New Zealand's history with illicit drugs is short but lively. Māori were one of the few societies to have no use for intoxicants - so how did we go from zero to having some of the highest rates of illicit drug use in the world?

In the first episode of a new seven-part RNZ podcast series about drugs, Russell Brown looks at the New Zealand drug story through the decades.

"They were just loaded with cannabis, opium, laudanum, morphine and alcohol."

There are many surprising things about New Zealand's history with drugs - and the first is how it all began. Which is... From Zero.

Historians generally agree that pre-contact Māori were one of the few societies with no use for intoxicants. Which isn't to say there were none handy. The New Zealand liverwort is one of the few plants apart from cannabis to contain cannabinoids, but there's no real evidence it was traditionally used. Other plants with psychoactive properties may have been used as rongoā, or traditional medicines - but not to get high.

The colonists, on the other hand, had all the drugs - and often in the same bottle. Patent medicines containing opium, morphine, cannabis and cocaine were widely available into the 20th century. They set New Zealand on the way to the present day, when our use of some illicit drugs is amongst the highest in the world.

Historian Redmer Yska and documentarian David Herkt talk Russell through New Zealand's first celebrity drug scandal, in the 1930s, and the profound loss of innocence that came with the huge Mr Asia drug syndicate in the 1970s. And let's not forget the 1950s, when proper society considered itself drug-free but amphetamines were in many bathroom cabinets and doctors could prescribe cannabis for your migraine.

Future episodes of From Zero will look more closely at cannabis, methamphetamine and other drugs. But for now, sit back and enjoy Aotearoa's hidden history of getting high.

Note: the text in this page has been altered to correct a statement that liverwort was part of traditional rongoā practice. Although this is sometimes claimed, there is no reliable evidence for its use.

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Marijuana is by far the most commonly-used illicit drug in New Zealand. Nearly half of all adults say they've tried it and a recent poll found that nearly two thirds of us favour decriminalisation or legalisation. And yet our laws remain harsher than many other Western countries. Why is weed so popular here, what are the impacts and can we ever agree on a way forward?

Marijuana is easily the most popular illicit drug in New Zealand. Nearly half of all adults say they've tried it and a recent poll found that nearly two thirds of us favour decriminalisation or legalisation. And yet our laws remain harsher than many other Western countries. Why is weed so popular here, what are the impacts and can we ever agree on a way forward?

The law around cannabis hasn't changed since the Misuse of Drugs Act was passed in 1974. But something has changed recently: attitudes towards the law. In two polls this year, two thirds of respondents expressed support for some sort of law reform. And support for change on medical cannabis was over 80 per cent.

There can be no doubt that a key influence on the way the conversation has changed is the decision by the late Helen Kelly to go public with her own medical cannabis use - and to campaign for legal access for medical users. This episode of From Zero includes the final interview with Helen Kelly, conducted only a week before her death.

But if we're to consider law reform, it might make sense to look at the way our legal choices have shaped the way cannabis is now. We might have romantic ideas about dope being grown by kindly folk in the open air - but the reality is that the weed most people smoke is grown in faceless buildings on industrial estates. It's an industrial product - one driven indoors by police pursuit of outdoor growers. Is there a better way to regulate it?

This episode also features interviews with Gerard Hindmarsh, one of the hippie idealists who came to Golden Bay and planted pot in the 1970s, Norml NZ president and Hemp Store owner Chris Fowlie, doctors in Wellington and Nelson and a retail dealer and home grower in Auckland. It tells a striking story. And there is a surprise ending for host Russell Brown...

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It's OK to depict drug-taking on TV or slip cocaine references into songs, but publishing the wrong kind of gardening tips can still get you into trouble with the censors.

"We never got any complaints about all the drug taking." - Outrageous Fortune creator James Griffin.

Drugs don't just exist in society, they are pervasive as a theme in popular culture: music, movies, TV and magazines. What is it about our artists and illicit drugs? And why is depicting drug-taking on TV or slipping cocaine references into songs OK, but publishing the wrong kind of gardening tips will get you into trouble with the censor?

New Zealand composers might have lived the life, but they didn't notably write about it until 1968, when clean-cut Kiwi pop star Lew Pryme released a song called 'Gracious Lady Alice Dee'.

In fact, Pryme had not lived the life - he only pretended to have taken LSD for publicity purposes. But the song's composer, Bryce Peterson, very definitely had.

The pace picked up from there. Who'd have believed Aunty NZBC would have permitted this in the early '70s? (NB: the clip below is one made in 2010, but you can see clips from Blerta's TV show here on NZ On Screen).

Watch Blerta 'Drugs' here

But in general, dramatic drug use generally had consequences. Until these two came along and smoked all the weed they liked...

Watch the clip from Outrageous Fortune here

Outrageous Fortune co-creator James Griffin joins us to explain why it couldn't have been any other way - and to muse on why so many of his characters take drugs.

Home Brew's Tom Scott tells the story behind the video for 'Yellow Snot Funk'. Was that all real, bro?

Watch Home Brew 'Yellow Snot Funk' here

Deja Voodoo's Chris Stapp explains why his band said the unsayable in their song 'P':

Watch Deja Voodoo 'P' here

And we pause to admire the artistry of Lawrence Arabia's 'I've Smoked Too Much':

Watch and listen to Lawrence Arabia 'I've Smoked Too Much' here

So, does anything go? Is there nothing that can't be said or shown? Actually, there is. Chief Censor Andrew Jack talks to Russell Brown about one thing that will still reliably get you banned in Aotearoa. And that's ... gardening tips.

All this and a never-before-heard Home Brew song!

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