need those people. I guess everyone is better off but the treatment and exploitation of the migrant workers is disturbing. This is a must-read for anyone wanting to have a clear understanding of the immigration issue.

The marijuana chapter was pretty fascinating (especially since I was on my way to Humboldt County, which is ground zero of the weed-based economy). The strawberry chapter made me feel guilty but enlightened (though not as much new there). I found the porn section - the longest in the book - surprisingly the most boring. Which may be part of Schlosser's point; porn has become just another commodity, traded without judgement or excitement by big businessmen (and a few women).

Lots of interesting observations here about the warped morality of government regulation. Frank depictions of sex are evil, but graphic violence is fine. Exploiting immigrant labor is completely acceptable, but possessing a few grams of marijuana is reason for life in prison. All compelling, all disturbing, but definitely preaching to the choir and only occasionally a page-turner.

Apparently I had read this book previously, though I have no recollection of that. By the time I went to set it as "reading" on goodread, where I discovered I had read it previously, I was 70 pages in and decided to just finish it again.

Reefer Madness is divided into 3 sections, each of which could stand on their own. They are brought together under the larger topic of the black market economy. The first section discusses the disconnect between the prevalence of marijuana use and its effects and the penalties handed down to growers and users. The second section focuses on farm work and illegal immigration. The third section focuses on the pornographer industry and the attempts of the government to police obscenity.

The book was published in 2003, the first term of the George W. Bush presidency. In my mind that doesn't feel all that long ago, but in reading the book it's surprising how much has changed. In the first section Schlosser catalogs like Oklahoma that routinely handed out life sentences to non-violent marijuana dealers. In December I drove through Oklahoma and there were billboards listing how far away the furthest marijuna store was and how much the going price was for an ounce. The status of legalization is still a state by state patchwork and it clearly hasn't resolved all of the issues its proponents argued it would. Reading this section is a good reminder of just what an absolute waste of resources the war on drugs was.

The second section on illegal immigration is the most relevant still. Immigration has only increased as conditions deteriorate in the global south due to global warming. The current attempts to solve the problem by building walls and stationing troops clearly will not work. Schlosser's explanation of the basic economics motiving these immigrants make clear that there are no penalties high enough to make it not worth their risk.

The third section is an interesting history of the early days of the pornography industry with peep shows and stag films happening in places one would not expect. Schlosser provides ample evidence that in the long history in the fight for free speech it was not the big name publishers defending artistic integrity, but the smut merchants risking their freedom and livelihood who went head to head with the government and the courts.

Schlosser's final summation that the methods of the black market economy have infiltrated the economy at large is an interesting final thought.

This review originally appeared in the BOULDER WEEKLY
http://archive.boulderweekly.com/0513...

Notes from the Underground Nation
Through pot, produce and peep shows, Eric Schlosser explores America’s shadow economy.

by Vince Darcangelo
- - - - - - - - - - - -

A poor Midwestern farmer serves time in Leavenworth for growing pot. Migrant farm workers from labor camps sleep in parked cars in Southern California. A comic-book salesman in Cleveland builds a pornography empire and turns the modern porn industry into a mainstream multi-billion dollar business. How in the name of Kurt Vonnegut are these folks related? They are all part of America’s underground economy, documented in Eric Schlosser’s new book, Reefer Madness.

In his newest work of investigative journalism, Schlosser, the author of the best-selling Fast Food Nation, explores America’s black market–a shadow economy that accounts for an estimated 10 percent of our country’s Gross Domestic Product–through essays on marijuana, illegal immigrants and adult entertainment. The essays in Reefer Madness stand alone as individual works of investigative reporting, but Reefer Madness is not an anthology. It is a cohesive, multi-layered piece tied together by a narrative thread that gives voice to the winners and losers of the black market.

"It’s a different kind of book, not purely a collection of essays because the three [topics] share a lot of common themes," says Schlosser. "But it’s also not a book that I sat down and conceived from scratch like Fast Food Nation."

Though he pitched this book prior to writing Fast Food Nation, Schlosser says he couldn’t get publishers interested in Reefer Madness until Fast Food Nation spent two years on the New York Times best-seller list.

