Video: Over the Edge On February 23, 2009, 24-year-old Sam Brown of British Columbia was arrested by U.S. authorities in Washington State as he landed a helicopter he had piloted across the border. Sam’s crime: he was attempting to smuggle almost 200 kilograms of marijuana, “B.C. Bud”. Only a few days after his arrest, Sam hanged himself in his jail cell. In Over the Edge, Linden MacIntyre takes us into the world of drug smuggling in B.C. and the role in it of young people like Sam Brown.
Sam was an extreme sports enthusiast, who thrived on the adrenaline of risk taking. He grew up in the B.C. interior, living in Nelson, where the flourishing mountain biking scene offered him new challenges. Rugged and picturesque, Nelson is a hotbed for the young and unconventional, a magnet for extreme sports enthusiasts—and a centre for the lucrative, underground marijuana industry.
The homegrown pot, “B.C. Bud”, pours billions of illegal dollars into local economies in B.C. Huge demand for the drug has allowed Nelson to ride out normal economic swings. But “B.C. Bud” also fuels a multi-billion dollar criminal enterprise on B.C.’s lower mainland and the United States, sustained largely by a core group of thrill-seekers like Sam—young people who smuggle drugs for the sheer high of the risk and their addiction to the money.
In Over the Edge, the fifth estate reconstructs Sam’s final smuggling mission. Linden MacIntyre speaks with a former smuggler who recruited Sam into that world. Viewers will also hear from his sisters and father, still grappling with the circumstances of his arrest and his death, as well as Sam’s American lawyers, some of the last people to speak with him before he took his life.
Link to CBC to view the feature - Over the Edge
135 Comments
Sometimes you have the courage to live, and sometimes you have the courage to die.
Neither of them were an easy choice through his eyes.
I agree with Bigtard, leave him alone. Pay your respects to a fellow rider, if you don't agree shut your mouth.
Newfdh your name implies an east coast connection, is this true?
I hail from Isle Aux Morts
Idiots, sorry for sam
Doesn't matter if he didn't get a chance to "touch" the cocaine he was still going to transport it.
And don't try to lay the blame on the DEA or the justice department they weren't the ones who decided to traffic narcotics. (personal opinions don't factor into facts of law, so don't start about how weed is x, y, and z...not making a moral or policy argument)
Now see you didn't say what "we all learned something from this" so what did we "learn" cause I can't even figure anything out from your statements before this sentence. People should learn that international drug smuggling is highly illegal and the consequences are severe and scary.
And since you didn't refute any of my arguments, my argument about my "point" is right over yours.
40 years is a long time in jail, but really, be good in jail, they usually reduce your sentence by a few years. think of all the things you are leaving behind when you die. your causing grief on family and friends, you will never have kids/ a wife, never ride a bike again, and so many other simple joys in life. i wish he could be alive in jail right now and when he got out, im sure he would be happy if he had waited and could lead a normal life and die peacefully
RIP Sam
I hope you are riding the sweet trails of heaven
It's weird how the show explained what he did this as an adventure and doing it for the thrill rather than anything else. Although the money was lucrative and enticing, there were several points made that he was going to stop once he paid for the girl who was incarcerated because of the groups’ tactics and he felt obligated to pay for her attorney.
I find it weird that you compare drug dealing to “corporate banks playing with peoples money, stealing, lying, manipulating economies etc?” when this exact behavior ultimately led to Sam’s death. Sam needed the money so there was this looming attraction and lust for it in order to pay for an attorney for the girl that was imprisoned. He “stole” the helicopter that he used on his last drop or that is what the owner claims. The drug dealer on the US side who was supposed to be at the drop point was missing in action for 3 days and other people involved in this smuggling operation on the US side knew this vital information and didn’t let Sam know. Had he known, the argument is that he wouldn’t have flown and risked it. Therefore, he was manipulated by the very people who he trusted.
And fade, how can you compare this to corporate banks, you clearly dont understand banking operations, so dont go comparing it.
Its a sad story, but as laurie said, its the real world, drugs affect people, and drugs lead to death, you would all learn to take a far colder approach had you lost close members of your family to drugs.
smalltime (relatively) smugglers like Sam Brown are just symptoms of a fundamentally flawed system. fade86's comment was entirely relevant. the corporations and banks are just as much a part of this mess as the people on the street. if you are concerned with the drug problem in North America, do some reading up on the matter. it is alarming how much of it is controlled, either directly or through negligence, by the very people fighting it.
To ignore history is to repeat it. Hopefully the publication of Sam's story will save others from his fate.
RIP Sam.
-"so what he moved some weed"
yeah thats illegal. Wether it should be or not is another story because right now it is...
-"you would know they just try to scare you real bad."
He should have been scared, he was moving 200kg's of an illegal substance!!
-"he didnt know any better and they prolley told him he would spend the rest of his life in prison which would be why he killed himself."
No they told him 5-40 years for the crime he commited. If you are willing to commit the crime you better be sure what the consequences are going to be before you get into it.
-"get real ppl he lived a life full of good and he did one thing bad and thats all you see."
What you are not understanding is that he might have lived a good life, BUT HE BROKE THE LAW!!! When you are a kid your parents should have taught you that every action has a consequence, if you make a mistake you better be able to live with the consequence.
-"id be happy to meet any of you in person who has bad things to say about him and discuss it further."
Way to be cool guy! Are you going to pound your beliefs into us? Its a good thing your "trade" doesnt require any literary skills because you would be f*cked...
"on one hand f*ckign coppas, they scared him to death. And why there was that piece of cloth in jail? dont they know that it can be used for suicides?
Idiots, sorry for sam"
First, off he f*cked up not the cops. Secondly,the piece of cloth was a bed sheet, and he hung himself on a light that was specifically designed to not allow such a thing. Its pretty tough to stop a guy who truly wants to end it all from doing it. They told him the minimum sentence for such a crime is anywhere from 5-40 years, HE WASNT EVEN CONVICTED YET!!!
Why is it the cops fault for catching a guy who was doing something ILLEGAL, I thought that was their job. Stupid kids, own up for your mistakes, dont blame someone else.
"Cops make a living off of other people's mistakes. There is no one lower in this world than Cops. Cops do intimidate to no end. I've seen it many times. They get their rocks off by seeing harmless people go to jail. It's all a power trip. The way that people empower Cops is just disturbing.
If you think for a minute that Cops can't scare someone into wanting to take their own life, you are sadly mistaken. Yes the guy took part in illegal activity, however anyone with a brain realizes that weed won't harm people. We have doctors prescribing drugs that are addictive and kill people. Ruining lives just to get a kickback from the drug companies.
Know your rights, don't let Cops fool you or manipulate you. May God bless all the people affected by this tragedy."
You sir are an idiot... I agree that there are bad cops but wake up, the world is not out to get you. He broke the law and got caught, they explained to him that his MINIMUM SENTENCE could be anywhere from 5-40 years, HE WAS NOT EVEN CONVICTED YET!!!
Its because of people like you that there is so much bullshit going on in the first place. If people took responsibility for their actions instead of blaming someone or thing else, this world would be a much ebtter place.
now ( and in the first article that had nothing to do with pinkbike ) we just had a bunch of pricks telling everyone how he deserved it and he's a bad person.
wasn't particularily respectful
see my point?
I do appreciate that PB chose to run this though, as it is news that would be interesting to a large % of the PB population (Canadian, national news, a known cycling figure involved, etc).
How about you watch your mouth.
It's a story with two faces. To only say that he was a good kid that got in to deep... I don't believe that. Sure he was a good kid, and sure he got in to deep, but there was something in between: the money loving criminal in him.
The Americane law is very clear about smuggling drugs, and Sam had been smuggling huge amounts of drugs, not ones but multiple times. Don't tell me he didn't knew what was comming for him if he got caught, he was really scared for a good reason.
I meen, Sam his bosses where making money on people who used drug for pleasure or to feed their addiction. People die over that shit (cocaine, maruana not so much, but also) and Sam Brown was indirectly making money on people who where f*cking up their lives. That's a bad thing and I don't want to get involved with that kind of suckers.
He did it for the adrenaline and for the money. The money part makes him a criminal, adrenaline can be found in many other ways.
It's a shame it had to go like this, he ones was a great kid and a sick rider/builder. R.I.P.
Katinasd: Nobody has ever died as a direct result of marijuana - You'd have to take crazy amounts of THC to actually overdose.
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