Drugs/Forums Survey - Progress report

[tronica]

Hi! Just wanted to let you know about my research project. Congratulations on maintaining such an interesting and useful site

Monica Barratt (PhD student from the National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University) invites you to complete an anonymous 15 minute survey about online drug discussion, drug information sources, online forums and pill testing.

You are eligible to complete the survey if you:

(1) have ever used ecstasy/MDMA,

(2) have ever used online forums,

(3) usually live in Australia, and

(4) are at least 16 years old.

Survey Link!

This survey is part of a larger research project I'm doing (my PhD) which is described in more detail on the project website.

As well as being interested in online forums and drug discussion, I wanted to make sure that some of the people who tend not to be surveyed in Australia were included, namely people who (1) use drugs occasionally, and (2) people who don't live in the big capital cities. So, you are all welcome!

Feel free to post any questions or comments in here, interested to hear your views on this topic.

Thanks so much,

Monica

Edited May 15, 2008 by tronica

[occidentalis]

Very interesting survey Monica

Keep us updated with your research findings if you can .

[MORG]

Yeah, good luck for your research.

And nice snail.

Edited October 18, 2007 by MORG

[Monk]

Yes, everyone follow the link from the website recently fully compromised by gov't drug agents and promptly incriminate yourselves regarding one of the specific materials said agents were fishing for information about

The worst possibility is obvious (justification for expedition based on association of plant heads with said material etc.) At the least, this is horrible timing from an innocent and honest source. Call me jaded and paranoid, 'cuz I am.....

[complex]

Saw it on bluelight and filled it out yesterday.

like creach said, please keep us updated.

goodluck.

[tronica]

Thanks for your support.

FM, yes it is bad timing. I read about the surveillance threats. It's certainly something Bluelight has had to deal with in the past - I'd prefer forums were left to do their own thing, especially given the harm reduction role they are capable of serving. It's harder to do that sort of work with these threats around. On the other hand, carefulness about what you discuss online is the best policy!

Although it's badly timed - it's also timely - this is what my thesis is about. There have certainly been some research projects that treat online drug encyclopedias in a bad light, or treat drug forums superficially. I want to broaden that out and my data allows for both positive and negative effects of online activities on drug-related harms.

I've done everything possible to keep this data secure. It can't be intercepted between the respondent and server (https) and once downloaded, I use an encryption program so that my data can't be accessed even if someone broke my log-in password, if my computer was stolen/compromised. I'll also not be naming forums in the findings - to avoid undue exposure to forums re drug discussion.

Yes I'll definitely keep you in the loop in terms of results. Feel free to discuss the topic though. I see most people so far think the internet is very important in learning about drugs. How do you think this changes people's drug taking behaviour? [keep it in third person ;)]

[alkatrope]

Did this the other day after seeing it on another forum.. Results will be interesting.

[nabraxas]

I see most people so far think the internet is very important in learning about drugs. How do you think this changes people's drug taking behaviour?

i would not have heard ov research chemicals if it wasn't for the net.

i don't really know, but i would guess that distribution ov reasearch chemicals would not haver been possible w/out the net.

[FungalFractoids]

Man, you do get around don't you? You subversive member of the Drug Industry Elite, you!

[tronica]

i would not have heard ov research chemicals if it wasn't for the net.

i don't really know, but i would guess that distribution ov reasearch chemicals would not haver been possible w/out the net.

I agree - internet is critical for some of the newer drugs.

It's funny how RCs aren't included in any of the prevalence surveys about drug use in the community. I've included them in mine and so far, I've found (from 388 valid responses):

72% - never used research chemicals

18% - used RCs, but not in last 6 months

8% - used RCs 1 to 5 times in last 6 months

2% - used RCs monthly or more often in past 6 months

interesting!

[occidentalis]

I see most people so far think the internet is very important in learning about drugs. How do you think this changes people's drug taking behaviour?

