Check out this tour over the next few weeks featuring De la Soul w/ live band, Cut Chemist and MC Dres:

DE LA SOUL have earned themselves a huge following in Australia and internationally since the release of their ground-breaking debut album ‘3 Feet High and Rising’ in 1989. We last saw the good-time guys in early 2008, but this time they’re splashing out and coming with a 10-piece band, made up of seasoned players from across the USA, handpicked by DE LA SOUL.

Cut Chemist, one of hip hop’s most influential DJ’s, has been confirmed as a special guest for the tour, performing in a never before seen, 3 piece live format featuring vocals from Hymnal, custom visuals, decks and fx. Cut’s profile as a member of Ozomatli, dj and producer for legendary hip hop live outfit Jurassic 5 and frequent collaborator with fellow turntablist DJ Shadow steps up to the next level as he takes his unique cut & scratch audio visual presentation to the following shows:

DE LA SOUL 2009 Australian Tour

Sunday, April 26 - METRO CITY - Perth

Friday, May 1 - THE ESPLANADE HOTEL - Melbourne

Saturday, May 2 - GROOVIN THE MOO FESTIVAL - Lou Lister Park, Townsville

Sunday, May - 3 BRISBANE Tivoli - Brisbane

Tuesday, May 5 – METRO THEATRE - Sydney

Friday, May 8 – THE SHORES COMPLEX - Adelaide

Saturday, May 9 – GROOVIN THE MOO FESTIVAL - Newcastle Showgrounds, Newcastle

Tuesday, May 12 - SFBH - Wellington

Wednesday, May 13 - LAKE KAWANA CENTER - Queenstown

Thursday, May 14 – THE BEDFORD - Christchurch

Friday, May 15 – THE POWER STATION - Auckland

Saturday, May 16 - GROOVIN THE MOO FESTIVAL - Bendigo Show Grounds, Bendigo

The Spin Trim competition was recently drawn, and a winner selected. We have notified said winner, who has chosen to remain anonymous. They did have this to say though:

“Wow, I’m in shock.. I have never won anything before in my life and have been wanting one of these awesome machines ever since I’d heard about them. I never dreamed this would happen, thank you so very much to everyone involved. Keep up the great work with the magazine by the way!”

No worries Anonymous winner, we hope you have a lot of fun with this machine.

We also have the great news that Issue 6 of StickyPoint is not far away. As a sneak peak, here is a look at the cover so you know what you are looking for on the shelves.

The up-coming issue of StickyPoint is centred around medicinal use of cannabis. Dr John Jiggens has an interesting story on the history of cannabis as a medicine, looking into the works of Dr William Brook O’Shaughnessy and the understanding and emergence of the Central-Asian Cannabis Indica.  We also have a story from Treating Yourself editor Marco Renda, detailing his trials & tribulations of being a certified medical cannabis user in Canada.

On top of that, we have an excellent interview with Speech (one of the main members of the soulful Arrested Development), an interview with Adelaide-based hip-hop duo the Roach Scholars as well as our featured artists and a tonne of budshots.

To kick off the festive season, today we are starting a competition giveaway…. with 1st prize a brand spankin’ new Spin Trim.

The Spin Trim is a gentle and effortless hand operated leaf trimming machine, which we had to see to believe. We were amazed at its effeciency despite how simplistic the machine appears to be… and the quality of the end result is simply awesome. No more seized up scissors and white knuckles. No more pain-staking hours of cut, cut, cuttity cut.

Competition is open to all Australians, entries close March 10th 2009. To enter, complete the simple form below… that’s it! Entry limited to 1 entry per person.

StickyPoint Issue 6 will be hitting the shelves in the new year.

Recently in Malaysia, a Saudi Arabian student was sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison and 13 strokes of the rotan (caning) across 2 charges of cannabis possession. Muhamed Tariq Abualjadeil, 21, was found to have cannabis in his possession at the entry to the Cyber Heights Villa in Sepang, Malaysia on the November 18th, 2006.

Tariq was initially charged with drug trafficking, which carries a mandatory death sentence, despite Tariq denying ownership of the cannabis and claiming that the cannabis was for medical purposes.

Tariq’s lawyer pleaded that Tariq was caught up with the wrong people, and was otherwise a good student, studying business computing at a private college at the time of his arrest. A week ago, the prosecution offered Tariq the reduced charge of drug possession, which he initially accepted. However, Tariq then changed his mind, claiming “I don’t want to plead guilty to these two charges. I was not involved in this”.

