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Smuggler's Blues

A True Story of the Hippie Mafia

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Smuggler's Blues

By: Richard Stratton
Narrated by: Richard Stratton
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About this listen

Goodfellas meets Savages meets Catch Me If You Can in this true tale of high-stakes smuggling from pot's outlaw years.

Richard Stratton was the unlikeliest of kingpins. A clean-cut Wellesley boy who entered outlaw culture on a trip to Mexico, he saw his search for a joint morph into a thrill-filled dope run, smuggling two kilos across the border in his car door. He became a member of the Hippie Mafia, traveling the world to keep America high, living the underground life while embracing the hippie credo, rejecting hard drugs in favor of marijuana and hashish.

With cameos by Whitey Bulger and Norman Mailer, Smuggler's Blues tells Stratton's adventure while centering on his last years as he travels from New York to Lebanon's Bekaa Valley to source and smuggle high-grade hash in the midst of civil war, from the Caribbean to the backwoods of Maine, and from the Chelsea Hotel to the Plaza as his fortunes rise and fall. All the while he is being pursued by his nemesis, a philosophical DEA agent who respects him for his good business practices.

A true-crime story that sounds like fiction, Smuggler's Blues is a psychedelic road trip through international drug smuggling, the hippie underground, and the war on weed. As Big Marijuana emerges, it brings to vivid life an important chapter in pot's cultural history.

©2016 Richard Stratton (P)2016 Audible, Inc.
Freedom & Security Organized Crime Politics & Government Social Sciences True Crime Crime Marijuana War Middle East
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really enjoyed his tales of decadence and deborchery!
assume this is sequel in the slammer !

Great old romp !

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Loved the story.
Lebanon?! Crazy to think all this was is and has been going on.

What a story!

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Great story, Great writing. Great narration. loved it.
why must i type another 15 words?

Great story, Great writing. Great narration. loved it.

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Awesome insight into another time. Many thanks Richard - I hope you have found peace

A great story, well told

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Wow! The author shared his journey as a smuggler of marijuanas. Living on the edge. Driven by this lifestyle. it has given me a wonderful insight into the experience, thoughts, feelings, reflections and ethics of his life when smuggling. Richard sacrificed much because of his compulsion to continue and carry on and on, even though he had the money and enough of the herb. By writing this superb book he has given so much of himself to the people of this world. He writes well and it reads well. A delightful read. He has honoured humanity and his creator by sharing. I thoroughly enjoyed travelling with him. thank you!

Brilliant book by excellent author. I loved listening to Richard Straton

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