Web sites with misinformation about illicit drugs.

n August, the New England Journal of Medicine published a letter to the editor by Boyer, Shannon and Hibberd entitled " Web Sites with Misinformation about Illicit Drugs ". 1 In this article, Boyer et al. criticize government websites for not competing successfully with " partisan " drug information web sites, name sites they consider partisan, and offer specific criticism of information found on those sites. The authors made several comments about Erowid.org, pointing out the large amount of traffic the site gets, as well as implying that the information we provide is both less reliable than government sponsored anti-drug websites and likely to cause harm. Boyer et al. cite a study (Wax 2000) which looked at the effects of internet drug information on the use of drugs by students. Their letter states that this study found: " 24 percent of college students used the Internet to obtain information on illicit substances, and 27 percent of Internet-using college students reported that Internet use increased the likelihood that they would use drugs. " While this certainly implies that drug use increased after exposure to information on the internet, a closer examination of the study cited reveals that an even higher percentage of students reported that internet drug information reduced the likelihood that they would use illicit drugs. From the study itself, 168 students were surveyed (94 college and 74 first year medical students). Nineteen percent reported having used the internet to find information on recreational drugs (24% college and 14% medical). Of those who surfed for drug information, 9% said this increased their likelihood of using recreational drugs (27% college and 0% medical) while 19% said it decreased their likelihood of using recreational drugs (27% college and 10% medical). Boyer's primary criticism of Erowid was in reference to a comment made about the potential use of SSRIs to reduce negative side To the Editor of the New England Journal of Medicine: In their article discussing online drug information resources, Boyer et al. express concern over a comment made on Erowid.org that taking an SSRI after Ecstasy may reduce the risk of MDMA neurotoxicity. 1 They state that taking an SSRI after MDMA might lead to serotonin syndrome, but their concern is unsubstantiated. SSRI coadministration has been practiced by MDMA users for many years, without evidence of serotonin syndrome, as documented by published papers 2 and dozens of unpublished reports collected by …