Customer Reviews

Smokescreen: A True Adventure

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I guess they changed the title of this book at some point -- the copy I got from the library was called "Loaded, A Misadventure In the Marijuana Trade". At any rate, forget any tepid reviews by "professional" reviewers who somehow feel this story wasn't quite up to their literary standards. The book is just a flat out great read and had me laughing out loud many times. A hilarious but cautionary tale with a serious ending, the adventures of pot smuggler Allen Long are so far out there that you know they must be true. Any baby boomer who did time in the counter culture of the 60s and 70s, or who is familiar with the drug culture of that era will get a big kick out of this book, and I'd think many younger readers would enjoy it as well.

Allen Long was a man of immense ability, ambition and personal charm, as well as a natural leader... who also loved to smoke the best pot he could find. He probably would have been successful in any field but some people need to take the road less travelled. Long was the man responsible for Columbian marijuana coming to the US (millions of tons of it). I got the impression that he was as much a crusader for marijuana as he was in it for the money, at least in the beginning. The first part of the book is almost like a Cheech & Chong screenplay, with multi-million dollar deals and hair-raising scenarios being improvised by people who stay as stoned-out as possible at all times; but by the end the gangsters have moved in, the trade has turned to cocaine, and the intial hippie-capitalist spirit has vanished, to be replaced with cutthroat competition, greed and violence. Long never has the heart to become a gangster and is eventually squeezed out of the business by the more ruthless and hungry Latin Americans. It's a look at a particular part of era that hasn't often been told, and certainly never told in such a thoroughly entertaining manner. Thumbs up all the way.

I know Allen Long and think that he must be one of the most adventurous men I've ever met. This book is his tale of his younger years, running the gambit on the Mary Jane trail; taking the risks and living the life that goes with it. What makes this book so awesome, is that Allen actually did live this book! This isn't a story to be told to wow anyone; Allen is a wealthy man today and doesn't need to impress anyone. This is just a good book about something that we all would have probably loved to try back in our younger years if we just had the balls...Allen has those balls you wished you had. A must read if you want to re-live some fantasy's and live vicariously through Allen Long!

This book reads like a novel, only better. Very fast paced and always holds your interest, if you find the "70's pot smuggling scene" interesting. These characters seem like pirates, like a fantasy. Very easy to read. I liked it.

Following the modern day swashbuckler, Allen Long, on his adventurous trips in the smuggling business gives the reader a lesson in how North America's appetite for marijuana was fed for the decade after the 60's.

The author Sabbag concentrates on the fast-paced smuggling business, denying the reader insight into the characters risking life and limb to become the Kings of Pot. As a result, the whole book is a sustained flurry of activity. This isn't a bad thing, as the lack of character development creates the atmosphere I imagine the protagonist Long lived in - one of many contacts, and never being sure who they really are and who is going to play an important part later on in the story.

I walked away from this book with the distinct impression that smugglers, perhaps more than anything else, are adrenaline junkies. Stepping up drug interdiction efforts is to people like Long what one more school bus was to Evil Knievel; the bigger the risk, the bigger the rush.

I'm not giving anything away when I say the book ends with the quote "this would make a great movie." Perhaps that is why over half of Americans still support this War on Drugs - it's so entertaining.

I couldn't stop reading once I started. I am glad to see folks writing about our generation and what we did.. It was just like real life!
Highly recommended
Rick Moore

Robert Sabbag has written a funny / exciting story. The author does a great job of putting you back into the early days of the drug trade. It is one of the better books I have read recently. This guy did a lot but his world wasn't quite as ruthless as the top level Pablo Escobar types.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but that doesn't mean everyone has to like other people's opinions everytime. Robert Sabbag is Hot Property and by far one of the best journalist type writer working these days. His account of the "Mari-Jane" Trade is nothing short of spectacular. As much as certain segments of the population might want to criticize all things involving drugs, it is still quite obvious that these stories are highly (and I stress "highly") connected with american culture and also the world. This book is fun to read and captures a period of time where the individuals of this great country attempted and many more times than not, succeeded, in transporting large quantities of "Weed" via sea or air and then selling most of it at a large profit. The curse, of course, is that harder drugs were widely accepted later and consumed by societies around the world and of course, what at first began as a free enterprise later got ugly and I am not getting into it. For the earlier years of the smuggling "craze" Smokescreen does a fine job and Robert Sabbag either by first hand or second hand knowledge captures an entire period with a specially acute sense of humor. For that I give it a 5 star rating, anything less would be "uncivilized".

This was by far the best book I have ever read. Every time I picked it up I read at least three chapters. I felt like I was really there and that I had actually met the characters. The author gives great detail but in a way that does not at all bore you. This is an excellent book and I highly recommend it!!!

The author Robert Sabbag has this scene nailed down. I thought I had read, or maybe even lived it all. No sir. This book "jacks it up" to new levels of adreneline pumping. These characters had balls. Big ones. And it is really fun to read about people like that.

The opening, where a DC-3 is barely making it to the Columbian border at sunrise after a few days of flight is second to none. One of the best and tightest openings to any book I have ever read. Where is the movie???

Thank you, Mr. Sabbag

Overall a very good read. A little slow and wordy out of the gate but once the action starts it goes through to the end. Reads like a blockbuster movie script. Found myself thinking about a career change midway through the book.