E-RESOURCES: NOT JUST FOR RAVERS ANY MORE

Whether to drug or not to drug is your decision, but if you decide to
experiment, please make sure you're informed. Research and compare
sources-don't rely on others' experiences. If you do, you may end up
dead, annoying, or like my friend's old neighbours, who evidently
misunderstood some slang and spent an afternoon puking after trying to
smoke their front lawn. Here are three Web sites dedicated to all
things drug-related that give you the facts-without the bullshit.

Erowid: www.erowid.org

The most extensive drug resource on the internet, Erowid is devoted to
"documenting the complex relationship between humans and
psychoactives." The cache of information here is astounding. There's
an info stash for every drug with any measurable psychoactive effect
on humans, from nutmeg to methamphetamine to 1.4-butanediol, providing
pictures, effects and dosage information, as well as personal accounts
of use. Besides that, there's an equally massive archive of
information about drug laws, the achievement of non-chemical altered
states, the scientific mechanisms of drug action, the history of
psychoactive chemical us and so much more. It's awesome.

The Good Drugs Guide: www.thegooddrugsguide.com

I'm not sure whether the "good" here is in reference to the drugs or
the guide; I'll refrain from comment on the former, but the latter is
certainly accurate. This UK-based site is less frighteningly
comprehensive than Erowid, but it delivers, straight-up, on the
chemicals that the average person is most likely to be interested in.
They've got a complete "mixing guide" for every drug they list, a move
that will hopefully stop so many people dying from doing
speedballs-coke 'n' heroin cocktails, for the less debauched.

On a happier note, the GDG also has a neat article section where you
can find out about famous people who were drug users (King George V,
I'm looking at you) and how LSD was isolated.

Lycaeum: www.lycaeum.org

This site is to Erowid as Vanilla-Filled Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
are to Oreos. It's solid, but sort of annoying to navigate and no
where near as informative. If I were you, I'd go to The Drug Slang
Translator (www.brunching.com/drugslanger.html) instead. Using the
White House's drug policy site as its slang dictionary, the Translator
will reveal the hidden pro-drug messages in Web sites all over the
internet! I like to translate pages from CNN.com, to laugh at the fact
that the US president's name is, it seems, slang for "Heroin W.
Marijuana". Hah!