Rating: 
Summary: Drawing the Curtain
Review: This is the second Eric Schlosser book I've read and it met my high expectations. He is an amazing journalist and is bold with the topics and ideas he sheds light on. Reefer Madness puts the pieces together, and realistically portrays the abundance of underground economies and its effect on the free market. I found many of his judgments have been brought to my attention before, but finally it was laid out before my eyes with great evidence. Although at times I found it both repetitive and plentiful of facts, I still thought this was a great read, and helped open my eyes to the present challenges of the American economy.
Rating:
Summary: Very good but should actually be 3 books
Review: A very good collection of 3 essays that each probably deserve a book of their own by this writer. The Strawberry Fields on Agriculture chapter in particular was the most interesting and insightful to me. It is discouraging and disappointing that people can go to jail for multi-year sentences for marijuana possesion and have longer terms than people convicted of assultStrikes me that the easiest way to take on the undeground economy is to eliminate cash - make all transactions either stored value cards, credit cards, debit cards or cheque cards....
Rating: 
Summary: average followup to Fast Food
Review: After finding "Fast Food Nation" an engrossing and captivating read, I was somewhat disappointed to find this collection of three essays to be average and unconnected. The marijuana and strawberry articles are definitely superior to the last third, which deals with the outlaw-to-industry history of porn. It's good writing overall, just not really worth buying in book form. This experience was analogous to my interest in the periodical "Mother Jones;" initial fascination due to some good research, followed by a gradual decay of interest due to predictably one-sided reporting. Hopefully, Schlosser will come back with his next book to prove himself more than the average liberal journalist (there's enough of those). Fast Food Nation was great, but it doesn't justify paying for this collection of B-sides at full price.
Rating:
Summary: Immersion Econ review for Mr. Jimenez's class
Review: Although it is slow at some points, I enjoyed this book. I found the information that Schlosser had to offer fascinating. If you liked Fast Food Nation, you'll enjoy Reefer Madness.
Rating: 
Summary: Changed my perspective!
Review: Eric has done it again. I read his last book Fast Food Nation, and was impressed with his depth and skill at writing. This book was even better. Eric sets up the book with a discussion on the U.S. Drug war on Marijuana. He unpacks several cases where the government has spent millions of dollars to stop something that has never proven to be lethal or dangerous to ones health. Then, he steps into the world of the migrant worker, especially those in the strawberry fields of California. Eric raises the question: Why does the government do so little for these people who are being used and abused for their cheap labor? Schlosser ends with a discussion on the pornography industry. He again refers to how the government spends billions of dollars attempting to limit something that is a freedom this country was fought to defend. I am an evangelical pastor with a conservative, republican upbringing. This book raises major questions for some of the verbal stances I take against things such as Marijuana and pornography - which I believe are both wrong - and do and say nothing about the plight of the migrant workers and the injustice they receive every day. I don't see the justification of spending so much money trying to eliminate products of capitalism and a free nation. Even though I think that getting high and the obscene are horrible for ones life...so are cigarettes, eating too much fast food, being lazy - but those are choices that individuals have to make, not be forced upon by a large government. Especially when women and children cannot eat because the same government will not protect the rights of these workers. As you can see this book grabbed me. It will grab and challenge you to!
Rating:
Summary: more, please
Review: I now know more about drug and obscenity laws than I ever imagined I'd need the brain cell storage to accommodate ... and that's a peculiarly good thing. I came out of this book with a new set of unlikely personal heroes - men and women who first challenged the absurdly restrictive obscenity laws in order to make health and birth control information legal to ship through the US mail ... and even folks like the irrepressibly obnoxious Larry Flynt, who is in some respects our nation's last defense against enforced, legislated morality. Read about the bizarre, inconsistent and patently ridiculous drug laws that keep marijuana users under a heavier legal boot than convicted child rapists. Find out why I will never again, so long as I live, spend money at a Taco Bell. If this seems like a broad spread to cover in one book, that's because part of the beauty of Schlosser is his ability to ferret out the very real connections between legitimate business and the black markets that we (as the blindly consuming public) may never suspect. In our present culture of conspicuous censorship and our lamely moral-high-ground-napping political climate, this is a highly instructive read. GO AND GET IT. Consider it your civic duty to educate yourself on what your government and its corporate cohorts are really up to while you're not watching.
Rating:
Summary: revealing
Review: I thought it pretty shocking to read about the huge growing of cannabis on the vast plains in central USA. In particular because US authorities do not make a real effort to fight it.
