Public Address | Cafe | Speaker: Drug History: What happened when Dunedin cancelled methadone

Craig Young

Sat, 29 Jun 2019 10:57:17 +1200

It'd be interesting to have an overview of how much damage the Muldoon era's authoritarian populism and contempt for evidence-based professional research and expertise did when it came to drug policy in the seventies and early eighties. Is there such a reference available?

Ray Gilbert

Tue, 25 Jun 2019 08:31:51 +1200

For almost two years it was so easy to get methadone in Dunedin that some people moved to Dunedin from other parts of the country (particularly Christchurch)

Bringing with them a fair portion of the ChCh skinheads I recall.

You could also find self sown poppies in the back blocks…

Ross Mason

Mon, 24 Jun 2019 22:33:53 +1200

My sister had a fruit orchard in Napier. One sunday afternoon a car arrived at the gate and 3 guys got out, jumped the fence, and ran right around the house picking every poppy head that they obviously knew was there. Sister ran out but missed them all as they…

Rob Stowell

Mon, 24 Jun 2019 22:23:32 +1200

Great slice of (sad, bad, mad) local history – thanks "Rex" and Russell :)

Stephen Judd

Mon, 24 Jun 2019 17:07:39 +1200

"Self-sown" poppies that disappeared in the early morning were also a feature of Berhampore and Newtown in Wellington... I recall neighbours nodding sagely and talking about the "Newtown Gardener".

Paul Campbell

Sun, 23 Jun 2019 14:32:34 +1200

In 1980 I bought a small cottage in Waitati north of Dunedin, summer was amazing, the vege garden turned out to be full of “self seeded” poppies, one morning they were all gone ….

Russell Brown

Sun, 23 Jun 2019 14:15:03 +1200

Gathering poppies, undated.

Russell Brown

Sun, 23 Jun 2019 14:09:19 +1200

Here are several of the original news stories, uploaded here in comments for reasons of readability.

Public Address

Sun, 23 Jun 2019 14:09:19 +1200

Discussion from blog post.