In his newest book, \Reefer Madness,"" author Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) takes an alarming look at America's underground economy.
In this book, Schlosser challenges the rationality of anti-marijuana laws, discusses the plight of the illegal immigrant farm worker and investigates the history and wealth of the porn industry.
Schlosser emphasizes the need to view the American economy as a whole, realizing the importance the black market has on the more visible economy. He writes, ""The underground is a good measure of the progress and the health of nations. When much is wrong, much needs to be hidden.""
Schlosser writes with incredible style, carefully weaving single comprehensive cases with historical shifts and a clear understanding of the legal system.
The first section of ""Reefer Madness"" argues the need to decriminalize marijuana and condemns the war on drugs as ""corrupting everything it touches.""
Schlosser said in criminal cases involving marijuana, punishments range from probation to the death penalty for first offenders. He cites cases of murderers receiving less jail time than their cellmates who violated marijuana laws. He writes, ""As a means of enforcing conformity, the war on marijuana increasingly resembled the 1950s anti-communist crusade."" In this book, Schlosser advocates the immediate decriminalization of marijuana and seeks punishments that he feels more accurately reflect the crime.
In another section of the book titled ""In the Strawberry Fields,"" Schlosser writes of what he feels is cruel and inhumane treatment of illegal immigrant farm workers.
His investigation of what he feels is appalling treatment of these farm workers leaves a strong impression of the greed and corruption written into our nation's agricultural laws.
Schlosser says many Florida workers are being paid wages that are too low to survive on.
He also says many illegal immigrants are homeless, abused and forced into debt to their employers.
In his final area of discussion, titled ""An Empire of the Obscene,"" Schlosser outlines the history and tremendous growth of pornography in this country.
He chronicles the rise and fall of Reuben Sturman, who arguably dominated the production and distribution of pornography throughout the world.
Schlosser describes the exponential increase of American pornography consumption and says the porn industry continues to be protected by first amendment rights. He warns that critics of porn may not like what they see, but must confront a hard, underlying truth: Sometimes the price of freedom is what freedom brings.
Schlosser continues to investigate the greed and corruption in the United States and is working on a third book about the American prison system.
""Reefer Madness"" is published by Houghton-Mifflin.
