Cannabis is a gateway drug.
It is the gateway to the wearing of clothes with marijuana leaves on them, the wearing of braided bracelets, probably body piercings and a multitude of other crimes.
It is also a gateway to being slightly dazed-looking and prone to the worst influences of hippies.
That can all be scientifically proved.
But does being high on cannabis cigarettes make you a bad driver?
That is what Matt Heath, still fondly remembered for Back Of The Y Masterpiece Television, and now a breakfast show host on Radio Hauraki, sets out to discover in Driving High.
Broadcasting next Wednesday on Prime at 9.30pm, the show takes Heath to the high spots of Auckland, to Colorado, where cannabis has been legalised, and back to New Zealand to test people at a ‘‘private location'' that looks awfully like a race track to see whether they drive as well impaired by hippie weed as unimpaired.
We learn a little about Kiwis on the way.
‘‘We love our cars, and we love our weed,'' Heath tells us.
Apparently New Zealanders are among the highest consumers of marijuana (I imagine per head of population) in the Western world.
‘‘What happens when we put these two great loves together as one?''
The fairly obvious answer to that question we won't divulge, so as not to ruin the programme.
We can tell you Heath, who pleasingly is still quite funny, considers the question of whether stoned people drive more slowly and carefully, making them safer drivers when they are deeply intoxicated by low-level psychedelic drugs.
He visits a conference on the matter, and gets some early theories, including this from Doug Beirness, of the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.
‘‘Slower?'', Doug asks. ‘‘Yes.''
‘‘Safer? No.''
Heath visits local park-up hot spots on Auckland's strange hillocks, movie car parks and even Queen St, asking drivers to take a drug test.
The results showed 20% were positive for marijuana, not to mention one for cocaine and one for opiates.
He travels to Colorado (perhaps hoping the pilot had not just toked on a spliff) and meets law reformers, law enforcement and cannabis-growing types.
He also visits a cannabis festival, where cannabis cigarette users are unhappy they can smoke legally only in private, rather than in public spaces, such as parks.
There's no pleasing some people.
Heath provides some useful commentary on wearing clothing with marijuana designs.
‘‘I love pies, but you don't see me wearing pie pants.''
That was funny.
Finally, he takes a bunch of volunteers driving with a driving instructor to check how they drive both baked and unbaked.
The results won't shock you.
Sorry, hippies.
