SCHLOSSER EXPOSING U.S. BLACK MARKETS

In 2000, Eric Schlosser's book "Fast Food Nation," an expose of the
unhealthy practices and filthy working conditions in the fast food business
and the meatpacking world, was published to great acclaim. Schlosser
documented the fat-saturated foods that Americans eat and the dangerous,
low-wage conditions that workers in those industries toil under.

Now Schlosser has turned his formidable investigative journalism skills to
examine three American black markets - pornography, marijuana and illegal
labor. The new book, "Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the
American Black Market," is an articulate, often gripping expose of these
three areas.

The three essays in the book showcase three sides of Schlosser's writing.
There is the activist/policy journalism in the title essay, "Reefer
Madness," that examines the barbaric drug war against the cultivation and
sale of marijuana, where nonviolent drug offenders can be given sentences of
20 years to life, and murderers are set free to make room for them in our
nation's prisons.

The second part of the book, "In the Strawberry Fields," is about the harsh
conditions in the California strawberry fields. Schlosser examines the
innocuous basket of strawberries and reveals the blood and physical agony
that goes into each pint of fruit from illegal Mexican laborers.

The third essay, "An Empire of the Obscene," shows Schlosser's abilities to
build a long, engrossing profile, recording the epic, 40-year career of
Reuben Sturman, as he developed his pornography empire. Sturman was a
colorless businessman who popularized the peep show and successfully fought
obscenity charges for decades, but was brought down by a dogged Internal
Revenue agent for his aversion to paying taxes.

The "Reefer Madness" piece has its roots in a brilliant 1994 article that
Schlosser wrote for The Atlantic Monthly, which followed the case of Mark
Young, who was involved in a major marijuana drug case in Indiana. Young
only introduced the main conspirators, but he received a life sentence,
while the major defendants, because they turned state's evidence, received
much lighter sentences.

The drug laws vary wildly from state to state. In New York, possession of an
ounce of marijuana can lead to a $100 fine. In Louisiana, it can mean a
20-year sentence. Then there is the comedy of America's anti-drug critics.
Congressman Dan Burton from Indiana had pushed for legislation mandating the
death penalty for drug dealers. When his son was arrested for transporting 8
pounds of marijuana, however, he received house arrest and community
service, not death. DETAILS

REEFER MADNESS

Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market

By Eric Schlosser

Houghton Mifflin, 304 pages, $23

Schlosser keeps a tight, cohesive argument on the drug laws. He is able to
present an articulate case for decriminalization. "A society that can punish
a marijuana offender more severely than a murderer is caught in the grip of
a deep psychosis," writes Schlosser. "It has a bad case of reefer madness."

Schlosser flexes his investigative muscles in "In the Strawberry Fields,"
showing that sharecropping is alive and well in the California strawberry
business. Major agribusinesses routinely exploit Mexican laborers.
Strawberry pickers are offered the chance to become farmers, and are
immediately placed in debt to the large strawberry growers. The small
farmers do the backbreaking labor while constantly facing bankruptcy.

In his long piece on the pornography industry, Schlosser details the history
of economic sex over the past 40 years. He documents how the morality
campaigns against pornography have failed. He focuses on the Meese
Commission, set up by Ronald Reagan's attorney general, Edwin Meese, which
used fraudulent claims to try to prove a link between pornography and
violence.

Meanwhile, Sturman was making money hand over fist. As the government tried
to get him, American consumption of pornography rose drastically. In 1985,
79 million hardcore videos were rented. In 2001, the number of porno rentals
was 759 million, and the pornography industry was estimated to be worth $8
billion to $10 billion a year. Mainstream media conglomerates such as AOL
Time Warner have a stake in the porno business, and big hotel chains such as
Marriott show dirty movies in their rooms.

The motivation to buy pornography, according to Schlosser always has
remained the same. "Largely fueled by loneliness and frustration, the sex
industry," he writes, "has never suffered from a shortage of customers."

One of the failings of "Reefer Madness" as a book is that Schlosser tries to
present it as a thorough analysis of the American underground economy. He
basically takes three very different, very strong magazine pieces that
started in Rolling Stone and The Atlantic and presents them as an
investigation of the black market. The three pieces are very powerful and
worth reading, but are not a comprehensive view of the American underground
markets.

With "Fast Food Nation" and now "Reefer Madness," Schlosser has established
himself as one of the best investigative reporters in America. Whether he is
dealing with horribly abused illegal alien workers or people trampled by the
drug laws, he handled his subjects with wit and compassion. Schlosser gets
to the heart of his subjects.

Dylan Foley is a freelance writer in Brooklyn, N.Y.