Erowid, also called Erowid Center, is a non-profit educational organization that provides information about psychoactive plants and chemicals. Erowid documents legal and illegal substances, including their intended and adverse effects. Information on Erowid's website is gathered from diverse sources including published literature, experts in related fields, and the experiences of the general public. Erowid acts as a

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

of new information as well as a library for the collection of documents and images published elsewhere.

History

Erowid was founded in April 1995 as a small business; their website appeared six months later. The name "Erowid" was chosen to reflect the organization's stated philosophy of education. Using

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo ...

linguistic roots, "Erowid" roughly translates into "Earth Wisdom" (''er'' meaning 'earth,' 'exist,' and 'be born' and ''wid'' meaning 'knowledge' / 'wisdom' or 'to see').Emily Witt
"The trip planners."
''

New Yorker New Yorker or ''variant'' primarily refers to: * A resident of the State of New York ** Demographics of New York (state) * A resident of New York City ** List of people from New York City * ''The New Yorker'', a magazine founded in 1925 * '' The ...

.'' 23 November 2015. Retrieved 2018-03-05. In 2005, the

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of ...

non-profit educational organization, "Erowid Center", was formed. The organization is supported by donations, and its

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and W ...

is free of advertisements. Although its primary focus is on the website, Erowid Center also provides research and data for other

harm reduction Harm reduction, or harm minimization, refers to a range of public health policies designed to lessen the negative social and/or physical consequences associated with various human behaviors, both legal and illegal. Harm reduction is used to d ...

, health, and

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...

al organizations. The organization is based in

Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

. Fire Erowid and Earth Erowid are the

sobriquet A sobriquet ( ), or soubriquet, is a nickname, sometimes assumed, but often given by another, that is descriptive. A sobriquet is distinct from a pseudonym, as it is typically a familiar name used in place of a real name, without the need of expla ...

s of the two creators of the site. Both work full-time on the project, along with speaking at conferences, producing original research, and contributing to

entheogen Entheogens are psychoactive substances that induce alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, or behavior for the purposes of engendering spiritual development or otherwiseRätsch, Christian, ''The Encyclopedia of Psychoac ...

ic research. According to the site, the creators' vision includes 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." Erowid Center's mission is to provide and facilitate access to objective, accurate, and non-judgmental information about psychoactive plants, chemicals, technologies, and related issues. According to one study, "Erowid is a trusted resource for drug information—both positive and negative," and Erowid has been extensively cited worldwide by book authors, scientific and medical journals, newspapers, magazines, filmmakers, radio and TV shows, Ph.D. students, web sites, and other media producers.

Projects

Online library

The library contains over 63,000 documents related to over 737 psychoactive substances, including images, research summaries and abstracts, FAQs,

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...

articles, experience reports, information on

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, structure, proper ...

, dosage, effects,

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organ ...

, traditional and spiritual use, and

drug testing A drug test is a technical analysis of a biological specimen, for example urine, hair, blood, breath, sweat, or oral fluid/saliva—to determine the presence or absence of specified parent drugs or their metabolites. Major applications of dr ...

. , over 17 million people visit the site each year. The site generally contains more detail in the pages listed under

plants Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclude ...

and

chemicals A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wit ...

than in other sections. It does not have comprehensive information about the specific effects of most pharmaceuticals. Such information may appear elsewhere on the site, where one can read about people's individual reactions to various drugs.

Experience Vaults

Erowid allows site visitors to submit descriptions of 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. Their collection consists of more than 30,000 edited, reviewed, and published reports, as well as stating that they have another 55,000 unpublished reports undergoing review.

DrugsData / EcstasyData

Erowid also run
DrugsData
(formerly EcstasyData), an independent laboratory

drug checking Drug checking or pill testing is a way to reduce the harm from drug consumption by allowing users to find out the content and purity of substances that they intend to consume. This empowers users to make safer choices: to avoid more dangerous substa ...

program co-sponsored b
IsomerDesign
and DanceSafe, which monitors the quality of American street ecstasy. Launched in July 2001, its purpose is to collect, manage, review, and present laboratory drug checking results from a variety of organizations. 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 published on the project's website. EcstasyData has published testing results for nearly 3,000 samples. Testing costs have sometimes been covered by project funding (when available) and at other times are covered by those who submit tablets for testing. At least one published study uses EcstasyData.org as a primary source of data.

Erowid Extracts

''Erowid Extracts'', the bi-annual members' newsletter of Erowid, has been published each year since 2001. It provides updates on the organization's activities, results of surveys conducted on Erowid.org, experience reports, new articles on various aspects of psychedelic and psychoactive plants and drugs, and information about psychedelic culture and events. New issues of ''Erowid Extracts'' are sent to members, but past issues are available on the Erowid website.

Psychoactive Reference Library

Erowid and The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (

MAPS A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes. Many maps are static, fixed to paper or some other durable medium, while others are dynamic or interactive. Although ...

) collaborated on two large reference database projects. Erowid has provided expertise and work developing and coordinating the construction of an online Psychoactive drug reference library, and MAPS has published a similar collection

Document Archiving

Erowid Center also archives and provides access to thousands of older texts in their online and physical libraries. By collecting and making these texts available, they attempt to promote an understanding of the changing contexts surrounding the use of psychoactive drugs. Major archiving projects include the

Albert Hofmann Albert Hofmann (11 January 1906 – 29 April 2008) was a Swiss chemist known for being the first to synthesize, ingest, and learn of the psychedelic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). Hofmann's team also isolated, named and synthesi ...

collection, the Myron Stolaroff Collection, and documents from

Alexander Shulgin Alexander Theodore "Sasha" Shulgin (June 17, 1925 – June 2, 2014) was an American medicinal chemist, biochemist, organic chemist, pharmacologist, psychopharmacologist, and author. He is credited with introducing 3,4-methylenedioxymetha ...

Reception

Due to the subject matter presented on Erowid.org, the site has drawn praise and criticism from both the media and medical officials. Edward Boyer, an emergency-room physician, and toxicologist, while admitting that Erowid has a plethora of useful information, once argued the site may cause more harm than good to potential drug users. Boyer has since come to cautiously admire Earth and Fire, and no longer refers to their site as 'partisan,' though he still sometimes argues that Erowid minimizes adverse effects and includes too much unreliable – 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.'" In the context of this debate, anthropologist Nicolas Langlitz argued that Erowid also sometimes serves as a mechanism of postmarket surveillance or pharmacovigilance in the realm of illicit and experimental substances.

References

External links

* {{official
Erowid.org website

Erowid Center website

EcstasyData.org website

State of the Stone 2013: Drugs of the Future, Now - Earth and Fire Erowid
Earth and Fire lecture in the Psychedelic Science 2013 conference.
Fire and Earth - From Microdots to Bath Salts: The State of the Stone 2011
lecture in the Entheogenesis Australis 2011 symposium.
Connecting the Microdots - Earth and Fire Erowid
Earth and Fire lecture in the Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century conference in 2010.
Notes from the Psychedelic Salon Podcast 026 – “The Role of Drug Geeks in Society”
Earth and Fire talk from the Mind States conference in 2002.
Visualising ErowidDMT-Nexus
Website similar to Erowid. American educational websites Drug culture Psychedelics, dissociatives and deliriants Charities based in California American digital libraries 501(c)(3) organizations