- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Random House Canada; 1 edition (April 11 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0679312781
- ISBN-13: 978-0679312789
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15.2 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 544 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #83,623 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
“A tightly edited, slick product that will appeal to a wide variety of readers…. Edgy, staccato accounts of the monotonous, terrifying lunacy of a massively overcrowded federal correctional institution are wonderfully realized.” —The Telegram (St. John’s)
“High is an often gripping and sometimes mordantly funny memoir…. A book that’s clearly the product of a fine, and disciplined, mind.”
—Winnipeg Free Press
From the Trade Paperback edition.
“High is an often gripping and sometimes mordantly funny memoir…. A book that’s clearly the product of a fine, and disciplined, mind.”
—Winnipeg Free Press
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Product Description
How a privileged son of Newfoundland became one of the world’s most efficient marijuana traffickers – and then gave it all up.
An intriguing ad ran in the Employment Wanted section of a Toronto newspaper in February 2001:
FORMER MARIJUANA SMUGGLER
Having successfully completed a ten-year sentence, incident free, for importing 75 tons of marijuana into the United States, I am now seeking a legal and legitimate means to support myself and my family.
Business experience: Owned and operated a successful fishing business -- multi-vessel, one airplane, one island and processing facility. Simultaneously owned and operated a fleet of tractor-trailer trucks conducting business in the western United States. During this time I also participated in the executive level management of 120 people worldwide in a successful pot-smuggling venture with revenues in excess of $100-million US annually...
Among the advertiser’s references was the US district attorney who was responsible for his arrest in 1990 and who had reminded the trial judge that the offence could carry the death penalty. The ad made news around the world and also captured the resilient spirit of Brian O’Dea, a remarkable man who, even in his darkest hours of addiction and criminality, never lost the love of family and friends.
The O’Dea family is well known in government and legal circles in Newfoundland. But the family’s prominence could not protect their middle son from sexual abuse at the hands of priests. Brian became the black sheep, and turned to drugs in his late teens for the money, for the excitement, and for an escape from himself. Twenty-five years later, when the cops finally knocked on his door at the end of a massive DEA investigation, he had given up the trade and was a recovered cocaine addict working as a drug addiction counsellor in Santa Barbara. He had finally begun to understand how he had ended up in the drug world. He was tried and sentenced to ten years to be served at Terminal Island federal prison in Los Angeles Harbor.
High interweaves extracts of his prison diary – perceptive, funny and alarming all at once – with the vivid recounting of his outlaw years and the dawning recognition of those things in his life that were worth living for.
An intriguing ad ran in the Employment Wanted section of a Toronto newspaper in February 2001:
FORMER MARIJUANA SMUGGLER
Having successfully completed a ten-year sentence, incident free, for importing 75 tons of marijuana into the United States, I am now seeking a legal and legitimate means to support myself and my family.
Business experience: Owned and operated a successful fishing business -- multi-vessel, one airplane, one island and processing facility. Simultaneously owned and operated a fleet of tractor-trailer trucks conducting business in the western United States. During this time I also participated in the executive level management of 120 people worldwide in a successful pot-smuggling venture with revenues in excess of $100-million US annually...
Among the advertiser’s references was the US district attorney who was responsible for his arrest in 1990 and who had reminded the trial judge that the offence could carry the death penalty. The ad made news around the world and also captured the resilient spirit of Brian O’Dea, a remarkable man who, even in his darkest hours of addiction and criminality, never lost the love of family and friends.
The O’Dea family is well known in government and legal circles in Newfoundland. But the family’s prominence could not protect their middle son from sexual abuse at the hands of priests. Brian became the black sheep, and turned to drugs in his late teens for the money, for the excitement, and for an escape from himself. Twenty-five years later, when the cops finally knocked on his door at the end of a massive DEA investigation, he had given up the trade and was a recovered cocaine addict working as a drug addiction counsellor in Santa Barbara. He had finally begun to understand how he had ended up in the drug world. He was tried and sentenced to ten years to be served at Terminal Island federal prison in Los Angeles Harbor.
High interweaves extracts of his prison diary – perceptive, funny and alarming all at once – with the vivid recounting of his outlaw years and the dawning recognition of those things in his life that were worth living for.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Lots of Reasons Not to Become a Drug Smuggler,
By Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 112,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (#1 HALL OF FAME)
This review is from: High: Confessions of a Pot Smuggler (Paperback)
"But the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places." -- 2 Kings 12:3 (NKJV)Anyone reading this book will wonder whether it's more fiction than fact when it comes to recounting the drug smuggling life, but the point is the same: Don't do it! I read the book while on a long plane trip while having too little reading material. I'm not quite sure I would have finished it otherwise. While it's a cautionary tale, I'm not sure that it added anything to my life or valuable understanding. But then, most novels and nonfiction books have that in common . . . they don't add much value. The book's most interesting points are the author's strong sense of irony, which he uses to make the autobiographical elements more intriguing. If you aren't into irony, you will probably think this book isn't worth three stars. If you doubt its veracity in the details, you'll rate it lower.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A pleasant surprise.,
This review is from: High: Confessions of a Pot Smuggler (Hardcover)
I recently had the pleasure of working with Brian and was excited to read his book. Brian was very surprised when I asked him to sign it. "Brian, will you sign this for me?" "What is it?" "It's your book." "Really??" He had never seen a hardcover copy of his own book! Great experience. Fast shipping, mint condition, rare hardcover copy of a great book, now personalized. Thank you again!!
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.6 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews) 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
High: Confessions of A Pot Smuggler and Truth Seeker,
By Kim Jewell-Kressibucher - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: High: Confessions of a Pot Smuggler (Paperback)
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.
5.0 out of 5 stars
WHAT A WILD RIDE!!,
By Wilda Fonseca - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: High: Confessions of a Pot Smuggler (Paperback)
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.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bad laws,
By Ian Hughes "ihu6297959" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: High: Confessions of a Pot Smuggler (Hardcover)
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.
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