"It was terribly difficult to get people to care about pot smokers being locked up and really hard to get people to care about illegal immigrants being exploited," he says. "It took the success of Fast Food Nation to provide the leverage to pay attention to these things. It’s a lot easier to write about Britney Spears if you want attention and publication, but poor people of color is not something that publishers are desperate to publish at the moment.

"I feel like a lot of what I’m doing is in opposition to the celebrity journalism that has been so popular for the last 20 years," he continues. "I’ve really been trying to do old-fashioned investigative journalism… to take voices and people who don’t have access to the mainstream media and give them the opportunity to be heard. I think these subjects are important, but they’re maybe not getting the kind of coverage they should be."

This is especially clear in the book’s second essay, "In the Strawberry Fields," which takes the reader beyond the produce counter and into the fields where migrant farmers are exploited for cheap labor.

"Once people felt comfortable that I wasn’t an immigration officer, people were really eager to talk," says Schlosser. "There are not reporters banging on the doors of migrant workers every day. These are people who are completely excluded from the mainstream, whose voices really aren’t heard every day."

Schlosser’s ability to gain intimate access to his subjects and follow them into the fields accentuates the human component of black-market politics, part of the struggle that is often neglected in discussions of legal battles and illicit profits concerning the underground economy. "In the Strawberry Fields" tackles the intricacies of immigration law, sharecropping and the agricultural industry, but what is most compelling are the portraits of the exploited workers, the tragic victims of America’s black market.

Another tragic figure in Reefer Madness is pornography kingpin Reuben Sturman, one of the black market’s winners whose improbable rise and ultimate fall is documented in "An Empire of the Obscene." Sturman was a comic-book salesman who built an adult-entertainment empire that shaped the industry in the ’80s and ’90s and was victorious in numerous freedom-of-speech battles with the federal government. But Sturman was eventually nabbed for tax evasion, making him an ironic figure akin to Al Capone.

"I found Sturman to be an incredibly charismatic, bright and interesting person," says Schlosser. "When he was battling the obscenity laws, I really felt like he was on the right side. When he was funneling millions of dollars in cash to offshore accounts and threatening people with violence, he went over to the dark side.

"He’s somebody who I just think got corrupted by power and money. He started out maybe in one place and wound up in a very different place. It’s a very American story in that sense," he continues. "But had the laws been different, you would have seen his face on the cover of Fortune magazine and hailed as this great, brilliant chief executive."

Whatever his thoughts on Sturman are now, in Reefer Madness Schlosser presents each of his characters with absolute objectivity. The impartiality and lack of an agenda in Schlosser’s writing allows the reader to experience the subjects as though they are the ones conducting the investigation. Schlosser attributes this to his approach of investigating first, opining later.

"I have the good fortune on most of the subjects I write about to start from a place of total ignorance," he says. "For me, a lot of the pleasure in the work is educating myself about what’s going on and learning about the subject. It’s toward the end of the research that I have very strong views about what’s going on."

This is especially true in the book’s opening essay, "Reefer Madness," which Schlosser says came about through a discussion with an editor at the Atlantic Monthly about whether there was anyone in prison for marijuana.

"I had smoked pot, but I didn’t begin the investigation from the point of view of trying to persuade people to change the marijuana laws because I didn’t know anything about it," says Schlosser. "Once I’m done with a subject and I’ve come to my conclusions, then I speak out, then I become more of an activist on an issue. I don’t start as an activist and then decide to write something."

The result is Reefer Madness, a thoughtful collection of essays that takes the reader into America’s economic underbelly and into the lives of its often colorful participants. In the end, the reader will never look at a doobie, strawberry or porn flick the same way.

"I think I write things to open people’s eyes and maybe wake them up," says Schlosser. "What’s gratifying to me is if people start the book and then finish it and at the end of the book they’re more aware than when they started it."

