My name is Araminta and I am the founder of the Pipe Down Foundation charity and editor of Pipe Down the magazine. In this column I’d like to be able to explore a little bit about what has been go-ing on for Pipe Down during the month, and perhaps filter in a few of my own opinions and musings on addiction and recovery whilst I’m at it. As this is the first Pipe Down column, I should tell you a bit about about Pipe Down and the Foundation.

For years Pipe Down was a Pipe Dream. Even the idea of the magazine was formulated whilst I was in relapse. I was lost and hopeless and I knew I needed to get connected to a recovery community but didn’t know how to in the state | was in. So I started to think about a magazine that would reach people like me and give them hope that they weren’t alone. The idea behind Pipe Down is to bring recovery into the world and the world into recovery. That means that it has content that is relevant to anyone whose lives have been touched by addiction; be it the addict themselves, their families, or even drugs workers and teachers. Because the idea came when I was in the depths of despair, I realised how important it was to involve humour. In that sort of state, I needed something light to lift me out of the darkness. I understood that in order to really engage with people that far into the madness, we needed to do something different. Controversy and humour was the key. If we can get people so entrenched in misery to laugh at themselves, what they are doing and their situation, we may have a chance to get them to read on. There are some really important messages beneath the humour in Pipe Down. I really hope as many people as possible are able to hear them.

The charity started to evolve when we found out that the magazine could no longer be fund-ed by Gwent Substance Misuse Area Planning Board. We were fortunate enough to get funding from them for our first three issues, but when the funding belt got tightened, the magazine obviously had to be let go. We are now at a stage where we are looking for people to help fund our vision. I am passionate about the ability the magazine has to turn the lives of addicts in early recovery, or active addiction around. The magazine gave me the focus and determination to believe I could succeed and live a life free of drugs. That’s what I’m doing today. Please contact in-fo@pipedownmagazine.co.uk if you want to contribute to the magazine with anything creative. We are open to all ideas and will publish them either in print or on our website www.pipedownmagazine.co.uk.

If you would like to help fund Pipe Down’s Pipe Dream, please contact ara-minta@pipedownmagazine.co.uk

Any money given to the charity is a tax deductible expense. So far we have been lucky enough to have Mobo Media sponsor the development of our website and Wills & Legal Services sponsor get-ting us to charity status.

- Araminta Jonsson, Founder & Editor of Pipe Down.