Erowid Founders on Responsible Psychoactive Drug Use

What exactly does it mean for adults to use psychoactive drugs in a "responsible" way, and why do we have such a hard time admitting that such a thing is possible when drugs from Ambien and Xanax to coffee and alcohol have become such pervasive aspects of our culture? Those are some of the subjects addressed in a really wonderful and thought-provoking essay on Cato Unbound by Earth and Fire Erowid, the founders of the Erowid website.

This essay is apparently going to be the beginning of a sort of four-way conversation, with upcoming responses from Jacob Sullum, Mark Kleiman and Jonathan Caulkins. Should be worth reading!

On a side note. I've always found Erowid to be an extremely interesting and remarkable website, not simply because it contains so much information about a somewhat taboo subject (although that's fun too) but because it takes such a principled stand in favor of the value of access to information. Erowid's founders write:

Public information sources should prioritize accuracy and completeness over maintaining a single, politically driven message. It is inconsistent with the democratic ideals of American culture to corrupt information in order to support public policies. The issues are complex and sources should reflect that.

This should not be a controversial position in our society. Indeed, it should be a principle that we struggle to support, because democracies don't work very well when voters are deliberately misinformed.

Comments

[Matthew - London]

Hear, hear. And not just America but the Western world.

[Sam A @ Stonehill]

Although the website of Erowid is home to much controversial and litigious material (such as illicit drug dosage and limitations, duration and effects, drug test sensitivity, guidelines for saying “no” to police searches, etc), its debatable content only makes for a stronger argument as to why the website should remain available to the public. It can be easily debated that Erowid may serve as an informant to drug addicts and abusers by providing information about drugs’ half lives, how to evade police searches, and sensitivity to certain drug tests. However, the website’s purpose remains clear: “documenting the relationship between humans and psychoactives.” With illicit drugs being such a “taboo” subject in our society, I think it is necessary to have organizations such as Erowid published on the web. This information is extremely valuable to the public and needs to be accessible in order to provide drug education and prevention.