Open secrets: how the government lost the drug war in cyberspace

Reason, Oct, 2004 by Michael Erard

Bluelight's John Robinson says this sort of exchange illustrates the evolution within the drug culture of knowledge that ultimately helps to keep people safe. "We have always tried to walk the line between the oral culture and the world of academic science" he says. "The Internet allows us to have an open, anonymous environment where people are able to speak freely and share their experiences, but it also means that we can make the effort to support what is said with references."

Other similarly interactive sites serve as the memory of the drug culture. The largest, most extensive of these is Erowid, which covers a huge range of substances, from marijuana to absinthe to morning glory seeds to obscure research drugs such as 5Meo-AMT. Founded in 1995, Erowid boasts more than 28,000 visitors a day and some 20,000 documents related to psychoactive substances, including plants, illicit synthetics, pharmaceuticals, and "smart drugs." The information includes basic facts, legal status, chemical makeup, trip reports, spiritual associations, and references to scientific articles (including some from Microgram).

Microgram's Bob Klein complains that "many things that would have been better left buried in obscurity-like smoking bufo toad skins, sniffing concentrated cow pie fumes, allowing yourself to be stung by scorpions, smoking jimson weed or salvia divinorum, drinking cough syrups, mixing up concoctions of any of dozens of different kinds of drugs and pharmaceuticals, drinking ayahuasca tea, etc., etc., etc.--have been brought to light by the Internet, and are therefore practiced." But contrary to what the anti-drug crowd warns, many of the posts on these sites hardly glamorize drug use. One writer to Erowid, for instance, describes a 5-Meo-AMT trip as "the worst decision I have ever made." After hours of paranoia, nausea, headache, and pounding heartbeat, he ended up examining his life and deciding "that the current lifestyle of subtance abuse must end. I have truly been scared sober.... I am writing this urging people to stay away from this chemical. It is very similar to LSD at the beginning but toward the end all hell broke loose."

Some of the messages at Blue-light read like a Consumer Reports of illicit substances. Wrote Mihgzer on March 3, 2004: "There are some puple get tabs in america, they taste funny, some people liked them, some people got sick and said they thought it was 5meoamt." But most postings do contain genuine warnings. Mystryman warned people about the appearance of purple pills containing Para-methoxy-amphetamine, or PMA, in Maryland and Pennsylvania. "Not much to say but, these chemicals can make you die low doses. PERIOD!!!!" Rejoined .dR spgeddi, "australian bluelighters are all too familiar with the dangers associated with this drug. one entry in the shrine is dedicated to a beautiful person who passed foolishly experiamenting with pma."

Many of the drug sites appear to be offered in the spirit of harm reduction. Says the welcoming message at shroomery.org: "This site was created to help stop the spread of dangerous misinformation related to magic mushrooms, so that people can make intelligent and informed decisions about what they put in their bodies." The Ecstasy reduction site dancesafe.org includes this disclaimer at the bottom of its homepage: "This website provides health and safety information only. We neither condemn nor condone the use of any drug. Rather, we recognize that recreational drug use is a permanent part of our society, and that there will always be people who use drugs, despite prohibition. The drug information we provide, therefore, is meant to assist users in making informed decisions about their use."