'Seeing Green" Whack(Drug users) Magazine. Written by fingers (issue #17)2004

Hi erbalists,

Most of you probably dont know of me, I'm an old reg from near on ten years ago (8 to be exact) that has just come back as a Cannabis.com member in recent weeks.
I use to write for a 'drug users' magazine called 'whack magazine' which is based here in Melbourne Australia. This is one of my Marijuana related articles. This went to print about 2 years ago, I thought it might be interesting to some of you guys. Anyway, I hope you take something positive away from it.

Fingers :)





[align=center]Seeing green[/align]


Marijuana use extends back as far as 3000 years with advocates from all walks of life. Politicianâ??s media personalities, even our trusted officers of the law have been known to use cannabis with little to no side effects. A study in the U.S stated Cannabis is â??The safest therapeutic drug known to mankindâ?� but is it in fact as safe as it may sound?
Over %76 of Australian citizens believe cannabis should be decriminalized, and over %39 have tried it at least once in their lives.
In my late teens to early twenties I was a vocal advocate of marijuana use. Brandishing a dry pipe key ring and bob Marley T-shirt I marched on parliament chanting pro-cannabis slogans along with countless others. â??EDUCATE NOW! LEGALIZE NOW! ITâ??S NOT WRONG TO BONG!â?� could be heard as curious onlookers wore expressions varying from disgust to amusement, while other spontaneously joined the march.

Like seagulls swooping in on a discarded French fry, the media was in abundance, cameras rolling on all members of the procession. The social and racial groups represented were amazingly varied from gothicâ??s, to Rastafarians, whites and blacks, the young and the old. Even business men carrying their brief cases perhaps out for lunch (and a quick â??smokoâ??) marched displaying a unified solidarity.

When a brief coverage of the event appeared on the nightly news I eagerly watched hoping to see myself smoking a 5 inch joint. Not surprisingly, the only face shown was that of a rather unique individual. Clad in torn tie dye with no less then a dozen facial piercings and bright purple dread locks (talk about unbiased journalism).

The demonisation of marijuana by media and government is nothing new to western society. In years gone by flyers warned of â??the deadly narcotic marijuanaâ?� with the image of a woman being injected by an unsavory looking character. Cannabis is to this day wrongly classed as a narcotic in the United States. Ignorant misinformation such as this has sewn the seed of misunderstanding that exist to this day, but the question must be asked, is marijuana safe for daily use?
I began smoking cannabis at the age of 17, a social unknown, I discovered a new confidence Iâ??d never felt. The simple act of smoking marijuana elevated me from the shy and quiet crowd to the social elite in high school, and when it became known that I was a Hip Hop music fan as well as a â??pot headâ?? the change in peoples view of me was drastic to say the least. I believed marijuana was the answer to all my prayers.

As the years went by, circumstance led me down the path that most if not all â??Whack magazineâ?? readers have found themselves on, that of experimentation.
I came to the belief that cannabis is the ONLY safe recreational drug both licit and illicit. I preached the virtues of cannabis use to any and all listeners, even tattooing that ever familiar leaf on my body wearing it like a badge of honor.

As the years flew by my curiosity led me to other illicit drugs, from amphetamines to opiates. Experimentation with most substances was fleeting until heroin found its way into my heart (both metaphorically and literally). Many years of heroin abuse peppered with attempts to abstain brought me to the decision to flee the big city and move into a small town outside of Perth City where in no time I established myself as one of the most successful wholesale/retailers of cannabis.

As those of you have lived in a small country town would know there is little to do aside from work, drink alcohol, and or smoke weed. Unemployed and a non-drinker I found myself with only one pursuit, SMOKING WEED! I found myself smoking an obscene amount of marijuana each day until I finally snappedâ?¦DRUG INDUCED PYSCHOIS.
I fled the non-existent conspiracy between the local biker gang and police to run me out of town and return to Melbourne where my condition only worsened.
Walking the streets in a paranoid stupor I was taken into custody by the police and taken to the local public hospital extreme paranoia and unprovoked aggression secured me a bed for over four weeks while daily I.M (intra-muscular) injections and frequent stays in what I knew as â??the suicide cellâ?? brought me to a state of despair. I believed most if not all patients were undercover police conspiring to â??drive me insaneâ??.

The extent of my paranoid delusions subsided in time, and various anti-psychotic and anti-depressant medications slowly brought order to my thought process. The realization that even a natural herbal substance can be severely damaging to a healthy mind was a major blow to my many years of pro-cannabis belief.
After six months on anti-psychotics and ongoing anti-depressant medication my mind feels healthier then it has in many years. It is said â??whatever doesnâ??t kill you makes you strongerâ??, in my case I believe that to be true. To this day I believe cannabis is a safe substance when used in moderation, as many psychoactive are. Alcohol is used by millions every day with no ill effect while others suffer life time addiction. Each individual must gauge their own tolerance to any substance from cannabis to sugar, ever case being different. From paracetamol to MDMA (methyldioxy-methamphetamine), excess can damage you.

These images are of the edition of whack that featured this article. Note the fantastic subtle image in the background that our Art Department developed. Also the title must be credited to 'Whacks' Editor.. Damian In case its a bit hard to see its a (what appears to be female) figure exhaling a lung full of smoke.
All the views expressed in this article are my own, all events depicted are true (etc etc.) and yes the freak in the mask is me :P hope you enjoyed it guys n gurls!
till next time :D

and still these leaveswill bring me thought andcalm my mind whenleft distrought, these leaves tht grow so free and wild.. this kannabis, this thinkers child

really good story man, but i think you were under the influence of to many other drugs too, heroin can fuck you up.

Why are you blaming it ALL on cannabis? What about all the other DANGEROUS drugs you were doing? You mentioned them, but didnt say anything about THEM being the cause.

In the UK only 1 in 10000 heavy/light smokers EVER get a phycotic reaction - Meaning it's more likely the individual causing it than the weed. Who knows, you might have lost it anyway! And you cant say im wrong - we'll never know.

It's much the same as people who supposidly get schizophrenia [they dont] from smoking weed. How do these people KNOW it was the weed that caused it. They dont.

As i think we all know, these kind of metal health issues can be in us from the start, underlying. Because theres no symptoms, you wouldnt know you had it. You smoke weed, and THAT causes the symptoms to become obvious. Now, it hasnt caused the problem, but it's make it obvious, so the weed gets the blame.

Anyway, nice story.

Nice Story Indeed Fingers, aldo im a Bit more Open minded to the
Mental Health side of things. Cannabis could have been a factor.
I also think your use of Herion and the lifestyle you had must have also
had a effect on your mental health. I do think you coped out some what
towards the end when you seem too only base your breakdown on Cannabis.
Those "Bikers" didnt Stress you out?. Preasure which brings about Stress
is enough to cause mental break down. Please dont give ammo to the
peddlers of Propaganda.....Drought

Nice story, my opinnion is yes weed is a gateway drug. If weed was legal we wouldn't have class A's waved in our face by our dealers every time we go to buy some herb.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ukmonkey

Nice story, my opinnion is yes weed is a gateway drug. If weed was legal we wouldn't have class A's waved in our face by our dealers every time we go to buy some herb.

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Ah, your right. But it's not the cannabis that's doing it, so no, cannabis isnt a gateway drug. Smoking it doesnt make you want harder stuff.

It's all about the temptation. Dealers know other dealers. They offer us stuff, they have numbers to give us. Temptation might get the better of us, but it's the dealers fault, not cannabis.

Like you said, if it was legal there'd be no dealers, no temptation and therefore less chance of being around dangerous drugs, and less chance of ever trying em.