DRUG-RELATED SITES ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Marianne Apostolides, The Lindesmith Center New York, USA
People in the drug world have had no problem moving into the world of the Web. The Web makes information easily accessible to people anywhere in the world, which is useful for an international movement like ours. As people can access information privately and anonymously, the Web is also an ideal tool for spreading drug related harm-reduction information to people who might not otherwise be reached.
The drug movement has a large presence on the Web, and has contributed some of the most visually vivid Web sites (call it inspiration . . .). The following is a list of some of the sites that readers of IJDP might want to explore. Have a good trip . . .
INFORMATION ORIENTED SITES
http://www.soros.org/lindesmith/index.html
The Lindesmith Center has a strong site that is the on-line arm of the Manhattan based research institute. The site contains various research papers, articles, government documents, fact sheets, extensive
links to other drug-related Web sites, and conference abstracts on a wide range of drug-related topics. The catalogue of The Lindesmith Center's library will eventually be searchable on-line.
DrugText, the site of the International Foundation for Drug Policy and Human Rights, is an extremely comprehensive site. It has various government documents, court decisions, laws, statistics, graphs, articles, links to drug policy and human rights organisations on drug policy in various countries, with an emphasis on the Netherlands.
The site of the Drug Research Department of Human Geography at the University of Amsterdam contains some statistics as well as academic papers on cocaine and cannabis.
The site of the Netherlands Institute on Alcohol and Drugs (NIAD) contains several fact sheets on Dutch drug policy, good links to international Web sites, and an information overview of the Dutch approach to drugs.
This is the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) which contains various articles and government publications about drug policies and drug use in Canada. The site has some good statistics links to other sites and information on various ongoing projects and studies.
http://fox.nsm.ca/~eoscapel/cidp/cfdp.html
This site of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy contains information on the political developments in Canada regarding drugs. The site include the Foundation's press releases, as well as links to various other organisations including the users' union Citizens on Drugs, a drug education site, etc.
http://www.globalnews.com/isdd/home.html
The site of the Institute for the Study of Drug Dependency ( ISDD) in Britain contains summaries of British laws, statistics and news reports on drugs. However, the site does not contain a lot of full-text documents.
http://www.Stpt. usf.edu/~greek/cj.html
This site, Criminal Justice Links, provides hypertext links to a wide array of criminal justice resources on the web. Many sites are from the USA or Britain - the British Home Office Research and Statistics division has lots of excellent data-listed at http:\ \ www.open.gov.uk home_off \ rsdhome.htm although multinational organisations also have a presence.
http://www.punk.net/home/dgross/ludlow.html
This site contains the library of Fritz Hugh Ludlow, nineteenth century author. The library contains amazing materials on cannabis, mostly written before US marijuana prohibition in 1937. The site includes several chapters from Ludlow's book Hasheesh Eater, books by other authors, statements from medical authorities at the time and New York Times articles from the early twentieth century.
http://www.cts.com:80/-habtsmrt
This site, called Habit Smart: A Practical Approach to Addictive Behavior, pushes a harm-reduction approach to drugs. It contains papers written by various PhDs and MDs regarding basic information about harm reduction, addictive behaviour and theories of addiction. Habit Smart also includes harm reduction information for parents, tips for drinkers and smokers, and links to various other sites, including one for Alcoholics Anonymous, http- \ \www. moscow.com \ Resources \ Self Help \AA \ .
http://www.epibiostat.ucsf.edu/capsweb
This site of the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS), based at the University of California, San Francisco contains solid information on practical ways to curtail the spread of HIV. Data on needle exchanges and safer sex are included. This is a nice looking site whose information is presented in a readable, accessible way.
http://www.uio.no/~kajh/fmr/eng/eff
This prohibitionist site of the League Against Intoxicants contains an online version of the book Europe's Fifth Freedom.
Hyperreal is an archive of alternative culture, music and expression. It provides loads of information on raves. At the specific location www.hyperreal.com \ drugs, Hyperreal contains information on various drugs - their chemistry, effects on the body, potential problems, safety measures, etc. The information is culled from newspapers, magazines, drug bulletin boards and newsgroups such as alt.drugs, talk.politics.drugs, alt.activism, etc. This site is a good example of the Web's potential to disseminate harm-reduction information in a private, anonymous way. There's also a good listing of other drug related sites atwww.hyperreal.com \ drugs \ faqs \ resources.html.
Paranoia is a strong site about 'freedom of thought and eclectic interest' which has a heavy concentration on drugs and prostitution. It contains journal articles, newspaper reports, presentations, newsgroup postings, etc. about a variety of substances and policy issues.
