GETTING A HIGH EDUCATION

Erowid.org bridges the gap between 'Just say NO' and 'Just say YES'

Marijuana, mushrooms, salvia, cocaine, heroin, speed, LSD, MDMA, MDA,
PCP, antidepressants, alcohol, tobacco, glue, caffeine and the list
goes on.

From over-the-counter cough syrup to underground manufactured
chemicals, psychoactive drugs are everywhere, and it's hard to find
someone who hasn't tried something. While access to drugs may be easy,
access to information on drugs is another story. You can't trust
parents and teachers who say, "Don't smoke pot!" and you can't trust
the dealer who says coke will be better than the best sex you've ever
had.

Where's the middle ground? Go online and open the Vaults of Erowid,
and you will find it.

Erowid (www.erowid.org) is a virtual library of drugs founded by Earth
and Fire Erowid, a California couple who have dedicated their lives to
the hunt for psychoactive knowledge. Their vault is filled with
valuable and sometimes unique data on just about every drug, from just
about every angle.

"There were a number of reasons why we started Erowid," said Fire, the
female half of the Erowid couple. "Primarily, we were very
disappointed with the information that was available about
psychoactives in the early 1990s."

Capitalizing on the accessibility of the Internet, Erowid has been
able to fill the information void with over 30,000 documents that
explore everything from effects to chemistry, art to recipes,
experience reports to legalities. With its extensive collection and
the ever-present need for answers, Erowid attracts millions of
visitors every year, some of which may surprise you. Drug
users, potential drug users, students, medical professionals, law
enforcement officers, researchers and many others use Erowid to find
reliable information they can't get elsewhere. Many of these groups
are also contributors, offering different perspectives and information
to further expand Erowid's ongoing discourse on drugs and their roles
in people's lives.

Despite Erowid's controversial content, they have encountered little
resistance.

"Generally, everyone likes having access to good data ( . . . ) and
that's our goal. We want to provide the same good quality information
to everyone," said Fire.

Const. Harry Lawrenson of the Ontario Provincial Police, and
co-ordinator of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program in
Ontario, agrees with Erowid's approach. Lawrenson also supports the
website as an educational resource, and commends Erowid on the
multiplicity of the perspectives represented.

"I think the more education people get, the better," said Lawrenson.
"I think they're doing the right thing; you know, people need to
understand the consequences, pro and con, of what they're doing, or
going to do."

Because Erowid writes for a more mature audience (while DARE targets
elementary-aged children) Lawrenson said he would point skeptical
teens and adults seeking information to the site. While Erowid has the
potential to turn people off of drugs, it could also convince people
to try them.

"I would tell them to cautiously go in there," he asserted.

The global respect that Erowid is earning is underscored by the
neutrality of the website. It does not advocate a world in which
everybody and their grandmother shoots up every night, but it does
realize that drugs play a positive role in many people's lives. Their
working philosophy is that an understanding of the human-psychoactive
relationship depends on an ongoing and evolving dialogue on drugs and
drug culture.

"A lack of factual information doesn't stop people from using
psychoactives," said Fire. "If it did, there wouldn't have been much
use before access to the Internet became common. So given that we can
assume people will continue to use psychoactives, they should be
encouraged to make choices based on factual data. We believe this will
both increase safety and improve the decisions people make in other
ways."

Erowid.org is not a hobby for Earth and Fire; to accommodate the many
submissions, queries and updates requiring attention, the couple has
made the site their full-time job. While Erowid is a public website,
it depends on visitor donations to pay for the materials and the small
staff needed to keep it running.

Despite their struggles, Fire maintains that Erowid will continue its
mission.

"We sometimes joke that it's stupid that we're the ones doing this as
it should be handled by a large neutral government-funded health
organization. Four people and some volunteers trying to produce and
pay for it with visitor contributions just seems silly.

"Maybe someday it won't any longer be necessary for us to do this ( .
. . ) but until then, we hope to continue developing new and
innovative resources that help people make good decisions around the
ever-increasing variety of psychoactives available to them."