Patrick Gower: On Weed

Marijuana. Cannabis. Weed.

We all know this drug, and half of us have tried it.

In New Zealand, we have one of the highest rates of use in the world.

But now we're on the road to legal medicinal cannabis,

and just round the corner in 2020 we vote on whether we get to legally use it for whatever reason we want.

In this two-part documentary, I'm going to look at both medical use,

and then I'll also investigate recreational use

and the potential problems that come with legalising weed.

In this episode, it's about cannabis as a medicine. I want to see what it's doing in people's lives.

I meet the star of Spartacus, who uses it legally in LA, and Scarlett, who uses it illegally in Nelson.

Her cannabis is supplied by Rose, who could go to prison for it.

I'm going to see what the police have to do under the current laws

and how much it could change if medical marijuana is made widely legal.

Who here's been using cannabis?

I want to know if it could have helped my mum at the end of her life.

Maybe I need to try it for myself to find out whether medical cannabis is a good idea for New Zealand.

Growing cannabis in New Zealand is illegal unless you're one of the few companies

who have recently been granted a licence to grow for medical research.

This isn't one of them.

This crop is illegal, but it doesn't mean there isn't a big demand for it.

My journey begins with Gandalf.

You know, what's the scale of medical marijuana in New Zealand?

What's the size of the underground market?

It's quite large — a lot more than people actually realise.

Gandalf is one of the country's largest green fairies,

growing and selling cannabis to over 1000 customers who claim some kind of illness.

All right, coming up to plot number one in area number one. This is an old patch of mine that I've had...

Been going for over 20 years. And I'm— (SNIFFS) Oh, my word. That is a lovely smell, I must say.

God, I love growing this stuff.

Right, here we have plot number two. This is number three.

Cannabis all around us, isn't it a lovely sight?

Oh, I do love that.

On top of all this, he has another 50 plants in his backyard.

I mean, there's $50,000, $60,000 worth of cannabis in here.

Mm.

A few years ago, Gandalf was caught by the police.

What happened? How did they find you? Chopper flew over,

and then all of a sudden, six police cars turned up with 12 police, just like that, within minutes.

The thing that really pissed me off was that all my hard work had come to nothing.

He spent several months in prison.

The police don't care whether it's medical or recreational.

Cannabis is illegal, and every year, all over the country — but mainly up north and on the East Coast...

Police take to the skies to find the plots of Kiwi growers in search and destroy missions.

While we're here, a spotter plane has seen a marijuana patch and the ground team is sent in.

Come round. It's under— up here.

Come in from up the top end of the road. Are we on the money here?

Yeah, you're on the money. Make your way into that clearing, then push on through.

Got it!

Buds here. Oh, shitloads!

Watch out for traps. Hold up! Watch out for traps, everyone.

Rusty gin traps and cyanide are everywhere to help keep the possums out.

It's not a pretty sight.

Cyanide confirmed.

Far out.

This is a small haul compared to some of the big grows they've been finding.

These plants are off to be incinerated.

Gandalf reckons the police are just wasting resources, both theirs and his.

Why are you talking to us now, Gandalf? The time is right.

Patients, actually, are living in fear — fear of getting caught, fear of being stigmatised.

There are so many people out there that are suffering that don't need to. I hear all their stories;

I know what is going on

behind the scenes.

This is just a, um...

notes that I've taken of patients. I mean, Gandalf, there's hundreds of people in here.

Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of people in there, and that's not all of them.

Christchurch, Hamilton. I mean, they're all over the show, aren't they?

Yes. To be quite honest, Paddy, I'm struggling keeping up.

I mean, if the police got a hold of this book — this is cannabis all over the country.

Yes. Here's someone that's caught my eye. Yeah.

You know, someone who's got cancer — undergoing radiation, morphine, cancer in the lung.

Yes. This is something I know a lot about because my mum died of lung cancer.

You know, how did you help this person? Well, that person is still going.

She has ups and downs,

but it's changed her life to the point where she can spend more time with her children.

Gandalf's biggest seller is called 'Cancer's Nightmare'. But because cannabis is illegal,

it means there has been very little research to back up any health claims.

As the name implies, it's mainly for people with cancer and pain.

I believe this is why I was put here on Earth— was to help my fellow man, and that's what I do.

And fuck the law.

Until there is a law change, the police still have a job to do.

After the spotter plane and the ground team have been in,

it's time to send in the chopper with an attachment that they call the Dalek.

It sprays Roundup dyed a distinctive police blue to make sure the crop is wiped out.

In a raid, Gandalf's outdoor plants were destroyed by a police recovery operation.

Suddenly, he couldn't supply most of his customers. He reckons that left a lot of sick people suffering.

But the laws around medical marijuana are changing.

Last year, a significant new bill was debated in Parliament.

This bill is about how we treat our sick.

It is about what happens to all of us when we find ourselves sick.

This bill is a Trojan horse.

They're in palliative care. That is very, very different from just saying,

'Help yourself to a big fat doobie someday.'

Surely, the point of our laws is to keep people safe and to prevent them from suffering.

What, in fact, this bill is is decriminalisation of cannabis by stealth in this parliament today.