The authorities have taken the traditionally taken the approach that people should be 'protected' from information about drugs.

the internet gets past this and allows accurate information to be spread.

it also allows peer review (such as this forum) so that dis- and misinformation can fairly rapidly be discovered and corrected

[tronica]

Man, you do get around don't you? You subversive member of the Drug Industry Elite, you!

How did I miss this last time? Nice work! A bit of subversion never hurt...

[so glad we have a new government now, hopefully that terrible report will be given the time it deserves.... about 5 seconds!]

[tronica]

Hello & Happy 2008!

A feature article, "Connect and stay safe?", has just been published which explains a bit more about the project and the ideas behind it.

Thanks to all those who have done the survey, I'm really grateful for your efforts and humbled by the numbers of people prepared to donate their time to this cause!

For those interested in the online interview, if there's one lesson I've learnt in this PhD process is that 'everything takes twice as long as you expect'. I've only just gotten around to starting the interviewing, and I apologise for the delay

What's this survey, you say? Check it out here. I'd love to get your input too. By reading this forum, you've already met one of the selection criteria

As always, comments-questions-critiques are welcome.

[John Smith]

Monica I don't have time to do the survey now (maybe later) but I wish you well and I hope you will oneday be PM and will abandon prohibition (I won't get started on how we all lose as a result of the current situation).

I was amused by your mentions of responses regarding research chemicals. The name is an unfortunate one and I think it contributes to the fact that 72% haven't tried them. I know people who will happily pop a street pill without giving it a second thought but will baulk at the idea of having a properly weighed dose of a professionally manufactured and well researched substance

Re your question: "Overall, how important has the internet been to you in learning about drugs?" My answer is extremely. Erowid is neither pro nor anti drug but is a most valuable source of information. If there was a Pulitzer prize for websites then they should get one.

[tronica]

Thanks for the comments Mr Spock. I did want to be PM when I was an innocent child, before seeing what a life in politics would do to a person! I certainly hope to influence politics one way or the other through my research role

The name 'research chemicals' or RC's is a bit disputed - it isn't asked about on other drug user surveys but I know there are a lot of people who use various types of RC's under different names. Would there be a better name for this class of drugs do you think? I get the impression that once an RC's becomes a bit more mainstream (2CB maybe) then it ceases to be an RC as it's no longer in 'research' stages.

I've noticed that Shaman Australis members are much more often choosing "Very important" for the poll in this thread. Also found - so far - that my item about credibility of harm reduction sites like Erowid shows them to be considered the most credible for drug information out of all the options I provide. So, you are not alone in singing the praises of Erowid, the site is a great asset and very useful.

[Teljkon]

asdfsd

Edited December 19, 2021 by Teljkon

[tronica]

I think this is all kinda silly its like asking how important of a information resource the internet is. Jezz I wonder what the answer to that is!

When I first started trying to work out a PhD topic, the internet/drugs connection seemed obvious - I was really surprised that there had been little actual research on it. As in, research into what the implications are for drug users and for public health. So, I know this project has a bit of 'well, isn't that just plain obvious' about it - but when you do the literature searches, you find there are a lot of knowledge gaps which this project is designed to explore.

I think you guys are foolish to incremenate your self by admiting to drug use in a published paper.

The thesis and any publications will never mention forum usernames or forum locations/names. I'll go further than this - I'll avoid using direct quotes from forums unless I have explicit permission from the author and it is not possible to google the quote and find its source. There is an opportunity to complete an online interview with me, and I have investigated open source encrypted instant messaging for this purpose (it's called OffTheRecord). This is much more anonymity than most researchers in these settings are applying, but given the potential for incrimination - as you've mentioned - I think it is appropriate.

So, good point - but I do want participants to know that I am committed to avoiding incriminating anyone. Participant safety is paramount in research and I intend to uphold that ideal

Thanks for the comments Teljkon. I encourage others to continue this conversation too... the more ideas put forward on this issue, the better!

