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1. In the prologue O’Dea tells the story of his first day at a Catholic boy’s school. How do you think this event affects this little boy? Does keeping this secret set the tone for his later life? What effect did growing up in the Catholic Church have on O’Dea? As O’Dea describes the DEA coming to his house and ultimately his surroundings at Terminal Island, how did you feel about that eleven-year-old boy?

2. O’Dea describes his recreational, experimental drug use as a teenager in Newfoundland. Is this experimentation typical? Does he take bigger risks than others? Is this different from teenagers experimenting with alcohol and cigarettes, or the same?

3. As Brian realizes he can pay for his own drugs by selling them to his friends, we see his entrepreneurial spirit develop. Is he similar or different from his father, who owns a brewery, or the same? Is he similar or different from the Kennedy family during prohibition in the U.S., or the same?

4. Brian is in prison in Newfoundland and his first marriage fails. When he is released from prison he instinctively jumps on a plane for Colombia. What does this say about his character? What does it say about the risks he is willing to take? At what cost for O’Dea? What character traits help him survive the risks he takes?

5. When Brian focuses his entrepreneurial skills on doing legal business --- the concert in Jamaica, the hair products, dinosaur bones --- things don't work out. Is it self-sabotage? Why is he not successful?

6. What motivated Brian to get out of the business? What motivated him to get clean and stay that way? If Brian were your son, brother, husband, or father, how would you have related to him over the years?

7. Brian has been married three times and divorced twice. Can you relate to his first and second wives and their reasons for getting out of the marriage? Would you have stayed or left? His current wife has been with him since he was nine months sober. She stayed through the indictment, the sentencing, prison, parole, and the years of reinventing a life. Why did she stay? Would you have stayed?

8. What kind of person is Brian O’Dea?

9. What do you think of the title of the book? What title would you give the book?

10. Currently in the U.S. murder is punishable by a sentence of three to six years in prison, but drug offenses are punishable by thirty to fifty years in prison. Do you agree with this? How do you feel as a taxpayer supporting the people serving these sentences?

11. Brian was able to survive prison and avoid any serious conflicts or confrontations. How?

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"High offers an intensive crash course in Dope Smuggling 101 intercut with a graduate seminar on doing time in the American gulag. O’Dea writes with telling authority and heartfelt sensitivity, to say nothing of self-effacing humor. Get High."

— Richard Stratton, author of Altered States of America

"Brian O’Dea has delivered a book that reads like a thriller, but is in fact and an honest, daring, inspiring life-changer, and deserves the widest possible readership."

— John Wareham, author of The President’s Therapist

"High is one hell of a wild ride on a full-throttle journey down the highway of life."

— Edward Winterhalder, author of Biker Chicks

"High is crammed full of gritty adventure, exciting deal-making, human misery, humor, touching character studies, mysterious shenanigans, and lots and lots of heart."

— Kenneth J. Harvey, author of Inside

"Now-reformed smuggler O'Dea pulls back the curtain on the machinations and motivations of a hugely successful, outrageously addicted 1980s drug trafficker whose redemption came too late to save him from prison... O'Dea maintains a sense of numbing repetition that resonates with the addiction narrative and keeps the drug cowboy tales grounded. Throughout his life's many ups and downs, however, O’Dea remains a charming, relatable narrator you can’t help but root for."

— Publishers Weekly