Over at the Wall Street Journal, I review The Last Pirate: A Father, His Son, and the Golden Age of Marijuana by Tony Dokoupil. The author, who works for NBC, is himself a new father and worries about emulating his old man, who was a lousy parent (but a talented pot smuggler—perhaps one of the biggest during the Reagan era). Big Tony made millions and lost millions and seemingly has few regrets. The author wants to understand and maybe even love his father, which isn’t easy considering the damage he wreaked on his family.
It’s fairly safe to say Tony Dokoupil will be a better dad than Big Tony was.