The new bill passed. And for those suffering from a life-limiting illness,

they can now use illegal cannabis without fear of arrest.

But the bill also allows for a local medical marijuana industry in the future...

Although the details are still to be worked out.

Maybe Gandalf's business will be legal next year, but who knows?

Pro-cannabis campaigners are trying for an image overhaul of marijuana, but there can still be a stigma

to admitting that you have smoked weed.

I've been open about the fact that I used to be a Mormon and then I wasn't,

so I leave that to people's imaginations.

For thousands of years, marijuana was used for medicine, textiles and, yes, to get high.

In New Zealand, the Catholic sister Suzanne Aubert was said to have used cannabis in her famous medicine.

And medicinal ciggies containing cannabis were still available in the 1900s.

But in the 1920s, with heavy influence from the United States,

New Zealand made cannabis a controlled drug.

There wasn't really much of a black market for recreational marijuana until the '60s when it became

a major part of the hippy lifestyle and grew more mainstream in the '70s.

The Mr Asia syndicate smuggled in boatloads of Buddha sticks from Thailand.

The Kiwi black market started growing the stuff in huge quantities,

and the police had to take to the sky to curb its growth.

But now around the world, cannabis is having a radical image makeover.

It's normal again.

The illicit drug is once again thought to have medicinal qualities. Can it help with pain relief?

With epilepsy? Is medical cannabis a miracle drug?

I want to know if it could have helped my mum when she got cancer.

My mum, Joan, and my dad, Gordon, married in 1973.

They met at a nightclub in Christchurch when Dad asked her friend to dance. She said no.

He asked Mum instead. They were married within a year, and four years later I came along.

So, what's this documentary about? Well, it's (STAMMERS) on weed. It's on cannabis.

Grass. Yeah, grass. Yeah.

When was the first time you, sort of, came across it?

Oh, it would have been probably mid-60s. It was, you know, the free love days.

I mean, I never really asked you, but did you use to smoke a bit yourself back in the day?

Yeah, I gave it a try. I think we all did.

Yeah. What about you? Did you ever try it? Oh, you know. I mean, ah...

Yeah, I mean, I just don't really wanna...

I'd be surprised if you didn't try it with the crowd that you hung out with.

In 2006, my mum was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. It was bad — a year of incredible pain.

I hardly ever try and think back because it was just such a shit year, really. Wasn't it?

Yeah, yeah. Just horrible. There's not even that many photos of Mum from that year.

No. Cos... no one wanted to take any of anything.

And there's Mum before she had cancer. Yeah.

That's, I guess, how I remember her. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

That's how you want to remember her. That was in her early— Yeah, that's early stages.

That was probably our last good family memory, really.

This is— Next photo's one of the few photos I could find of her, and it's a photo from Christmas. (SNIFFLES)

Yeah.

Yeah.

You're all right, mate.

Yeah, so I just wanted to thank you today for everything you did. Yeah, it was a tough fucking year.

Was it the pain management? What...? You're helpless.

There was nothing you could do when the real pain set in.

There was just nothing.

There was fuck all you could do.

Sorry, son. You're all right. You don't have to be sorry, mate.

Yeah, yeah.

Would you have wanted to give her access to cannabis-related things?

When you get to that stage that your mum was, anything's an option,

you know, for pain relief. Yeah.

Towards the end, it was— it got easier. Your mum had so much drugs in her, you know, it didn't matter.

You know, she was... Yeah. She was on cloud nine

and, you know, away with the fairies. Yeah.

Well, thanks, Dad.

All over New Zealand, cannabis is being used to illegally relieve pain,

and some people think it can do much, much more.

In 2020, we get to vote on whether we can use marijuana legally, so I want to find out...

Is it actually a miracle drug?

On the internet, I find claims that cannabis is a cure for almost anything.

I've found amazing things like the stopping of seizures with cannabis, but where's the research?

Does the science say cannabis is a miracle drug?

That's an interesting question, and the answer is no. I don't think so.

Cannabis does a bunch of different things to the body,

because cannabis receptors are found all over the place.

And some of the things that weed does some people find beneficial.

Then for you, as an individual, it's a pretty wonderful drug, right?

It's not a miracle drug or— or we don't know it's a miracle drug?

Just because we don't have the research, doesn't mean it's not great at what it does.

It's just that we don't have the research yet.

What we do know is that the cannabis plant has over 400 compounds. The two most well known are CBD and THC.

THC is psychoactive; it makes you feel high. CBD, though, is non—psychoactive,

and many people think both have medical benefits.

There is evidence that cannabis helps with fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis.

And there is some evidence that it relieves chronic pain and the symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

But other illnesses like epilepsy, Tourette's and Parkinson's all need more clinical studies.

In New Zealand, you can legally be prescribed one THC product, called Sativex, for multiple sclerosis.

Or your doctor can prescribe CBD products if they think it will help.

I went to meet someone who has used it legally as medicine.

Scarlett had never tried marijuana for her illness,

and when she began using CBD oil, her life was changed beyond recognition.

She was diagnosed with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia at age 14.

She has been in and out of hospital, and the symptoms have been truly severe.

The best way to, sort of, explain what fibro is, is it's like having the flu all the time.