High Times: The Extraordinary Life of a Joburg Dope Smuggler by Roy Isacowitz and Jeremy Gordin is out now from Jonathan Ball Publishers!

High Times is the true story of Michael Medjuck, whose taste for weed, women and the good life led him from late-1960s Johannesburg to notoriety as one of the biggest hash and weed smugglers in North America.

From his base in Vancouver, Medjuck built up a smuggling network that supplied dealers in scores of cities across Canada and the United States. The proceeds of smuggling afforded this former King David High School pupil a lifestyle of hedonistic excess – the finest wines, the most glamorous hookers, the best weed in the world.

In 1991, Medjuck was nabbed by US federal agents while smuggling an enormous shipload of Afghani hash into the West Coast of Canada. Put on trial as the scheme’s mastermind, Medjuck was convicted and sentenced to 24 years behind bars. His US prison experiences, from dingy county lock-ups to brutal federal penitentiaries, are the stuff of legend. Eventually, a chance remark to his lawyer led to his early release and return to Canada.

After barely a year of freedom, Medjuck was again arrested – this time in Spain for an ill-judged cocaine-smuggling venture – and sentenced to another prison term of nine years.

This is Medjuck’s extraordinary story, as told to fellow South Africans Roy Isacowitz, author and journalist, and the late Jeremy Gordin, award-winning journalist, editor and author.

About the authors

Roy Isacowitz is an author and journalist, now retired in Tel Aviv.

Jeremy Gordin was an award-winning journalist, editor and author, who tragically passed away during the writing of this book.

Categories Non-fiction South Africa

Tags High Times Jeremy Gordin Jonathan Ball Publishers New books New releases Roy Isacowitz