My Nonprofit Reviews

At 60, I'm back in school, studying for a HHS degree with a concentration in addictions. I've been on both sides of the counseling desk and methadone dispensing window; (I was male nurse for the last 20 years).

Erowid has helped me, even avoid some hazards during times of full on addiction. It's still a strong go to information site for me, from a wide perspective, regarding drugs (and alcohol) from the broadest philosophical, hedonic, therapeutic, and practical perspectives.

As a matter of fact, given the anonymity afforded here, I will be candid to disclose that, while I'm perfectly transparent in the above comments, [and will probably access the site as I hopefully enter into graduate studies] that; I'm here to take a glance at the antihistamine Meclizine this morning, with which I'm bumping my purely-hypothetical- illegal-use of percocet and vicodin (as well as tylenol and alleve).

We are not a simplistic people, nor is the subject wholly captured from a marginalized approach from either polarized perspective.

And, please know, that the candid academic and anecdotal reporting--*including a hedonic posture regarding drug use/dependence/addictions, are VERY VALUABLE--whether from a harms reduction-safety posture regarding use; study from a purely academic perspective; and/or informing the counseling perspective.

Please do not negate the purely *hedonic part of the education available here, for the above reasons. Although paradoxical, we users and/or therapists, know the real value of this intellectually honest approach to the subject of psycho-active substances.

For example, I recently was perusing the Silk Road, and for the sake of intellectual honesty, please don't think for one moment that my motives were purely academic nor therapeutic; although both hedonistic and therapeutic motives were involved.

Why I offer this is that, while I, by the grace of my Higher Power, escaped injury; (the FBI seized Silk Road as I was contemplating setting up a purchase of bitcoins; and, I was fortuitously contravened in the matter) my inquiring mind also found peer reviewed science articles on the college servers where I'm studying, which were written by Silk Road's secondary progenitor, Ross Ulbricht.

Only we with these kinds of insights can really understand the pragmatic value of what I'm trying to say. FWIW, I can pray for Ulbricht--no moral qualifiers up or down--I'm just being as transparent as I know how to be.

The up-shoot was that I was able to offer a didactic communication with a university pharmacology class inhabited by a significant population of budding drug/alcohol counselors. I can't express strongly enough how valuable (even in light of frank drug use) how VALUABLE the hedonic perspective is.

I commend ya'll from my heart. Keep up the good work. I would also commend you for protecting the anonymity of your readers, and thereby encouraging the anecdotal input of your readers--valuable stuff, regardless of intellectual posture.

Articles regarding, for example, the history of substances, like the use of trans-dermal marijuana and alkaloids by the Greek doctor Galen for the ancient Olympians [Olympians Dark Ointment] --stuff like that, would be a welcome source of information.

Another example of otherwise obscure intellectual materials I would like to see made available is "From Whence Hath it Tares: A Short Synopsis of Drug Abuse According to the Scriptures and Other Extra-Biblical Writings", by John Heys Mealor:

[Drug Abuse in Scripture
ESBN: FB272D48-FCA5-480E-8F32-A06B68CBFB5C
John Heys Mealor
http://www.drugabuseinscripture.co.uk
vortexezine@btopenworld.com
Copyright (C) John Heys Mealor 2001 - 2011]

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