Tariq’s lawyer then threatened to quit the case unless he cooperated and accepted the reduced charge. Tariq accepted these charges and pleaded guilty a couple of days ago; the first charge for possession of 2.57kg of cannabis (12 years prison and 3 strokes of the rotan) and the second charge for possession of 43.5g of cannabis (3 years prison and 10 strokes of the rotan). Both sentences will run concurrently, backdated to his original arrest in November 2006.

What doesn’t seem to be clear in this case is why there were 2 separate charges for possession of the same substance. Is it possible that Tariq possibly had the small 43.5g (1.5 ounces) of cannabis in his pocket for his own personal supply? Could the 2.57kg (5.6 pounds / 90 ounces) have been a legitimate medicinal supply?

Regardless of what the motives behind the possession were, does a young man in the prime of his life deserve to sit behind bars for the next 10 years of his life and be caned 13 times for a first-time cannabis charge(s)?

What are your thoughts on this sentencing? Does this sentence only seem outrageous because we have rather relaxed cannabis laws compared to Malaysia and other south-east Asian nations?

Sources:
“12 years for Saudi student having cannabis” - New Straits Times - 09/12/08
“Lawyer threatens to quit over Saudi’s plea” - New Straits Times - 04/12/08

It was recently brought to our attention by Pete in Townsville that when he searched the StickyPoint store locator for shops in Queensland, none of the stores listed were stocking the magazine. First up, BIG APOLOGIES to anyone in Queensland who has been unable to find a store listed on that page… as an oversight inside the office here, there should be no stores listed for any Queensland post code.

The reason behind this is that StickyPoint was given a Category 1 Restricted (R18+) by the OFLC (Office of Film and Literature Classification), and by Queensland state laws, that means StickyPoint is not allowed for distribution / sale in the sunny state. Unfortunately our hands are tied by these laws, and it seems to be yet another case of unfair censorship.

We genuinely apologise for the inconvenience caused to any of Queensland readers, we wish we could change the laws or the rating we were given. However, there are online stores that do stock our magazine and ship Australia-wide, so…

Our apologies again Pete, keep an eye on your mailbox in the coming week…

Whatsup! I cover music events for Stickypoint, and thought it was about time to start talking tunes on this site. I’ll be posting news, reviews, interviews and various opinions about quality music events in Oz, and artists worldwide who are blowing it up. I’d love to hear your opinions on the content, or music stuff you’ve read about in the mag- let’s make this a dope discussion!

Let’s start with some fatty links:

• some of the dopest mixes online can be found at www.djztrip.com - make sure you check out the mixes section in the forum- all free, all good!
• I’m also diggin www.woodnsoo.com - two Vancouver dudes with some sick mixes you can download for free- reggae, hip hop, funk, dubstep, dancehall, ragga, grime- all good shit!

Check back in the coming weeks for exclusive reviews & interviews.

Cannabis and MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus)
The Medical Mark

The list of medical uses for marijuana (Cannabis Sativa) continues to grow. The Journal of Natural Products recently published a paper outlining the newly isolated antibiotic effects of the class of molecules known as cannabanoids. This group includes the non-psychoactive cannabichromene, cannabigerol, and cannabidiol but also includes the well-known and definitely psychotropic tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

Researchers believe that the powerful antibiotic effects of cannabanoids can be enlisted in the increasingly difficult fight against MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) and other ’superbugs’ that have evolved resistances to most modern antibiotics. MRSA is perhaps the best known of these superbugs, often running rampant in hospitals, with estimates of up to 1.2 million hospital patients becoming infected and possibly over 100,000 patients dying each year in the United States due to lack of effective medicines against them. The known effectiveness of cannabanoids and the fact that they have not been used before, and therefore no bacteria has yet developed a resistance to them, could prove to be a very valuable tool in the arms race against these constantly changing bacterial strains.

In some ways the notion of cannabis having antibiotic effects is counterintuitive. This is because it has been proven that the act of smoking marijuana actually increases vulnerability to infections. This vulnerability however seems to be a result of inhaling marijuana smoke or even smoke in general and likely has little to do with the presence or absence of cannabanoids.

Contrastingly, cannabis sativa itself, when not smoked, has been known since the 1950s to have strong antibacterial properties. However, as the technology of looking into how molecules are structured and how they interact was in its infancy at the time, the researchers were unable to determine which marijuana compounds were actually causing the antibacterial effects. As the social and research climates started to grow increasingly hostile to the investigation of black-listed substances in the US and around the world, antibiotic cannabis studies were soon shelved and ignored until they were finally picked up again fairly recently by modern science.

