Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - BONUS: Paddy Gower.. On Drugs?

Episode Date: December 5, 2022

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Tonight, TV3, Patrick Gower on all the drugs. It's tonight at 8.40. He's gone off the booze and now he's on all the drugs. Paddy Gower, nice to have you in the studio. Yeah, good to be here and I'm not on anything right now. Can I just say that he's Paddy Gower on documentaries that you do. Has it just been a very complex way for you to tackle all the vices that you've wanted to tackle throughout life? Yeah, sort of a convoluted way of doing all the drugs.

Yeah, because I did actually get to do weed, of course, in the first one. We went to the States. You got a taste for it. Yeah, I got a taste for it. Loved it. Couldn't get enough of it. Well, I guess, and then when I did the one on alcohol, I actually ended up giving up drinking. You still haven't touched the drop? Yeah, and I haven't touched the drop, and I'm coming up on December

the 18th, so this month will be one year. Do you find if you go catch up with someone lucky in a social setting, in a Christmas function, there's more eyes on you now going, is he, is that, what's he, what's he? Yeah, and it's interesting, because I had a 0% beer in the pub the other day, and I could see people probably like,

is he back on it? Yeah, the thing is you've gone public with it, so if you do get back on it, it's going to be closed door drinking. Shame drinking. That's right. We thought that, it's going to be closed-door drinking. Shame drinking. That's right. We thought that's why you were in the UK for so long. Just recently, you're like, oh, Paddy's gone over there to go to the pubs.

Yeah, to get away from to go to the pubs. But yeah, you do notice a few eyes on you and whatnot, and I honestly feel fantastic being there. It's been a really, really good thing for me to do. So this one, this new documentary that's out, Patagawa on all the drugs. So obviously you've looked at pee before and weed as well. So is this everything else or is this everything in general?

Yeah, it covers MDMA. Started a student flat where a whole lot of students take quite a lot of MDMA around me and that leads to quite a lot of hugging. Yeah, right. So a lot of face rubbing, I imagine, of your face. Yeah, sort of this gigantic group hug where these guys are pretty loved up

and give me a massive hug. So we look at MDMA and mushrooms mainly. And in general, our laws, you know, like our laws are pretty screwed up right now. MDMA is a class B drug. It's highly illegal. But we've got a law that allows you to test an illegal drug to make sure that you actually get

the illegal drug and that is pretty screwed up in my mind i mean people want to be safe they want to know that they're taking mdma and not bath salts or cat poison or or whatever to me that sort of throws up a massive irony of like well what's going on if we've got this law that makes it legal to test them but they're illegal have we got our laws right yeah and that's where the documentary goes i mean we know in this country that mdma use is really really widespread now festival season is coming it's going to be huge i'm on it now so it gets me up in the morning well we did start with a i thought that was just the way we what we all all did, but I didn't realise. And I guess that's the thinking behind the testing at the festivals is, but it's kind of hands up, sort of like they're going to do it anyway,

so let's try and make them do it safely. Yes, and that's, you know, and that's one of the questions the documentary throws up, is should we sort of be hands up as a society and say, hey, this war on drugs, saying drugs are bad, doesn't actually work. We know that, we've tried it for 30, 40, nearly 50 years. It hasn't worked. So should we be doing it another way? Because if we look at mushrooms, and people will see in my documentary,

some people have amazing effects for their mental health by using mushrooms. But we've kept that illegal. We haven't done any studies on it. We don't know much about it. We kind of just think it's for hippies. It's a tough one, isn't it? Because then you're dead right. There are benefits for people who are sick who are ill but i guess on the other side of the coin and if we're parents yeah yeah and you've got kids

growing up the teenage years do you like it makes me nervous yeah it does it's one of the hard things for me too john it's like okay it is easy and I think that's why the war on drugs has been easy, because you just say to your kids, do not do drugs. Do not do them. You'll go to jail. You'll die. Just, they are wrong. But it's a lot more complicated than that, eh? It is.

And that's not the reality out there. How would you suggest parents tackle the conversation? That is the hardest question of this whole thing, because it is easy under that sort of war on drugs mentality to just go drugs are bad, drugs are wrong, don't do them, you'll go to jail or you'll die. And I think the first thing really is get your drugs tested. It's legal to do that in this country now.

There's ways to do it. You can actually get your own testing kits. People will see that and make sure you're safe and not taking some sort of, you know, what could literally be some kind of poison. And I guess a natural reaction for any parent would be probably anger. If you found out your kid was taking drugs,

you might come down on them when maybe it's more of an educational conversation that needs to happen. Yeah, and this is going to take a huge shift for New Zealand, isn't it? Like, you know, like what we're talking about here is pretty complicated. That's what we do on the show.

The big issues, Paddy. That's why I came here. That's why I came here. And I knew we'd be having a discussion like this. We'll sort it out, Paddy. We're going to get to Syria and all sorts soon, mate. That's right. Paddy, bloody good to see you, mate.

You're one of the good buggers. Glad to see everything's going well You're all fit and healthy Oh man, I'm fantastic And giving up drinking Honestly, the last time I was in here Or whenever I never really thought

That I would be sober going into This will be my second Christmas sober Such a massive change And for anyone out there Who's listening Thinking about doing it I've got no problem with people drinking Or anything like that

All my mates do and everything But if you want to give it a go Just give it a crack It's been, you know One of the best things I've ever done And I've done no problem with people drinking or anything like that. All my mates do and everything. But if you want to give it a go, just give it a crack. It's been one of the best things I've ever done, and I've done a lot. Yeah. Well, good on you, Paddy Gower. Thank you for coming in. Awesome.