An excellent look at the underground economy. Made me want to learn more about economics in general... and will probably make you want to ensure you know where your strawberries come from! Sobering, and entertaining but deadly serious at the same time. The look at America's porn industry in terms of money spent is staggering... no other word for it. Lots of other books and studies are quoted for further study and reading -- I bookmarked a bunch to look up. If our government would only legalize and tax a lot of this black market economy, we could easily have enough money for education, infrastructure repair, and the like...

Picked up this book at a Little Free Library in my neighborhood. The first section about marijuana was the most interesting; I liked that there was a good mixture of facts and biography. The second section about how Americans take advantage of migrant farmers was interesting also, although the consumption of strawberries will be tainted for me forever. The final section about pornography is where the book totally lost me. I pushed my way through until the end but by the time I got there, my heart definitely wasn't in it.

Another book on CD I listened to on the way to work - it was really fascinating... lots and lots of info on the taboo topics of the US underground trades of drugs, sex and illegal workers. I liked how the main focus was on the economic and legal impact of each of these issues and not so much on the morality surrounding it (although the laws are often impacted by that!). The author spent a lot of time on the drug trade (almost exclusively about marijuana use/sale) and way too much time on the sex trade (could have done without all the details on the life of Reubin Sturman (the supposed king of pornography distribution)... there was not as much info on the illegal immigration issue which I would have liked to hear more about. Overall it was a really good 'listen' although not as good as the author's class 'Fast Food Nation.'

This was the first "Librarian's Choice Book Club" book. Schlosser is now on my list of authors to follow (he is currently working on a book about the prison system that I can't wait to get my hands on).

He talks about marijuana and the war on crime in the U.S; the strawberry fields and the horrible lives of the absued immigrant farm workers; and, the porn industry. This was a quick read for me - I liked the author's writing style: he made compelling arguements while presenting his cases in an easy-to-read "story" fashion. He got a little preachy in the last page or so of each section. In my case he was preaching to the choir, so I didn't mind it so much. This book, along with a few others (Band of Brothers, And The Band Played On) makes me want to become a muck-racking author...

Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market
310 pages
© 2003 Eric Schlosser

What do pornography, marijuana, and migrant labor have in common? They're all factors in an underground economy, a vast web of cash-heavy transactions barred (or limited) by laws and social mores, but which generate substantial wealth for those willing to risk criminality. Reefer Madness contains thre seperate exposes on these subjects by the author of Fast Food Nation, followed by a conclusion which attempts to tie them together and glean some general lessons about the black market. Although the three don't quite fit together as well as Schlosser might hope, each piece is well worth considering on its own, pointed as well as entertaining.

Although "An Empire of the Obscene" is something of an oddity (pornography isn't illegal), the preceding sections ("Reefer Madness" and "In the Strawberty Fields") address subject alive and well in American politics today. All three mix colorful history and contemporary exposition which reveal both fascinating trivia and lessons about the specific subjects and the black market in general. The underground economy is not marginal, and its size should concern us not because of potential tax revenues lost by corrupt porn kings like Reuben Sturman, but because they fundamentally alter the rules that everyone else plays by. The use of undocumented workers in California, for instance, keeps food prices artifically low and stifles innovation by allowing companies to be dependent on cheap labor, just as the American south stagnated based on its use of slave labor. Considering the conditions migrant workers are forced to live in, the comparison to slavery is most apt. Despite the long-term consequences of allowing this behavior to go on -- tolerating it because it keeps food cheap -- the US government's attitude toward companies that seek out migrant labor is far too lenient. In other cases, the government is far too heavy-handed. This is the case with marijuana; Schlosser covers our bizaare obsession with it, which far exceed the concern the facts would merit we have. In what other nation can a person receive a lighter sentence for murder than selling a largely harmless drug? Considering the US's economic woes, decriminalizing the drug would go a long way in freeing up police and prison resources that could be better used elsewhere.


Schlosser believes that a study of the black market can teach us about the market in general -- and namely, impart the lesson that Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' is not always one of providence. It is one, in fact, that can lead to great abuses (like exploitation of migrant labor). What they excel in providing us outside the bounds of the law tells us secrets about ourselves; that we have a 'deep psychosis' regarding marijuana, for instance, and that Puritanical rejection of sexuality is out of line with human nature. Reefer Madness is a call for sensibly-informed moderation, although it misses one point certainly worth mentioning, that foolish laws, or the lack of laws when they are crucially needed, saps the public's respect for law in general.

Choice quotations:

We have been told for years to bow down before 'the market'. We have placed our faith in the laws of supply and demand. What has been forgotten, or ignored, is that the market rewards only efficiency. Every other human value gets in its way. [...] No deity that man have ever worshiped is more ruthless and more hollow than the free market unchecked. [...]

p. 108

Black markets will always be with us. But they will recede in importance when our public morality is consistent with our private one. The underground is a good measure of the progress and health of nations. When much is wrong, much needs to be hidden.

p. 221

Related:
Off the Books: the Underground Economy of the Urban Poor, Sudhir Venkatesh
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, Eric Schlosser

This was somewhat disappointing after the first section. The section on illegal immigration focused almost entirely on strawberry farmers. That was fine as far as it went (and I don't know that I'll ever buy strawberries again). I was expecting a more broad description of the labor "underground" - and perhaps hoping for a further exploration of the illegal labor market in house cleaning and yards. Those are the places that regular Americans most encounter illegals and I think would have been more interesting than farm policy. But we're talking here about my expectations - he just wrote a different book (with a narrower focus) than I was wanting.

The third section, on the pornography trade, went completely off the tracks of what was sold, in my opinion. Once again, what he wrote was interesting but it didn't really give much information about the pornography business. The majority of the section was spent on Reuben Sturman, who was the "king of porn" for most of the latter half of the 20th century. Rather than using Sturman as a jumping off point to describe the porn industry, Schlosser gives us a "true crime" style story. He goes into great detail on Sturman's tax-evasions and the IRS and FBI attempts to catch him for one thing or another. Schlosser glosses over and gives small details on some of the things that would have highlighted the porn industry (why do women get into it, who were the customers, etc.) in favor of the Sturman story. While a story of Swiss banks and FBI forensic accounting can be interesting (and a general topic of tax cheats in America would even somewhat fit the overall theme of the book), it wasn't a description of the specific portion of the underground economy (porn) being discussed. The Phil Harvey story was very interesting and was exactly what the Sturman story should have been - a description of one of the major industry figures whose story is told to flesh out the overall topic but doesn't take it over.

It was an interesting book overall and I liked reading it, but I think it could have been better.

This book is great. Every time I bring it up in conversation- people assume I am referring to the old movie.
But this book is SO much more.. Schlosser is a great writer. He covers the porn industry (and how it corrupts our nation, the immigration system, and the black market (drug trade)

It's a fascinating book and he includes so many entertaining anecdotes and statistics.

A worthy read for anyone interested in current events.

Another good thing about Schlosser- he's prone to delivering facts---- not a bunch of conspiracy theories.

This is really three essays with a common theme, the underground economy.The first one talks about illegal drugs and the drug laws. Specifically, it talks about marijuana. It is one of the most lucrative crops in the country, grown widely in every region. The essay talks about some growers in the midwest. It goes in detail about the nation's drug laws, which are incredibly irrational and counterproductive.The second essay, the weakest one in my opinion, is about illegal immigration and farming. It discusses the nation's immigration laws, which give employers every reason to hire illegal workers, but no protection to them. The specific industry discussed is strawberry farming, acre for acre the most lucrative farming there is. The work required to pick strawberries is incredibly grueling and dismally paid, but somehow, the jobs get filled and the berries get picked.The third essay, the most interesting, is about the pornography industry. It profiles a man named Reuben Thurman. Until the late '80's he was the nations' king of porn. He amassed huge amounts of wealth selling what no one else would. He also had to defend himself against constant harassment from the government. At one point in the '60's he sued J. Edgar Hoover for violating his rights. The government persecuted him for years and finally got him, by charging him with tax fraud. The history of the porn industry and the laws governing it are detailed. Nowadays, porn seems to have become more accepted and mainstream. The country's largest purveyor of porn is - AT&T through its Comcast cable TV unit.