ACTIVIST ORIENTED SITES
Calyx is the main location for various activist sites.
The site of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), http: \ \ www. norml.org\~norml, contains bulletins with the most recent marijuana-related policy developments and strategies for organising legal change. The location of Forfeiture Endangers American Rights (FEAR), http:\ \www.calyx.net\-fear, contains a good law archive complete with court decisions, a victims' stories section, a news media archive and FEAR publications. The site of the Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet), http:\ \www. calyx.net \ -drcnet, has a 'Victims' File' that portrays victims of the war on drugs, a 'Hall of Shame' that exposes the lies of government officials regarding drugs, and information on political advances and grassroots activism. The homepage of Cliff Schaffer, http:\ \www.calyx.net\ -schaffer, contains a good deal of practical information for activists, such as tips on devising action strategies, writing op eds, and debating. It also contains various facts and lines of argument helpful for activists.
Marijuana as Medicine, http:\ \www. calyx. net\-olsen, contains court rulings, legislation, journal articles, etc. about marijuana in à therapeutic context. De Americanizing Drug Policy, http: \ \www.calyx.net \ -mariolap, the US branch of DrugText, contains research papers and articles, plus some interesting international links. Americans for Compassionate Use (ACU), http: \ \ www.cal~x.net \ ~acu, contains information on various state efforts to legalise the medical use of marijuana. The site of the National Association of Methadone Advocates (NAMA), http:\ \www. interport.net\~ clueless\ nama 1 .html, contains an explanation of the medical and political issues surrounding methadone maintenance. Calyx also has links to other good activist sites that are not drug related.
http://www.infi.net/~lyons\index.html
The site of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, contains statistics, personal stories and narrative that argue against mandatory minimum sentencing laws.
The site of the Marijuana Policy Project, MPP, contains information about Congressional bills, opinion polls, and various state efforts regarding marijuana laws.
This site of Hemp British Columbia - a fun site with interesting layout- contains information on Canadian and US policies, a catalogue of buttons and hemp products for sale, and the magazine Cannabis Canada dedicated to the 'long-suppressed cannabis plant and its culture'.
http://mosaic.echonyc.com/~hightimes/
This site of the magazine High Times includes selected articles from current and back issues.
MEDICAL AND PHARMACOLOGICAL SITES
http://debra.dgbt.doc.ca/~mike/heakhnet/home.html HealthNet, a site maintained in Canada, provides numerous links to health-related databases.
http://www.ircam.fr/solidarites/sida/index-e.html
This site has links to AIDS and AlDS-related databases that contain statistics, reports, newspaper articles, etc.
This contains extensive information on HIV/AIDS, from legal advice to public policy to treatment.
http://http2.sils.umich.edu/Public/nirg/nirgl.html
The Neurosciences Internet Resources Guide, compiled by the University of Michigan School of Information and Library Studies, provides excellent links to a wide array of international neurosciences sites that contain research papers, scans of the brain, etc.
http://golgi.harvard.edu/biopages/medicine .html
This Medical Virtual Library contains hundreds of medical links to universities, journals, institutes, etc.
gopher://una.hh.lib.umich.edu/OO/inetdirsstacks/medelin:malet
The Internet Clinical Medicine Resource Guide lists hundreds of sites - Web sites, gopher sites, list servers, etc. - on various health related topics, including AIDS, addictions, pharmacology and others.
The site of the Pharmaceutical Information Associates contains basic pharmacological information searchable by the drug, and links to other pharmacology sites.
SITES ON PSYCHEDELICS
This site for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) contains comprehensive information about the progress of psychedelic and clinical marijuana research. MAPS' newsletters dating from 1988 are also online.
http://www.intac.com/~dimitri/dh
This site has very interesting thoughts about entheogens, shamanism, theories of human consciousness, etc. You might want to explore Terence McKenna's site at http: \ \www.intac.com \ -dimitri \ dh \ mckenna.html.
This site of the Council on Spiritual Practices -.a religious, educational and scientific organisation contains information on psychedelics, spirituality, natural healing and entheogens. '
http://www.oimage.com/TELR/telr.html
This site of the Entheogen Law Reporter is a newsletter addressing 'the unique legal issues relevant to entheogen users', it is fairly sparse now but could get interesting.
http://cyberverse.com/cgi-bin/L4?searchable
This site has a great searchable database which contains thousands of citations and abstracts of articles related to psychedelics dreaming, and edgy mental phenomena'. Unfortunately, a lot of the documents are not on the Web in full text.
INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION SITES
This is the well-organised site of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties organisation working to protect privacy and the access to online
information. It has links to hundreds of government Web sites - international ( European Union, United Nations, World Bank, G7 Summit, African National Congress), national, regional and local government as well as government-related services. This is the best of the sites that provide links to government institutions.
http://www.undep.org/index.html
This is the site of the United Nations International Drug Control Program (UNDCP) based in Vienna. The site is basically limited to two large reports, one on the role of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, and one on the role of the International Narcotics Control Board. The main United Nations site is located at http:\ \www.un.org.
This site of the World Health Organization contains press releases, statistics (especially on AIDS) and links to other useful international web sites.
The site of the Organization of American States (OAS) contains treaties, charters, OAS resolutions, press releases, weekly reports, and extensive information on the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission.
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT SITES
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) plan to put a lot of data on this site, although they are only in outline form at this point. The site has a link to the National Center for Health Statistics, http: \ \ www.cdc .gov \ nchswww \ nchshome.htm, which contains some good data. The CDC site also has a link to the CDC publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), http:\ \www.crawford. com\cdc\mmwr\mmwr.html, which is an epi demiological newsletter. The contents of MMWR are searchable online. But the newsletters are only viewable with Adobe Acrobat Reader.
http:// thorplus.1ib.purdue.edu/gpo
The Government Printing Office (GPO) online system is a great mechanism for searching for full text
US government documents online.
This site of the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI) contains the full text of publications and studies such as the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), National Drug Abuse Treatment Users Survey (NDATUS), the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, etc. This site also has numerous links to other government sites including the Center for Substance Abuse Research (CESAR) http:\ \www.inform. umd.edu:8080 \ EdRes \ Colleges \ BSOS \ Depts \ Cesar, which contains statistics and the findings of current research projects around the country.
http://ncjrs.aspensys.com:81/ncjrshome.html
This is an excellent site which includes hundreds of US government documents in full text. It is maintained by the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) which is the clearing house for the National Institute of Justice (NIJ ), the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and others. The site includes various full-text government documents, and will eventually include a mechanism to search the site by keyword.
This site of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) contains the full text of NIDA Notes which contain information on drug research studies, summaries of the NIDA Monograph Series which cove a broad array of drug related issues, and links to othe sites such as the American Psychological Association and the College of Drug Dependence which serves to link governmental, industrial and academic communities around drug issues.
The Department of Justice has links to various sites of interest, including the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), http:\ \www.usdoj.gov\ bure aus \ dea \ deahome .htm, which contains numerous full text DEA publications, press releases and transcriptions of congressional testimony; and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP)
http://www.usdoj.gov/bop/bop.html
which has more potential than substance at this point.
The site of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) is fairly sparse, although it contains SAMSHA's mission statement which, surprisingly, seems to be in line with harm-reduction policies.
Fedworld's goal is be the one-stop location for people to locate, order and obtain US government information. It has extensive links to other sites that generate or distribute information for the government.
This is the site of the Library of Congress, which has links to federal, state and local government Web sites. For a list of the links, go to http:\ \www. Ioc.gov \ global \ globalhp.html.
Thomas, as in Thomas Jefferson, has the full text of Senate and House bills. The bills are searchable online by key words, name of Congressman or bill number. The site also lists ways to get in touch with Congressmen.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct./supct.table.html
This site, maintained by the Cornell Law School, contains the syllabi of various Supreme Court deci sions. The syllabi are searchable by key word or by party name.
Copnet has links to various US law enforcement web sites.
SITES FOR GRANT INFORMATION
The site of the National lnstitutes of Health includes Requests for Applications (RFAs), guidelines, eu. for NIH grants.
http://www.nida.nih.gov/ResFundslist.html
This location within the NIDA web site contains
Program Announcements and RFAs for hundreds or grants.
gopher://gopher.ru7f.org:4500/00/Calls/Abuse This particular location within the site of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation contains grant information on substance use.
SEARCH TOOLS
By entering keywords in search engines, you can find a wide array of sites on whatever subject you're seeking. The search engines provide a summary of the retrieved sites and hypertext links to them.
You can conduct an online search of Yahoo's directory by subject word or words. You can also search for sites by exploring Yahoo's index of subjects. The particular location on the index that provides drug related links is http:\ \akebono.stanford. edu \ yahoo \ entertainment \ drugs.
Lycos is another large search engine.
http://www.ksu.edu/~vivaldi/druginfo
Although this site is not a search engine, it is a good online tool because it lists hundreds of drug-related web sites, listservers, newsgroups, etc.
Marianne Apostolides is a research associate at The Lindesmith Center, a drug policy research institute based in New York.