Drug Geeks
Informed Peers in the Psychoactive Community
by Earth & Fire Erowid
Jun 2004
Erowid Extracts #6
Citation: Erowid E, Erowid F. "Drug Geeks: Informed Peers in the Psychoactive Community". Erowid Extracts. Jun 2004;6:8-10.
The following is an adaptation of a light-hearted presentation given at the Mindstates Jamaica conference in October 2002 about the role of peers in psychoactive information distribution networks. It was also published as an article in Trip magazine's final issue that saw limited distribution.
Introduction
Everyone knows at least one: the walking encyclopedia of trivia about baseball, film or some other miscellaneous topic.
Even those with no connection to the psychoactive research and user communities are likely to be familiar with the stereotype of the uneducated "druggie" blithely stumbling from one drug experience to the next. But the pantheon of characters who spend their time immersed in the intricacies of the interface between body and mind is surprisingly diverse. The lay person can easily fail to recognize the "druggie" in that pharmacology or chemistry student intimately familiar with serotonin-transporter research, or in the talented photographer next door, or perhaps in the exceptionally green-thumbed forensic pathologist.
Character Sketch
"Drug Geeks" are individuals who self-identify (either publicly or privately) as being knowledgeable about psychoactives. Their deep interest in the topic makes them avid learners. When sitting around talking with friends, they get up to find an answer to a question. They do a web search or look up information in a book. More than that, they are the ones with the reference books to begin with. Within any group of friends, they are the individuals whom others go to for questions about psychoactive drugs. They attend psychoactive-related conferences, meticulously document their own experiences in a journal, read scientific articles, subscribe to psychedelic magazines to keep up with the latest knowledge, or browse trip reports "for fun".
Drug Geeks don't necessarily use a lot of psychoactives themselves. Many fulfill their interest by studying the subject, writing about it, or experiencing it vicariously through the writings of others. Others enjoy working with extremely mild herbs, supplements, and technologies and prefer to avoid the stronger alterants. For some people, these can provide a more consistent long-term relationship with psychoactives since they don't require as much energy and time as buying and ingesting the more socially disapproved plants or chemicals.
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