Pubdate: Sat, 06 May 2006
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2006 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Peter Edwards

REGRETS? EVEN DOPE DEALERS HAVE A FEW

True Crime

Confession Rings Hollow In Ex-Con's Tale Of How A Son Of Privilege 
Became A Big-Time Drug Peddler

High: Confessions of a Pot Smuggler

by Brian O'Dea

Random House Canada,

358 pages, $34.95

There was a point, about halfway through Brian O'Dea's High: 
Confessions of a Pot Smuggler, when I felt an urge to put it down and 
forget it. It wasn't that it was badly written, which it isn't, or 
that its material (organized crime, prisons, redemption) isn't 
interesting, which it is. It's just that I didn't like the way the 
book made me feel -- old and conservative.

Instead of the subtitle "confessions of a pot smuggler," it would be 
more accurate to say "confessions of a pot and cocaine smuggler."

And there were several points when the word "confessions" rang 
hollow. It seemed like he was romanticizing or rationalizing or 
revelling in telling old war stories, but hardly confessing.

O'Dea doesn't stop to speculate on how much damage illegal drugs have 
done to the societies of Colombia or North America. Never does he 
hint at what his connection was to such organized crime groups as 
outlaw bikers and traditional mobsters.

At the same time, he seemed to assume that others should be purer than pure.

While O'Dea helped moved boatloads, truckloads and shiploads of drugs 
for several years, he still feels strangely comfortable judging, and 
even lecturing, others.

Perhaps the reason the book bothered me so much at the midway point 
was that I wanted O'Dea, now a Toronto film and TV producer and a 
married dad, to appear a little more repentant and a lot more open 
about his younger self.

Instead, he seemed to see himself as something between a victim (he 
was molested by a priest as a young boy), a philosopher (he writes 
about "the setting, the food, the drink, the women -- it was all 
empty and wonderful") and as a crusader of sorts (when he was shipped 
north, from an American prison to Millhaven near Kingston, a fellow 
prisoner told him, "Change all of this, Brian. You're the man. Change 
it for us.")

O'Dea had plenty of breaks in life. His family was well connected in 
Newfoundland business and political circles. He was smart and 
apparently charming and certainly knew how to tell a story. He had 
plenty of options. He chose to move drugs.

His confessions only came after he was arrested and his options were 
cut. Even then, he still seems more proud than confessional.

Talking of the prison system, he writes: "The core of me -- my 
integrity, my humour, my loyalty, are all inaccessible to it."

One wonders what constitutes the integrity of a drug trafficker. And 
what's the loyalty of someone who sells out even his family for 
profit and powder?

At another point he writes: "Bob was a gentle and idealistic 
capitalist, a laissez faire pot smuggler who shied away from 
everything else. He was well liked, honourable ..."

I'm sure Bob had plenty of good points, but it's scary to think 
idealism and honour have been debased to the point that they describe 
career drug traffickers.

Still, I read on, and couldn't help but be impressed by the book's 
structure, as it cuts back and forth from O'Dea's life in the drug 
trade to that inside prison.

The dialogue helps the story flow, although I doubted the 
authenticity of supposed verbatim conversations, despite the alleged 
use of his prison diaries. I'm sure he didn't tape them or make 
notes, and he was often wasted on drugs himself -- but there they 
are, page after page of conversations.

O'Dea does offer insights. Among them, I found it interesting when he 
writes that he found Canadian prisons more violent than their 
American counterparts, and that convicts here seem to run the show.

In the end, for all my reservations, I'm glad I completed my reading 
of High. When I finally set it down, I decided it would be too glib 
to simply dismiss O'Dea as one of those annoying people who think 
they're insightful simply because they've fried their brains with dope.

Yet it would also be a mistake to herald him as some kind of 
philosopher, as he might have us believe.

It's a myth to think that just because the system has flaws, somehow 
criminals can be noble or honest.

Star reporter Peter Edwards has written eight non-fiction books, four 
on organized crime. Northern Connection: Inside Canada's Deadliest 
Mafia Family is to be released next month
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman