Erowid

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Screenshot of Erowid's front page
Screenshot of Erowid's front page

Erowid.org, also called The Vaults of Erowid, is an online library of information about psychoactive plants and chemicals. Erowid makes available detailed information about all substances, illegal or legal, including the desired effects and adverse ones. It is organized by substance, ranging from common substances like alcohol, to unusual ones such as DOB.

The information on the site is a compilation of the experiences of many individuals, including users, health professionals, therapists, chemists, and lawyers. Erowid acts as a publisher of new information as well as a library for the collection of documents and images published elsewhere.

Contents

[edit] Organizational history

Erowid is a small organization founded in April 1995; the Erowid.org web site was first made public six months later.[1] Erowid gained approval as a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization in the United States in October 2007 under the name Erowid Center. The organization is supported by donations; the site does not carry banner ads. It is committed to protecting the privacy of contributors and attempts to provide information about psychoactive drugs non-judgmentally. Although its primary focus is on the web site, it also provides research and data for other harm reduction, health, and educational organizations.

Erowid can also refer to Fire Erowid and Earth Erowid, the pseudonyms of the two creators of the site. Both work full-time on the project, along with appearing at conventions, producing original research, and contributing to entheogenic research.

According to the site, the creators' vision includes creating a "world where people treat psychoactives with respect and awareness; where people work together to collect and share knowledge in ways that strengthen their understanding of themselves and provide insight into the complex choices faced by individuals and societies alike."[2] Erowid Center's mission is not to encourage the use of psychoactive drugs, but to archive and disseminate independent accurate information, a role that, according to at least some researchers, has been quite successful.[3]

The organization is based in northern California and the servers are located in San Francisco.[4]

[edit] Online library

The library contains over 45,000 documents related to psychoactives, including images, research summaries and abstracts, media articles, experience reports, information on chemistry, dosage, effects, law, health, traditional and spiritual use, and drug testing. Over 50,000 people visit the site each day (June 2007).[5]

The site generally contains much more detail in the pages listed under plants and chemicals than other sections. It does not have comprehensive and collected information about the specific effects of pharmaceuticals, though such information may be available elsewhere on the site, such as in the user experience "vaults" or related pages, where one can read about people's individual reactions to various drugs.

Erowid allows visitors to submit their own personal experiences with psychoactive substances for review and possible publication. The site states that they welcome all perspectives regarding personal psychoactive experience, including positive, negative and neutral.

Erowid is a library and makes no guarantee regarding the accuracy of archived documents or articles. It states explicitly in its FAQ that "as with all resources, the accuracy of each article or page needs to be considered on its own merits."[6]

[edit] Projects

Erowid also co-sponsors and manages EcstasyData.org, an American street-ecstasy testing project.[7] Tablets of street ecstasy can be anonymously submitted to a DEA licensed laboratory for testing and then photos of the tablets and GC/MS test results are then published on the project's website. EcstasyData has published testing results for more than 1,000 tablets.[8] Testing costs have sometimes been covered by project funding (when available) and at other times are covered by those who submit tablets for testing. Erowid took over management of this project in July 2001 and co-sponsors it along with MAPS and DanceSafe.

[edit] Criticisms and controversies

Due to the controversial subject matter presented in Erowid, the site has drawn praise and criticism from both the media and medical officials. American physician and broadcaster Dean Edell often recommends Erowid to listeners interested in learning about drugs and drug use.[citation needed] On the other hand, Edward Boyer, an emergency-room physician and toxicologist, while admitting that Erowid has a plethora of useful information, argued the site may be causing more harm than good to potential drug users. "Though Boyer has since come to cautiously admire Earth and Fire, and no longer refers to their site as 'partisan,' he still argues that Erowid minimizes adverse effects and includes too much dodgy — and potentially harmful — data in its quest to present all sides. 'Erowid is so comprehensive, and so much of the information is correct, that unless you're an expert in medical toxicology you may miss the dangerous information that's close to the surface.'"[9]

Erowid.org is currently blocked by Websense filters as "Inappropriate Content."[10] It is also blocked by school web-filter Bess as "Drugs".

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Erowid F. "Erowid: 10 Years of History." Erowid Extracts. Jun 2005;8:12-14.
  2. ^ Erowid:About Us
  3. ^ Murguia E, Tackett-Gibson M, Lessem A. "Real Drugs in a Virtual World: Drug Discourse and Community Online". Lexington Books. 2007.
  4. ^ Erowid FAQ: Where Is Erowid Located?
  5. ^ Erowid. "The Distillation." Erowid Extracts. Jun 2007;12:22-25.
  6. ^ Erowid FAQ
  7. ^ EcstasyData: About EcstasyData.org
  8. ^ EcstasyData: Summary Statistics for EcstasyData.org Lab Testing Results
  9. ^ Davis E. "Don't Get High Without It". LA Weekly. Apr 30, 2004.
  10. ^ Erowid: Silent Censorship?

[edit] External links

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