High: Confessions of a Pot Smuggler

By Brian O'Dea

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jan 29, 2010
• ISBN: 9780307375506

Reviews for High

[hagelstein_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This memoir by Brian O'Dea, Canadian pot smuggler, alternates betwen his expolits in the 70s and 80s and his prison time in the 90s at Terminal Island prison in Los Angeles. The thrills and wealth are counterbalanced by the descriiptions of heartache and trouble O'Dea caused his family, and himself. He writes objectively and skillfully about his experiences - including his turn as a born-again christian and drug counselor.

[bcquinnsmom · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Told in alternating locations and times, High is the very personal story of Brian O'Dea, who was the son of a somewhat prominent family in Newfoundland who eventually became a very high-rolling international drug smuggler. It took the DEA a long time, but finally O'Dea was arrested and put into prison at Terminal Island near Long Beach, California. His story is one of many highs (literally) and then the lows of hitting bottom, losing everything, and then being put into the US Federal Prison system, where for many, hope is nonexistent.High is funny at times, while being serious all of the time. O'Dea's writing style is real, giving his readers small punctuated glimpses into the drug trade, prison life, and the reality of often overblown sentencing laws for first-time drug offenders. He never shies away from admitting his mistakes, and gets a bit introspective at times while trying to just hang on and make it through another day. It also highlights the often absurd points about the US war on drugs, especially on the part of officials in other countries who supposedly have a stake in combatting the trafficking of illegal substances. The only thing I didn't really like about this book was that it seemed too condensed -- I know there's more that's not being told.The book is well written, and didn't come across as a "poor pitiful me" kind of story which it easily could have. Au contraire, it is more of a look at a man who screwed up, paid the price, and got himself out of the hole of his former existence. I'd recommend it to people who are interested in personal or inspirational memoirs, or people who are interested in reading about the drug trade.