Patrick Gower explores drug use in New Zealand in his newest doco. Photo / Warner Brothers Discovery
Patrick Gower explores drug use in New Zealand in his newest doco. Photo / Warner Brothers Discovery
He’s done weed, meth and alcohol. Now Patrick Gower is doing all the drugs.
Well, not literally, but in a new documentary Patrick Gower: On All The Drugs, the Newshub journalist attempts to answer a very broad and complex question: should we decriminalise drugs in New Zealand?
Unlike his last outing On Booze, Gower has slipped back into the role of journalist rather than subject in this film.
His journey takes him from watching young people snort MDMA at a house party to a doctor’s office where he’s given a dose of legal medicinal cannabis. Gower speaks to people on all different sides of the drug debate, from an “ethical” drug dealer who tests his supplies before selling them to a young man who’s been in and out of rehab for drug use five times.
He takes a look back at the origin of New Zealand’s drug laws, which took their tone from the US’s “war on drugs” campaign, and explores whether those laws should change.
Across the ditch, our neighbours in Canberra and the ACT have legalised the possession and use of small amounts of drugs, including cannabis, meth, MDMA and cocaine. Could the same system, modelled on Portugal’s decriminalisation which famously led to a decline in drug use, work in Aotearoa? Should we loosen up or - pardon the pun - crack down?
Holding magic mushrooms in your hands is illegal in New Zealand. Photo / Warner Brothers Discovery
Gower presents a variety of perspectives, from that of Australian MP Karen Andrews who’s firmly in the “war on drugs” camp to University of London’s Professor David Nutt, who argues that taking MDMA is less dangerous than riding a horse.
But Gower doesn’t sugarcoat the effects of drugs like meth on Kiwis, and their prevalence in gang culture. We also meet a young man named Joseph facing six years in prison for dealing drugs, who’s just come out of rehab for the fifth time. “It [rehab] gave me my life back,” he says, noting that while it costs $150,000 a year to house someone in jail, rehabilitation for drugs is significantly cheaper.
The doco also raises the question of whether we should rethink the role of other illegal substances, like psilocybin and THC.
On screen, Gower hunts through wood chips for magic mushrooms, holding them in his hands and excitedly declaring, “I’m committing a crime.” He takes a dose of prescribed THC - the active component of cannabis - in a doctor’s office. He sits down with Auckland University researchers studying the use of MDMA by people dying of cancer - the drug increases the release of the “happy hormone” oxytocin and can help terminal patients come to terms with death.
It’s here that Gower finally puts himself into the story, recalling his mum’s death due to cancer and wondering if something like MDMA could have helped her.
Gower takes a dose of THC in a doctor's office. Photo / Warner Brothers Discovery
But while decriminalisation could help people with medical needs, he acknowledges it’s not going to solve the gang problem in New Zealand.
Gower doesn’t quite fall on one side of the fence or the other when it comes to answering the tough question posed by this doco. But he does call for consistency, and for lawmakers to look at the changing evidence around the effects of drug use.
Because of those laws, there’s a stigma around drug use that’s hard to shake. And those of us who haven’t experimented much tend to put them all in the same box - we think of movies, police operations, gang busts - while ignoring the harm alcohol does to society, because it’s legal.
What we don’t see is how some of these substances can actually help people, and Gower’s documentary does a good job of demonstrating that.
Patrick Gower: On All The Drugs may only brush the surface of a complex topic, but it definitely starts a conversation.
