Erowid Center

Erowid Center develops, maintains, and provides free access to an online collection of more than 96,700 documents, images, and other media files related to psychoactive plants and drugs. The collection contains information, essays and articles authored by a broad spectrum of contributors including health care professionals, substance abuse counselors, toxicologists, chemists, therapists, law enforcement agents, lawyers, anthropologists, experiential experts, writers, media, educators, and the general public. Note that Erowid's Experience Reports project is tracked as a separate program service. Erowid also shared information via social media accounts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Erowid Center's mission includes collecting, organizing, and preserving resources about psychoactives for the historical record. In 2024, Erowid's primary archiving project was the Shulgin Collection. Erowid nearly completed digitizing Alexander and Ann Shulgin's personal papers, audio recordings, and documents. Erowid also organized, identified, and created metadata for digitized files. By the end of the year, Erowid had created index entries for 55,000 scanned documents in the collection of around 230,000 total scanned items. Erowid Center maintains a physical space designed to allow processing of historical archive collections (organizing, scanning, photographing, and digitizing) as well as permanent storage of some library archives/collections.

4. Research, Surveys, & Research Improvement - Research, Surveys, & Research Improvement - In 2024, Erowid co-authored 4 published peer-reviewed journal articles. We participated in writing and submitting two additional papers, not published in 2024. We worked on multiple scientific/medical research projects as part of the Lab Validation subproject of our DrugsData program. Erowid improves scientific, medical, and sociological information about psychoactive substances and those who use them by promoting participation in studies and surveys produced by academics, educational institutions, and related organizations. Erowid works directly with scientists-in areas where we have specialized knowledge-to help design credible studies and provide editing, reviewing, and fact-checking for resulting academic publications. Several additional papers were published in academic journals using Erowid's Experience Vault data as a major part of their primary dataset. Erowid Center's resources are referenced in hundreds of journal articles, books, and media articles each year.

5. Drug Trend & Novel Psychoactive Substance Tracking - Tracking new psychoactive medicines, technologies, research chemicals, psychedelics, and novel psychoactive substances (NPS) is one of Erowid Center's areas of expertise. With the objective of educating the public on the risks and benefits associated with emerging drugs, we 1) monitor the availability, use patterns, and effects of these substances through consultation with volunteers, allied organizations, medical professionals, submissions, and online forums; 2) analyze psychoactive chemicals through our DrugsData program (tracked as a separate project); 3) coordinate between experts and researchers in the field; 4) educate writers and authors for media, news, and books; and 5) publish information about these substances, online and in print. In 2024, Erowid's DrugsData encountered 35 unidentifiable novel substances in submitted samples. With the help of a network of international experts, we were able to identify 14 of these. Erowid worked with multiple groups to monitor the contents of street 'heroin'/down/dope/fentanyl as well as cocaine and methamphetamine. Erowid helped identify and characterize contaminants, synthesis byproducts, and novel substances. We leveraged our expertise to help develop systems to mitigate the societal damage of the "opioid epidemic", improve state- and city-level drug supply monitoring, and provide facts to help public health messaging around misrepresented and contaminated street drugs.

6. Education and Educational Materials, Books, and Gifts - Erowid provided direct education services by answering online questions from the public via email, social media, and other communication systems. Erowid maintains a social media presence via Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn through which we publish new information, drug checking results, news and research updates, and answer questions related to psychoactives. We distribute books, handouts, and teaching materials about psychoactive drugs, plants, practices, and technologies to members and the general public, furthering our educational mission.

7. Experience Reports Collection - Erowid Center solicited, reviewed, and published first-hand reports of people's experiences with psychoactive plants, drugs, and technologies. Erowid's Experience Reports generated information about novel and classic psychoactive materials as well as aggregate data about why and how people use psychoactives, both for current factual documentation and for the historical record. Researchers, academics, medical professionals, and the public use the results for educational purposes and as data for peer-reviewed articles and publications. Reports are reviewed and edited before being published. Trained volunteers perform a portion of the work under the supervision of Erowid staff. In 2024, Erowid crew completed 5,112 "triages" (reading and rating an experience report), review-edited for publication 285, and published 238, ending the year with 42,926 published reports in the collection covering 890 substances. Approximately 21 million experience reports were viewed during the year.

8. Events & Conferences - Erowid conducts educational outreach in person and online at conferences, seminars, festivals, and meetings. In 2024, we had monthly technical meetings with research partners monitoring street drug contents and contaminants as part of our DrugsData project until August 2024. Erowid Center spoke and participated in a four-day online conference about drug checking, lab analysis, and in-person street drug user direct care.

9. Information Network - EEN - Erowid Center works with a network of both professionally trained and self-taught experts with knowledge about psychoactive plants, chemicals, and technologies. Erowid Expert Network (EEN) members volunteer to share their expertise for the purpose of educating the public and improving the quality of information about this topic. The EEN facilitates making connections between those who are seeking information and experts who can help them. This furthers Erowid Center's mission by helping to improve both internal and external educational resources through increased fact checking and review.

10. Erowid Extracts Educational Newsletter - Erowid Center continued to collect information for a future newsletter issue centered on public drug checking and our DrugsData laboratory drug checking program (program expenses tracked separately). This advertisement-free print publication is distributed to members when published and past issues are distributed for free at conferences we attend. A complete digital version and constituent articles are later published online for free access by the general public. More than 17,000 copies of previous issues of Erowid Extracts were viewed/downloaded in 2024, and thousands of people read individual articles from previous issues online. Back issues were also distributed worldwide for free to related organizations, members, and events.