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, Michael 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, Michael 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, Michael 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, Michael 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 Michael’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.

Publication of the "New South African Review, " produced from the department of sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand, " "represents the launch of an exciting new annual series of studies in South African politics, economics, and society. Drawing together original contributions, Volume 1 2010 will range widely over South Africa's location in the global economic crisis, the mounting environmental challenges facing the country, and the extent of poverty and unemployment through to the state of Zuma's ANC, land reform, and other critical issues confronting South African society: crime, child trafficking, HIV-Aids, indigent management, the justice system, and so on. Controversial, challenging and critical, the collection is framed by the question of whether South Africa can shift from a present path heralding long-term decline to a more optimistic future of global competitiveness and sustainable development. A vital read for all those wishing to keep track of present policies, trends, and outcomes in South African political economy. Contributors to the volume include: Devan Pillay, Mark Swilling, Mike Muller on the environmental crisis; Neva Magketla, Seeraj Mohammed, Sam Kariuki, Doreen Atkinson, and Scarlett Cornellison on the economy; Anthony Butler, Maxi Schoeman, Liezl Loots and Kammila Naidoo on politics; Colin Hoag, Prishani Naidoo, Jeremy Gordin and Louis Reynolds on state policy; Zosa de Sas Kropiwnicki, Hein Marais, Peter Vale, Loren Landau, Tara Polzer, Aurelia Wa Kabwe Segatti, Terry Ann Selikow, and Graham Gibbon on society and crisis; Roger Southall on development or decline.