I enjoyed Eric Schlosser's expose, Fast Food Nation. I passed it along to Pam, who lent it to a coworker. Yesterday, I read the author's follow-up, Reefer Madness.

The subtitle is "Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market", but this is really his contrived attempt to tie together three essays unrelated in topic, format, angle or even length.

"Reefer Madness", like "Fast Food Nation", is a must-read. It's not so much a condemnation of the War on Drugs (although it touches on familiar topics such as the hypocrisy vis-a-vis legal alcohol and tobacco, medicinal marijuana, and successful decriminialization elsewhere) as it is of our government's over-zealous prosecution of such crimes. Justice has to be proportional and, even if you think pot users, dealers and growers deserve jail time, I am sure you will find their prosecutions, sentences and asset forfeitures to be way out of line.

"In the Strawberry Fields", Schlosser finally lets his personal opinion come to the forefront: "All those who now consider themselves devottees of the market should take a good look at what is happening in California. Left to its own devices, the free market always seeks a work force that is hungry, desperate, and cheap — a work force that is anything but free." The funny thing is, before reading this essay, I didn't peg Schlosser to be a critic of the market. "Fast Food Nation" can easily be read as a condemnation of incompetent government — yeah, big agri-business is shady, but the real villains are the FDA and USDA for so horribly failing to serve the public that is counting on them. This essay, however, portrays the government as a third-tier villain. The Department of Labor, Department of Agriculture and immigration officials almost get a pass; while explotative bosses get dissed and the system, itself, bears the brunt of Schlosser's screed.

I didn't like this essay as much as the others: yes, partly becaue I thought it was unbalanced (obviously the workers don't think this pay is so bad; otherwise, they wouldn't schlep thousands of miles, risking their lives en route, to do it; $5 sucks dick compared to what we're used to, but not compared to what laborers ear in Oaxaca, Mexico) and partly because it just didn't have anything new to say. The essay's main point — that Mexican workers, paid far below the minimum wage, are the lion's share of our country's agricultural labor — isn't revelatory. And 30-something pages isn't enough to really flesh out that thesis.

"An Empire of the Obscene" is the story of the rise and fall of Reuben Sturman, a guy who towered over the porn industry until the 90's. But whereas Larry Flynt can never get enough publicity, Sturman stuck to the shadows. Although there are occasional digressions about how many Fortune 500 firms profit from porn (like almost every cable operator and hotel chain) and the history of (anti-)obscenity in the United States, the essay is basically about Sturman's courtroom battles with the US Government. Ultimately, like Al Capone, his Achilles heel was his tax evasion. This essay, while an interesting story, is not all that insightful or provocative.

So, "Reefer Madness" is a mixed bag. A better title for this work would have been "The Eric Schlosser Reader".

No more comments! Either someone has violated Godwin's Law, I'm tired of the discussion or, most likely, the ten-week window has closed. You can, however, contact me through email.