It’s three years since Patrick Gower made two documentaries about cannabis: one on its medical potential, the other on its possible legalisation – which, he made it clear, worried him a bit. This week, in Patrick Gower: On All the Drugs, he makes an emphatic case for dumping our half-century-old drug law and decriminalising all drugs. Yes, all of them.
“The term ‘journey’ is a cliché, but it has been a journey,” Gower says, reeling off a series of personal “wow” moments in what eventually became a trio of high-rating weed documentaries, then one on New Zealand’s methamphetamine problem, then one focused on his personal issues with alcohol.
“There was never a plan to do it in this order or anything like that. But each
