Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - BONUS: Paddy Gower's War On Everything..

Episode Date: December 19, 2022

For this bonus summer podcast we go back to when Paddy Gower went on all the drugs....   Enjoy!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

He's gone off the booze and now he's on all the drugs. Paddy Goward, nice to have you in the studio. Yeah, good to be here and I'm not on anything right now. No, not on anything at all. Can I just say these Paddy Goward 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. So it's been pretty amazing. Congrats. That's awesome. So it hasn't been all, some of it's been about using the stuff

and some of it's been about giving up the stuff, I guess. 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 could see people probably like is he back on it yeah you've got the thing is you've got public with it so if you do get back on it's going to be closed door drinking that's right that's why you're in the uk for so long you know just recently you're like oh patty's gone over there to go to the pubs get away from to go to the pubs but yeah it is you know you do notice a few eyes on you and whatnot and i think um but you know you also you know i feel fantastic i honestly feel fantastic being there it's been a really really good thing for me to do so this one uh this new documentary that's out patagawa on all the drugs so obviously you've looked at p before and and weed as well so is

this everything else or is this everything in general yeah it covers MDMA mainly we start 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 it's a lot of face rubbing I imagine of your face 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 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 hug i thought that was just the way we what we all did but i didn't realize yeah and i guess

that's the the thinking behind the testing at the festivals is it's and the testing here we take a test every morning 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 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 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 but here we are in a society that's awash with mental health problems and people looking for solutions. And there's potentially one right in front of us, you know, mushies. And, you know, but we've got those boxed away as a Class A drug. And also MDMA, I understand as well. You were saying it's got benefits for maybe people, unfortunately, like your mum who suffered from cancer. Yeah, and people will see in the documentary tonight, you know,

my mum died of cancer and, you know, that was what really threw me onto medical cannabis as something that could have helped. Very painful way to die, cancer, terrible. MDMA, up at the University of Auckland, they are starting a study on giving people who are terminally ill MDMA as they start to get close to the end of their life. People who've used it know that it gives huge feelings of love makes you very talkative makes you open up to what's in your mind and the study is looking at whether that can help people are terminally ill you know they're dealing with all this dark sort of stuff and they need to communicate to people and understand what they're going through and maybe a little bit of MDMA can

help them and you know if you think about it in the in the context being of well actually it's now under euthanasia. It's now legal to actually ask for your life to be ended. Yeah, right. Surely you should be allowed to have a drug like MDMA if you want to do that as well. Like, what's the difference? 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, if we're parents And you've got kids growing up The teenage years It makes me nervous It's one of the hard things for me too 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 you know and that and that's and that's not the 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 you know 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, what we're talking about here is pretty complicated. That's what we do on the show. The big issue is Patty. 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. That's right. We'll sort it out. But good on you for doing these things, because they start national conversations. Yeah, and I take a few risks. I do a bit of horse riding tonight.

People will see me out riding a horse out in West Auckland. I saw that. I was like, what drugs is he on? Yeah, yeah, yeah. people will see me out riding a horse out out in west auckland because i saw that i was like what drugs is he on but there's a school of thought that you know horse riding is more dangerous than taking mdma you know you're more likely to come to some sort of serious grief riding a horse than you are by from taking mdma so that got me out on out on a horse i did see you straddling or something how is this no i'll let you know the secret. It was a stuntman.

What was it? Yeah, the stuntman does the actual riding and then I sort of rode it really slowly for about five metres. I'd rather take some MDMA things. 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 you know it's just been such a 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 doing everything but if you want to give it a go just give it a crack you know it's it's it's it's been you know one of the best things I've ever done and I've done a lot yeah yeah oh good on you Patty Gower thank you for coming in awesome