StickyPoint Magazine : Issue 01

• Released: December 2006
• Details: 88 pages, full-colour gloss, double-sided centrefold
• Writers: Jay Walker, Dr J Jiggens, Bud International, Wayne Collins, Paul Hamon, Buddha Lee, Brand Spanka, Radic-Al, Jamnes Danenberg, Nada Neri

FEATURE STORIES:

• "Does cannabis use cause schizophrenia?" - John Jiggens
• "Censorship: When will it end?" - Jay Walker
• "Remo the Urban Grower" - Buddha Lee
• "Understanding your high" - Wayne Collins

ENTERTAINMENT / ART:

• Rippy the Stoner Kangaroo - Ripisodes 1 - 4
• Featured Photographer - WallyDuck

 

"Does cannabis use cause schizophrenia?" - John Jiggens

Over the past few years, the Australian media have promoted a new version of "Reefer Madness". According to this myth, cannabis use causes schizophrenia. The "proof" for this is to exhibit a few schizophrenics who use cannabis. The fact that there are millions of Australians who use cannabis and who are not schizophrenics is ignored.

Because schizophrenics tend to have extremely high rates of illicit drug use, it is relatively easy to find schizophrenics who use cannabis...

...Unlike the general population, schizophrenics are sick people who suffer from a mysterious and life-threatening disease. They are mad, and are treated as such; locked up, restrained, forcibly medicated. Taking drugs is the way they learn to treat their illness...

 

"Censorship: When will it end?" - Jay Walker

For the last half century since the introduction of television, just in time for the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, the Lucky Country has been raised on a steady diet of American culture and social values. As such, anyone could be forgiven for believing that Australian citizens also have a constitutional “right of free speech”.

There is considerable familiarity within even our popular culture of the US Constitution and the idea of a bill of rights. We joke about “taking the 5th”, a reference to that amendment which preserves the ‘right to remain silent’ and not be required to give evidence against yourself in a criminal trial. And that the right to free speech is “guaranteed under the 1st amendment”...

 

"Remo the Urban Grower" - Buddha Lee

“I was one of the first” says Remo with a huge grin on his face, as he proudly pulls out his official health Canada medical marijuana permit. He passes it over to me, pointing out the issue date of 2001 and the amount of plants he’s allowed to grow. The picture shows Remo with his typical smiling face(he was probably high at the time) and on the backside is an official Health Canada logo. And while Remo was one of the first he’s also one of the few.

It was only in 2001 when the Canadian government finally recognized the medical value of cannabis and only after much public debate. This despite the fact that the Canadian public overwhelmingly supported the idea. To this day there are still only a handful of officially recognized medical users. That doesn’t surprise Remo. He’s watched the government drag its feet on this issue for years. He points to the much more liberalized view of cannabis in Europe as an example of the way things should be. “In California there are over 60,000 cannabis prescriptions” and that’s in the U.S. where cannabis is almost considered to be as bad as crack. Remo thinks Canada is ready to become the progressive pot capital and he’s doing his part to make it happen...

 

"Understanding your high" - Wayne Collins

The year was 1986, the reactor at Chernobyl was going hot, the Space Shuttle Challenger was going all over the American mainland and some drug-company funded scientists were busy beginning the journey to discovering natural cannabinoid receptors in the human brain and other various locations around your body.

It has only been in the last 20 years that we have begun to understand the neurobiological aspects of our high, yet our authoritarian leaders have chosen to outlaw (ever so unsuccessfully) the focus of our combined consciousness, the cannabis plant. That they have done so at great social and environmental cost is not where this particular article is heading...

 

Featured Photographer - WallyDuck

For me, cannabis has been a way of life for over 25 years now; from my first toke on some thaid stick to making my own quality hash nowadays with bubble bags.

It's been quite a journey, with many fine sights along the way. I've met some amazing and interesting stoner folk, have always loved how they keep their minds open. Often heaps of peace, tranquility and really cool shit goes on. I've always thought stoners are able to reach parts of their mind that the "normal"folk just don't know exists.