Eric Schlosser: Reefer Madness and Other Tales from the American Underground

Reviewed by LAURENCE JENKINS


I'm certain not to be the first to think of the name Ralph Nader when reading anything by his compatriot Eric Schlosser.

Nader's work resulted in an overhaul of the car industry.

Fast Food Nation, Schlosser's expose of the fast-food giants, had that bit of the private sector on the run and caused the biggest, McDonald's, to entirely revamp its operation.

Reefer Madness, though, is not an attack on any particular capitalists but rather a study of how the unscrupulous have been able to manipulate capitalism for tremendous gain and create an underground economy.

All three essays — the title work, In the Strawberry Fields, and An Empire of the Obscene — were published first in American magazine Atlantic Monthly and have since been updated.

In each thoroughly researched piece (the longest is just under 100 pages) Schlosser picks out the most spectacular figure, usually defined by how many billions of dollars they have made, from the relevant criminal underground area.

Reefer Madness looks at the illegal growing and sale of marijuana; Strawberry Fields examines illegal migrant workers; and An Empire of the Obscene looks at the illegal production and trafficking of pornography.

In the Strawberry Fields is perhaps the most poignant, not only because of the exploitation of the migrant workers who have flooded over the border between the United States and Mexico, but because of the effect they are having on the blue-collar workforce of the world's largest economy.

In Reefer Madness the villain is a hero by virtue of miscarriage of justice. Mark Young was jailed for life as a scapegoat for a cabal of marijuana growers in Indiana who used him as a go-between for customers.

Young sold one lot for his suppliers and never saw them again, but when the axe fell they implicated everyone. Most got off lightly, but Young copped life.

The super-villain, though, is Reuben Sturman, the ruler of the porn industry in the 80s and 90s. Sturman was not only dedicated to the production and supply of obscene material but also inordinately adept at hiding the wealth of his gargantuan empire.

Unlike Larry Flynt, the loud-mouthed and vulgar prince of the Hustler empire, Sturman was a gentleman and kept his operation covert. But tax avoidance brought him down, thanks to the unequalled zeal of federal tax investigator Richard Rosfelder, who bit, rottweiler-like, into Sturman's operation. Schlosser almost moulds a sympathetic figure from Sturman, one you admire at any rate.

The amount of information in this book is mind-boggling. Introductory and concluding essays enhance the reader's understanding of how significant it is, and Schlosser even includes an extensive bibliography and notes.

But lest you think this is some textbook, let me assure you that it is a riveting page-turner that never descends to the level of sleaze.




Penguin, $28.00

* Laurence Jenkins is a Northland-based writer, reviewer and arts columnist.