Former international drug smuggler gets high on life

Brian O'Dea talks to IrishCentral about his new autobiography, "High"

Says O’Dea, laughing, “I got 10 years. What a great gift that was. It was one of my life’s greatest gifts outside of my beautiful family.

“It reinforced my understanding that no matter what had happened in my life I could still remain a reasonable and decent human being, which was really important to help me make it through the rest of my life. It also gave me the time to write my book, and develop a relationship with my parents.

“I finally got to know them, and they got to know me. It wouldn’t have happened without all this.”

It’s an unlikely happy ending to a life that seemed headed for tragedy. And in the process O’Dea, who now lives in Toronto with his wife and son, has learned about drugs, having spent years taking them and transporting them. He’s forthright about how to combat them now.

“Legalize them,” he says. “We’ve thrown a trillion dollars into the war on drugs that hasn’t worked. In fact it’s only gotten worse.

“We are giving criminal gangs the run of the neighborhoods in the U.S. and Mexico. Drugs are their only currency. If we take away their currency we’ll stop the gangland shootings in the U.S. and Mexico. Alcohol prohibition, drug prohibition -- same problem, same solution.”

“High”, by Brian O’Dea is published by Random House. 

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Nster.com