by Eric Schlosser
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Product Description
America's black market is much larger than we realize, and it affects us all deeply, whether or not we smoke pot, rent a risqué video, or pay our kids' nannies in cash. In Reefer Madness the best-selling author of Fast Food Nation turns his exacting eye on the underbelly of the American marketplace and its far-reaching influence on our society. Exposing three American mainstays — pot, porn, and illegal immigrants — Eric Schlosser shows how the black market has burgeoned over the past several decades. He also draws compelling parallels between underground and overground: how tycoons and gangsters rise and fall, how new techonology shapes a market, how government intervention can reinvigorate black markets as well as mainstream ones, and how big business learns — and profits — from the underground. Reefer Madness is a powerful investigation that illuminates the shadow economy and the culture that casts that shadow.
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
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 This book changed my life., 2008-05-17
I read this book as I am interested in the topic of how the war on drugs has hurt our country more than helped it, and was looking for more information. However, it was the section on immigration that changed my life. Until I read this book I used to be pretty liberal Florida Democrat and a bit of an environmentalist. The only two people I have voted for president that won were jimmy Carter and Al Gore. After I read in this book the speech Sen Kennedy made in 1965 after changing our conservative immigration laws to an open door policy favoring non traditional immigrants that has flooded our country with millions of immigrants a year I became outraged. Everything the critics in 1965 said would happen as a result of the chnge in our immigration laws has come true in spades! In 1986 the criticisms of the 1986 amnesty of illegal immigrants also came true. Everything Kennedy and his pro amnesty open border traitors has said has been a lie.
Without the massive amount of immigration that has taken place in the last 40 years our population would be stable, with the current tidal wave of immigration we will have a population of close to one billion in my grandchildrens lifetime! Unlimited immigration for an unlimited time is unsustainable. Yet all debate on immigration or population growth is shut down with cries of racism. Read the speeches Kennedy gave in 1965 and 1986 about immigration and amnesty and you will be angry too. For more information on how the tidal wave of immigration is affecting our country go to [...] and read this book.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Where's the follow through?, 2008-01-29
Schlosser's examination of the underground economies of marijuana, illegal immigrants, and porn does a lot to give you background information and then takes it nowhere. Every essay feels like a detailed exposition with no further material. Some of you intellectual types like to say this encourages you to think for yourself - I say it's lazy writing.
Nothing new of real interest is revealed - pot is still popular and unfairly punished, California's agriculture thrives on exploited immigrant labor, and porn makes a ton of money and is more mainstream than ever before. And that's it - that's what this book covers. I just saved you $10 bucks. In the beginning of the book, Schlosser says that all three need to be understood in context of each other. And that's really the last mention of there being a connection between the three. Out of all fairness, I haven't finished the last essay or the afterword but it doesn't show any sign of changing.
Maybe I'm just missing the point but quite honestly, despite what the book description on the back says, there is no "powerful investigation that illuminates America's shadow economy". Simply, there's some interesting exposition that teases of an interesting story/argument/eye-opening conclusion but ultimately fails. In the end, I really should have checked it out from the library and I advise the same to you - don't waste your money on this book.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Don't Casually Mention This Book By Name, 2007-12-29
Suffice to say it's a wonderful read, eye opening and well thought out.
Unfortunately, it has a title that will automatically dissuade the people who need to read it from doing so--along with the fact that it is a book.
For God's sake, don't casually recommend it by name to anyone who's not very bright; they'll start rumors about you if you do.
Highly recommended.
Michael
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 sort of a Reader's Digest version; not enough meat, 2007-12-06
Upon purchasing 'Reefer Madness' I thought it would be a detailed account at America's obsession with the criminalization of marijuana users. Wrong. Perhaps a third of the book is on this topic, then the author proceeds to address such heady subjects as illegal immigration and pornography to fill in the rest of the pages. Beyond this the author has almost a hundred pages on notes and an index. So yes, I was disappointed.
But it has to be said the author had done his homework, and he writes well. He does raise some very provocative subjects and handles them in a mature fashion. But ultimately he does not cover enough of each topic, not by a long shot. I was left wanting more.
Bottom line: the author has done much better with 'Fast Food Nation'. Missable.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Must Read For Free Market Enthusiasts, 2007-10-30
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.
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