stripSlashes function

I have a form that allows a person to enter an announcement into a database using a form. The form and the query work fine. $query = "INSERT INTO maztov (fullname1, fullname2, city1, city2, email1, email2, post_fullname, mazal_text, post_city, post_email, other_emails, entered) VALUES ('$fullname1','$fullname2','$city1','$city2','$email1','$email2','$post_fullname','$mazal_text','$post_city','$post_email','$other_emails', NOW())"; $result = mysql_query($query); Then I realized MagicQuotes was adding slashes to my query, so I added this line: $query = stripSlashes($query); before I executed the result. Now the result is no longer executing, i.e. the entry is not being added into the database. When I echo the query before and after stripslashes has been applied, it is echoing exactly what I think it should. When I comment out the line with stripslashes, it works again but with adding quotes. What am I doing wrong? Thanks, -Lisi