[Vertmorpheus]

Has to be rememberd re: harm reduction and forums that a lot of people working on the other side of the suspicious smelling fence are not about harm reduction, and even within the govt itself there has been a noticeable shift over the last 10 years from "safe use" to "no, just dont use, theres no such thing as safe and youre supporting criminal scum". Must be taken into account.

Also has to be taken into account that if people are gunna be perstantly dense as far as ranting online about this great new plant they have and how its so much more fun than dope or acid and ive got lots of seed to give away bla bla... pretend for a moment youre a copper, an anti drug pro family type, then read it again. Not only is there a lot of blatant admission going on, there is also a worrying tendency to overstate things and approach "new found lands" with the view in mind of "cant wait til i can start makin a few dollars off THIS". If things were handled more as the quiet teacher they are, rather than being turned into "vote for san pedro" t-shirts etc, then I really do think we'd have half as many hassles when it comes to expensive surveillance and generally worrying members of the public.

Have to keep in mind that plenty of people burr up the minute they pick up on "that druggy vibe"... even quite narrow minded types cant help but listen if you explain say why chamomile and lemonbalm will give them a good nites sleep... esp in this day and age of health faddism and magical herbal supplements... start ranting about how if you chew 70 leaves off that and smoke one of those flowers, you can have a really cool trippy time... and you tend to lose more people.

Its hard to keep walkin forward when people keep shootin ourselves in the foot.

VM

[John Smith]

A "more correct" name for RC's? Don't know, psychoactive substances/drugs maybe? Fans of RC's would probably much rather the less appealing name that is currently used!

[tronica]

I just found out that I've been accepted to present a paper at the Club Health 2008 conference in Ibiza/Spain in June. It will be the first from the PhD results. Its title is: "Ecstasy/MDMA content and purity information in Australia: results from a web survey of online forum participants". Let me know if you'd like to read the abstract!

Currently the survey has 729 valid responses from 1103 which is a great effort. Thanks to everyone who has helped out! I've also recently completed 8 online interviews with forum users. I'm resting that for the moment to do a little of the analysis of these transcripts and then I'll do some more. People have been really enthusiastic about the interviews, which has been great for me to see.

I'll keep the survey open a little longer. So please take this chance to be involved, the more the merrier. Thanks again to the forum moderators and admins for your support of this project

[tronica]

Thanks for your support for my project and your contributions through the survey and interviews - I really appreciate it, there's so much for me to write about now in my PhD! This topic has been really interesting to talk to people about, and I've been amazed at how enthusiastic people are to tell me about their experiences.

I will be closing the survey on Wed April 2nd (next week). I'll post a summary of results soon after.

If you haven't already done the survey, now is your last chance - click here: https://drugsonforums.turningpoint.org.au/index.php?sid=24 -- No need to do it twice though!

all the best,

monica

[tronica]

I just wanted to let you all know that the data collection for the Drugs on Forums online survey has finished. Over the 6-month period it was online (2/10/07 to 3/4/08 ), 1322 responses were received.

I set out to reach a large group across the country and I'm pleased to report that my targets were met. The main sample of 915 represents respondents who were located in Australia and had read or participated in online drug discussion in the past 6 months.

I'd like to thank you all for your support of the project and for the time spent completing my survey. I thought I'd share some of the characteristics of the sample.

See the project website for a few preliminary results: http://www.ndri.curtin.edu.au/drugsonforum...t/progress.html

Given the size of the whole project, it will take some time to complete the full analysis. I will keep you informed as the story unfolds.

Thanks again for your support and I look forward to presenting more at a later date. As always, feel free to comment on the project in this thread or directly to me: http://www.ndri.curtin.edu.au/drugsonforum...me/contact.html

PS. I have also just completed 29 online interviews. I was only able to interview a small proportion of those who were interested (all 298 of you), so I'm sorry if you missed out. Thanks to all those who took the time to share their stories with me!