Pubdate: Sun, 13 Jul 2003
Source: Charlotte Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2003 The Charlotte Observer
Contact:  http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/78
Author: Bill Williams, Hartford Courant
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

BLACK-SHEEP CAPITALISTS

Schlosser Challenges Wisdom Of Our Laws Regarding Marijuana, Pornography,
Migrants

REEFER MADNESS: Sex, Drugs and Cheap Labor in the American Black
Market By Eric Schlosser. Houghton Mifflin. 310 pages. $23

Pornography, marijuana and illegal migrant workers have this in common
- -- they are part of a vast, mushrooming underground economy, says Eric
Schlosser, who won acclaim for his first book, "Fast Food Nation."

His somewhat disjointed new book, "Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap
Labor in the American Black Market," contains just three chapters, one
on each subject, and much of the material appeared previously in
magazine articles. The three segments, though well reported,
unfortunately do not add up to a larger whole.

Two chapters document the hypocrisy of strident public condemnation of
marijuana and pornography despite the insatiable private consumption
of each.

Schlosser provides fascinating background and context. Virginia passed
the first law on marijuana in 1619, requiring every household to grow
the weed for fiber needed to make sails for ships. During World War
II, the federal government encouraged farmers to plant marijuana to
replace fiber supplies from Asia. Gradually, state and federal laws
against marijuana possession and sale became tougher, and some
offenders today are sentenced to life in prison without parole.

"A society," Schlosser observes, "that can punish a marijuana offender
more severely than a murderer is caught in the grip of a deep psychosis."

Schlosser says it makes no sense to treat users of small amounts of
marijuana as criminals. He says employers, politicians and anti-drug
crusaders seem paranoid about marijuana, while devoting less attention
to tobacco and alcohol, which kill millions.

Young people, however, "should be strongly discouraged" from smoking
marijuana because it is "a powerful intoxicant" that "can diminish
academic and athletic performance," he says.

The pornography industry is much larger than many people imagine, his
research shows. He says hard-core video rentals rose from $79 million
in the early 1980s to three-quarters of a billion two years ago, and
Americans spend as much as $10 billion a year on videos, Internet
pornography, phone sex, sexual toys, sex magazines and other items.

Much of the pornography chapter revolves around Reuben Sturman, an
Ohio businessman who used aliases, dummy companies and foreign bank
accounts to hide the millions he made as he dominated the production
and distribution of pornography nationwide. Federal agents finally got
Sturman for tax fraud in 1989. Schlosser implies that laws against
pornography, except for child pornography, should be repealed but is
vague about specifics.

In the final chapter, he offers a short but compelling portrait of the
thousands of impoverished Mexicans who cross into California illegally
to harvest strawberries. The migrants work long, grueling hours for
little pay. Many live in filthy camps hidden on hillsides, in
makeshift huts "like criminals or Viet Cong." Schlosser says federal
law was amended in 1986 to make it a crime to hire illegal immigrants,
but the law is widely ignored.

Schlosser was praised for his account of the dark side of the
fast-food industry and is at work on a book about prisons. But "Reefer
Madness" feels less like a thoughtful book than a collection of essays
loosely centered on black market activity.

His careful research sometimes is undercut by sweeping statements. He
says, for example, that in 5,000 years of marijuana use, there has not
been a single death "credibly attributed directly" to its use -- a
seemingly unprovable assertion. Of illegal farm work, he concludes,
"Left to its own devices, the free market always seeks a work force
that is hungry, desperate and cheap," an overly broad indictment.

Nevertheless, Schlosser offers a useful short history of his subjects,
and his arguments raise questions about the wisdom of national policy
regarding pornography and marijuana.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin