The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration estimates that Americans in the early 1970s were smoking upwards of 35,000 pounds of marijuana per day. By the time the decade drew to a close, "Time" magazine reported that reefer had become "the most widely accepted illegal indulgence since drinking during Prohibition."
You can thank Jimmy Moree for helping to feed America's insatiable pot habit. Nicknamed "Jimmy Divine" for his teetotaling ways, he would become one of the most successful marijuana traffickers of the 1970s, smuggling high-grade South American weed across the tempestuous seas into North American ports of call.
He was born and grew up poor in the Bahamas. That life was forever changed on a morning jog when Jimmy literally stumbled onto several million dollars' worth of prime Colombian grass. He disposed of the weed with a little help from a law-enforcement friend and was surprised to earn over three hundred thousand dollars for his trouble. It was the first deal of many. The money was easy, and the perks fantastic. Jimmy went on to make―and give away―a fortune.
And now award-winning journalist John McCaslin is telling Jimmy's story. Several of the characters are identified by their actual names or by nicknames. Identities of others have been changed to protect the guilty. Rest assured, you're in for a white-knuckle ride on the open seas where adventure, enterprise, and entire fortunes go up in smoke.
"McCaslin brings his exceptional reportorial talent to bear in a fascinating expose of the drug trade." --G. GORDON LIDDY
"Told in a breezy, witty style, McCaslin's book captures moments in relatively recent Caribbean history when it was . . . possible to make a fortune by the ability to steer a boat stealthily through dangerous seas." --MARK BOWDEN
Endorsements
"I'm delighted to see that John McCaslin has climbed out of his political trench in Washington long enough to set sail on this astonishing journey through the precarious Caribbean reefs, and beyond. Somehow, in typical McCaslin fashion, he manages to bring his readers back to the nation's capital in a chapter that will certainly have official tongues wagging in Washington." -- Katie Couric, anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News and former co-host of NBC's "Today"
"This story is so compelling . . . John McCaslin has put it all together in a way that simply made me want to just keep on reading. Wow." --Wolf Blitzer, anchor and host of the CNN newscast "The Situation Room"
"For years everybody in Washington has turned to John McCaslin's Inside The Beltway column for the inside skinny on what is going on in our nation's capital. Now, in Weed Man: The Remarkable Journey of Jimmy Divine, McCaslin brings his exceptional reportorial talent to bear in a fascinating expose of the drug trade." --G. Gordon Liddy, Watergate figure and nationally-syndicated radio host
"McCaslin was a 20-something White House correspondent covering my dad, Ronald Reagan, when I first read his unique musings. Maybe I'm not surprised, given the cast of characters and shenanigans he calls attention to every day in his Inside the Beltway column, that he's now somehow made his way to a distant tropical island and uncovered the colorful if not hilarious escapades of drug trafficker Jimmy Divine." --Michael Reagan, presidential son and nationally syndicated radio host
"This reads like a bestseller. It's about time we hear from a genuine pot smuggler of Jimmy Divine's caliber who opens our eyes to the high times and high jinks on the high seas." --Tommy Chong, comedian and actor of Cheech & Chong fame
"Proof positive that the extras in James Bond movies are far more interesting than the films, the story of Harbour Island's Jimmy Divine is so colorful it is hard to believe ... or put down. Told in a breezy, witty style, McCaslin's book captures moments in relatively recent Caribbean history when it was again possible to make a fortune by the ability to steer a boat stealthily through dangerous seas." --Mark Bowden, author of "Black Hawk Down, Guests of the Ayatollah" and "Killing Pablo"
"Facts are easy. Anyone can find facts for a story. What McCaslin always finds is heart." --Brad Meltzer, author of New York Times best-selling mystery/suspense novels "The Tenth Justice, Dead Even, The First Counsel, The Millionaires, The Zero Game, The Book of Fate, The Book of Lies"