These are the same authorities who do not fail to criticize any other country that fights differently than she pretends to do herself.
In my native Holland we already have reached Eric Schlosser's conclusion a long time ago: legalize soft drugs. They are medically no more harmful than alcohol and tobacco, and by legalizing huge powers will be released to fight the real bad stuff: the heroine and the cocaine.
Rating: 
Summary: One-sided arguments and author biases
Review: I was introduced to the writing of Eric Schlosser through his book Fast Food Nation. While FFN was a truly fascinating, entertaining, and enlightening look into the world of fast food and the industry's influence on American culture, Reefer Madness was the author's effort to train his skeptical journalistic skills on the American black market and its influence on our economy.
Unlike the book's predecessor, Reefer Madness reeked of the author's agenda. As Schlosser described case after case of the government's harsh prosecution of drug offenders (many of them first-timers), I got the impression that I was only being told half the story. There was an obvious point that Schlosser was trying to make, and I felt time and again that he was only reporting facts and anecdotes that supported his argument. I would like to have had the full stories, as reported from both prosecutors AND defendants, but the book comes up short in this regard.
Schlosser does do an excellent job of introducing us to three facets of the nation's black market economy: drugs, illegal (cheap) labor, and porn. He does a great job of bringing to light just how influential these facets are to our mainstream economy and daily lives. With regards to his fact finding efforts and presentation of little-known pieces of our society, Schlosser excels as usual. Unfortunately, the book is handicapped by the not-so-hidden agenda of its author and the one-sided arguments that are made on said agenda's behalf. All in all, a decent effort with some serious flaws.
Rating:
Summary: Sampler
Review: Reefer Madness is a stepping off point to research Schlosser's issues further. Of the advertised 310 pages, only 220-230 or so are text. Highly detailed notes follow, with myriad sources and their synopsis, spurring the reader toward more in-depth material.
Schlosser covers three aspects of the black market: 1) Pornography, which is now absorbed into the legal big business (and hence acceptable) market. 2) Illegal drugs, that a majority of voters prefer some legalization of... so the tide may be turning from illicit to licit. 3) Illegal workers, who are either ignored or profitably used, and are almost surely to be with us as far as the eye can see.
The big theme of Reefer Madness is that our (democratic) government is, relating to Schlosser's 3 issues, wholly lacking in big-picture common sense. Instead, the government is guided by big money and morality plays fuelled by (perpetual) campaign speeches. And constituents are too self-absorbed, apathetic, or busily treading water to push for more humane policies. I know, that all sounds cliche. But Reefer Madness gets into details. Schlosser stripped away some of my necessary illusions about government... illusions I wasn't really aware of having in the first place. After Reefer Madness, you will likely be changed and wondering "What the heck is going on?!" And, as usual, Schlosser tells good stories of individuals while making his macro-points. A quick, solid read.
Rating:
Summary: Ranges from enthralling to boring
Review: Schlosser, the author of the recently famous Fast Food Nation, follows up with another, though less than stellar, piece of social commentary. This time, however, he splices this shorter book into three different, partially related topics. One is about marijuana, the other is about migrant farm workers, and the last part is about the porn industry. All three sections explain the history, the social injustices, and the current state of those particular topics. With three different section, Schlosser fails to go in depth into some of the major issues. While not a flaw in itself, sometimes the information could have been more statistical or insightful. The first section is the best. He describes the continuing and perhaps fruitless effort of America's political system to stop the spread of weed. Though mostly anecdotal, he does open eyes to the unequal and baffling judicial and legislative steps to stop this so called problem. The second part of the book mainly concerns migrant strawberry workers from Mexico. Though informative, I think he fails to reveal why such a system continues to thrive. While describing their living conditions, there is little mention of the 'Not in my Backyard' movement,, and no mention of California's proposition 13. When he discusses there working conditions, he fails to fully explain the proposed guest worker program, nor does he provide statistics that could shed some more light on the subject. The last part, about the porn industry, is terrible. While most of the book is dedicated to high level issues and concerns, he basis this story on a porn distributor's legal dilemma in painfully boring detail. It seems like Schlosser really was obsessed with someone who wasn't that interesting. Schlosser goes into agonizing details - like literally giving the life story of the guy who eventually examined the porn distributor's taxes. This book is a quick read, but this leaves the impression of quick book of unrelated information tied together in order to capitalize on the buzz of the author's previous book.
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