With all of the advances in chemical analysis made since the fifties, the new batch of scientists studying cannabis related antibiotics were now able to pinpoint the basic backbone structure that is common to all cannabanoids, to be the active component in killing off bacteria. Now that the bio-active section of the cannabanoid molecules has been identified, researchers and drug makers are busy developing and testing antibiotic drugs as well as considering potential uses for cannabanoids in various soaps and cleaning products. At present they are focusing their efforts on the derivatives of the non-psychoactive cannabanoids. This is presumably because the US FDA, and other governing bodies world-wide, might have a hard time with people getting high in order to cure a bacterial infection; not to mention getting high by just washing their hands.

Sources:

www.spectroscopynow.com

http://pubs.acs.org

http://www.kaisernetwork.org

How to improve the quality of the high from a low quality bud - The Magic of Terpenes

While I was in Nimbin recently at the 2008 Mardi Grass, I had the opportunity to sit and blow a joint with Ed Rosenthal (pictured right, I’m on the left, Ed on the right). We got to talking about Terpenes, with particular regard to a chapter in Ed’s latest Book, “The Big Book of Buds Vol. 3″, called ‘The Secret Chemistry of Cannabis Odors and Highs’.

The discussion led to a Terpene known as Myrcene, which is the most prevalent Terpene found in most varieties of Cannabis, but not found in hemp. It is also present in high amounts in mangos, hops, lemon grass, West Indian bay tree, verbena and the plant from which it derives it’s name; Mercia.

Myrcene appears in small amounts in the essential oils of many other plants.
Its odour is described as clove-like, earthy, green-vegetative, citrus, and fruity with tropical mango and minty nuances.

Without going into too much detail from the book, Ed explained that the presence of Myrcene was an important factor in the quality and enjoyment of the high from smoking certain Cannabis strains, particularly those strains that came from tropical climates…namely Sativas.

Ed went on to tell me that it was possible to enhance the quality of the high from a low potency bud, through the addition of Myrcene. He went on to say that this could in fact be tested and verified. And this is how he told me to do it.

Say I had a nicely grown bud that was lacking in the ‘Zing’ department when smoked. If I was to eat a Mango one hour before smoking the bud, Ed said the addition of Myrcene to my body from the mango, would have a profound impact on the quality of the high, and I would notice the ‘Zing’ that was missing, had I just smoked the bud without having eaten the mango.

Yes folks, you heard it here. You can improve the quality of the high from a bud you smoke, if you eat a fresh mango ONE HOUR before smoking!

Yep… that is true.

So, how do we use this information to help us further, so that we can improve the quality of our high, or maximise the medicinal benefits of our cannabis.

Well, first up is to make sure that you ALWAYS inhale the aromas and perfumes PRIOR to smoking or vaping your buds. You do this by breaking up, or chopping up your bud prior to consumption. This releases the volatile terpenes in the bud when you rupture the resin glands. If you then inhale deeply through your nose and wait at least 5 minutes, you will maximise the benefits from that bud.

To show how this works in practice, all of you will have seen reports from police that their officers have gotten ‘high’ when seizing ripe cannabis in large quantities from a grow room. The police are not actually high, but they are in fact affected by the terpenes released into the air as they handle the cannabis. The two most prevalent terpenes giving this reaction are Myrcene and Geraniol. The police are relaxed and somewhat sedated, but they are NOT high. You will also notice this effect when manicuring your cannabis at harvest time.

I know a lot of purists will nay say about breaking a bud up prior to smoking, but I can assure you that they would get a better benefit if the chopped and inhaled first.

I hope you find this helpful.

Namaste

Check back in the future for more articles from The Medical Mark.

Recently the number of requests we receive for back issues of StickyPoint has grown, which we think is awesome. We are nearing the 2 year anniversary since the first issue hit the shelves, so it is reassuring to know that there are new readers of the magazine who have an interest to see its history.

We don’t sell back issues of the magazine through our website, but a few of our retailers do stock back issues; such as Off Ya Tree. However, if you are not close to an Off Ya Tree store, their online store also offers all the back issues. Bongs N Things also have the first 3 issues of StickyPoint in their online store, with Issue 2 and 3 on sale for $7.46AUD.

In terms of getting copies of the current issue, your best bet is to check our store locator. Please be aware though, the store locator list may contain retailers who have not advised us that they no longer stock the magazine.

In some circumstances you may find that a retailer chooses to not display the magazine due to high numbers of theft (we have heard of this from a few places), or that they feel it is not appropriate for display on the shelf. We have also been told that some retailers also sell out quickly. In any case, unfortunately we cannot control the actions of the retailers. Our advice is to ask the retailer, hopefully it is being held behind the counter or they can order more in.

A Bud Shots update, some up close and personal macro shots of some dried buds. Lots of lovely crystals, glimmering in the light. All of the new images can be seen from the thumbnails below, and also appear in the Bud Shots Gallery.