High: Confessions of a Pot Smuggler

by Brian O'Dea

Book Overview

In the early 1980s, Brian O'Dea was operating a $100 million a year, 120-man drug smuggling business, and had developed a terrifying cocaine addiction. Under increasing threat from the DEA in 1986 for... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679312781
• ISBN13: 9780679312789
• Release Date: April 2006
• Publisher: Random House Canada
• Length: 358 Pages
• Weight: 1.38 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Finely woven story

Brian O'Dea does a beautiful job of weaving together several complicated story lines. There is his early life as a drug dealer and smuggler, his life in prison and the wonderful support system that exists currently. The chapters alternate in such a manner as to take the reader chronologically and artistically on this harrowing journey. I found the chapters written about O'Dea's time in prison to be prose bordering on poetry. Absolutely stunning bare, stark minimal descriptions bring the cell block to life. The characters throughout the journey are finely rendered. The reason I give this book FIVE stars is for pace. Because the story never gets stuck, I found myself flying through these pages and I normally read slowly. I enjoyed this book and will HIGHLY recommend it to my friends. I hope you enjoy it too. It is quite a ride!

He coulda been a contender

If the author of High, Brian O'Dea, had put half as much energy and ingenuity into a legitimate enterprise as he did into dope smuggling, he'd be running a Fortune 500 company by now. This guy was one sharp drug runner whose last caper was smuggling marijuana into the US in an operation that involved several sea-going commercial fishing ships, a fleet of tractor trailers and 110 people! High is the captivating story of how O'Dea got clean and sober (several times), fell back into the life (several times), had a spiritual awakening during an LSD trip, found Jesus, got Religion 2.0, then ended up in federal prison *after* he had become a drug counselor and had been clean for a couple of years. How that must have felt -- to have the DEA show up at your door and get sentenced to 10+ years in spite of the fact that you had become a solid citizen! Amazingly, O'Dea experienced all of this and more, and came out of it more or less intact. The story of how he coped with prison life is deeply inspiring and nearly as breathtaking as the tales of his smuggling exploits. And the real kicker is that he somehow manages to write about his wild life in a way that makes the reader realize how horrific it all was -- not just the prison part, but the high-rolling smuggler part too. O'Dea's pain leaks through his prose right onto the pages of this absorbing book. This is a perfect vacation read -- gripping in its intensity and pace, yet meaningful in many ways that will keep you mulling the story over for days after you finish the last page.

High: Confessions of A Pot Smuggler and Truth Seeker

This book is indeed a wild ride into the life, heart and soul of not just an ordinary man but a man who against all odds lived to tell the tale. In a world where drugs and addiction are made light of, and our penal systems overflow with the broken lives and souls of our neighbors, our doctors, our lawyers, our teachers, and our brothers and sisters, this is indeed a story that needed to be told. It is not just about of the adventures of a smuggler, but the journey we all take on one level or another to come home to ourselves. It highlights the sheer audacity of legal systems around the world, treating a disease as a criminal offense instead of the medical condition that it is. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone, there is something for all of us in this book.

WHAT A WILD RIDE!!

Told with raw truth, intelligence and compassion. A journey on a run-away life. Danger and daring holding hands with a traveller who couldn't get off the speeding train. From the dangerous scene of Columbian cocaine to bringing in the largest marijuana shipments in U.S. history, the spectaclar crash was soon to come. Fun and ferocity juggling a basically good human being. The example of inequity of laws regarding the herb marijuana as opposed to, say, all the giant liquor companies, is stunning. A book difficult to leave alone until you finish reading it. And after that, it still takes up space in your mind.

Bad laws

The author makes smuggling sound easy,its not.Although millions smoke marijuana/hashish worldwide and cant see why it is illegal the authorities treat trafficars worse than murderers as Brian finds out.Brian crops up in 'Reefer'by Tony Thomson.Both books show the extraordinary lengths the authorities go and how ruthless they are.High is well written and provides an insight into a trade that allows the rest of us our joint or line.