High: Confessions of an Ibiza Drug Mule

Pure and simple, this is a redemption story. If you didn't do anything STUPID when you were young perhaps you haven't really been living. This lady screwed up big time, realized it, paid the price and has successfully turned her life around. She worked very hard to do these things, including learning a new language and advocating for herself in a difficult situation to gain an early release from prison and then turned around to help others. When I was 17 I rolled my car in a blackout. I haven't had a drink for over 32 years and in the meantime developed medical devices that saved and/or improved the lives of millions of people (literally). I wonder how many of these people believe that everyone deserves a second chance.

The story of Michaella McCollum made a lot of tabloid headlines in its day: the tale of a British teenager arrested in Peru for smuggling drugs. In this documentary, she tells us what happened. The presentation is bright and breezy but there's a little less to learn than we might have expected: she was young, she was bullied into a stupid mission, she was arrested, imprisoned, but survived; but we don't learn much we might not have already suspected. A "drug cartel laywer", every inch the cartoon villian, is interviewed to tell us how awful the cartels are; but Michaella was just a fool who didn't know much (indeed, she claims to not have even known she was being sent to Peru until she got on the plane). There's still some interest to the story, but the absence of deeper context is frustrating.

This was a good documentary however like another reviewer I was a bit annoyed by McCollums "poor me - I'm a victim" aura. McCollum was a young girl with extremely questionable ethics who went off to Ibiza with a one-way ticket for a good time and consumption of copious amounts of drugs. She worked as a, er, hostess, got involved with bad people and in an attempt to maintain her drug fuelled goid time girl lifestyle choose to smuggle drugs. Maybe if she'd paid attention in school she might have known where Lima was. I hope she didn't get paid for this.

I think this is great that this individual decided to tell her story on how she became involved in becoming an Ibiza Drug Mule and imprisoned in a Peru prison. Maybe it will help others to understand how easy it is to fall into a trap. I actually know someone (in this case a guy) that fell into a Mexican trap in the 70s and ended up in a Mexican prison for 7 years while on vacation for something he shouldn't have and this is more common and easy to happen than you think. Once in those places it is nearly impossible to get out. She was amazing how she was able to improve herself in the prison on her own to get released early. The trap is falling for the guy that recruited her in the first place - they always recruit someone innocent and the girl always falls for him and trusts anything he says. That is mistake #1. Sure she makes bad decisions but she was an easily manipulated subject.

The so called victim girl Michaella McCollum (not the actor) is so annoying. During her entire narration, all she could say is:

• Like ....
• I'm like ....
• I was like ....
• I felt, like ....
• I mean, like ...
• It's kind of, like ....
• I don't know, like ....
• Kind of ....
• .... just kind of ....
• Sort of ....
• You know ....

Her each sentence consisted of the above. I think other interviewees spoke better English than her.

All I could understand from this documentary is that Michaella was not really a victim, but rather a wh*te privileged girl, in Ibiza, Peru, prison, by media, people who helped her financially. Even after providing false testimony and lying to the Peruvian court. She could have become an informant and help capturing the drug cartel, but all this self-obsessed girl could think of was about herself ! The story she illustrated was not consistent and may not be true, other interviewees expressed the same. There could be more to the story or she may have been hiding her criminal details, from the court as well as Netflix.