History Website / Erowid

* DrugsAreBad / DrugsAreGood: Both the latter ("Glowing Experiences" and "Health" have some good stories) and the former ("Addiction," "Difficult Experiences," "Train Wrecks and Trip Disasters,") sometimes in the same vault. The entire point of the site is neutral, nuanced information about drugs and substances and plants, so you will see everything from the most positive stories about drugs that are almost universally dangerous (e.g. someone {{squee}}ing over crystal meth) to the most negative rants on drugs that are generally helpful (e.g. someone ranting about how their roomie's psych meds didn't get them high). The best way to use the site is to review the information all neutrally, or, failing that, to assume that a drug with very few positive experiences or where almost all the positive experiences have major warnings may be "bad" for most users.

** Habitual use of amphetamine stimulants is one of the worst addictions possible - except when it isn't ''technically'' an "addiction," but a doctor-prescribed treatment for adult ADD/ADHD, where, if properly managed, the addictive, dangerous drug in almost all other contexts is the best treatment for the disorder, or narcolepsy, where the use of the drug, if it works, prevents the sudden, overwhelming to the degree of disabling "sleep attacks" the disorder causes. They are also a last-ditch obesity treatment (if ''all'' other pharmaceutical means of reducing appetite or reducing body mass have failed, and the person isn't considering weight loss surgery/isn't a good candidate for it).

* AccentuateTheNegative: [[TheSmokingSection The tobacco vault]]. That said it's for fairly good reason: there ''are'' relatively few people for whom, pre-addiction development, tobacco has any pleasurable psychoactive effect.

** PCP is another vault that does this; while the violent psychotic breaks that high dosages tend to bring are widely known, the loss of physical control and possibility of seizure, coma, or death are also an issue, and the effects of long-term usage (which include life-threatening physical ailments, namely rhabdomyolysis) are even worse. Like datura, there is a reason why PCP has virtually no positive experience reports.

** The datura vault is also like this. Between the inherent danger that comes from even using it (as it has a good chance of being lethally poisonous), the terrifying and long-lasting trips, and the debilitating and excruciatingly long comedown, there is literally no good reason to trip on it and anyone who does so has made an incredibly poor choice.

* BeatBag: Sometimes people get these. Usually results in nothing or, if the substance is dangerous/has worse effects, something in Train Wrecks and Trip Disasters.
** In a combination of BaitAndSwitch and BeatBag, there is a substance called "PMA" that is often passed off as MDMA/ecstasy. This substance is ''incredibly dangerous'' because its lethal dose is far closer to its effective dose than actual MDMA, and its effects are barely similar to MDMA, which makes it a very dangerous trap - a user who is unfamiliar with the symptoms of a PMA high may just assume they got cut or low-quality MDMA. So these users take another pill so they can get high (rather than realize they were ripped off and not touch the rest of the pills from that seller/in that lot), which with MDMA would likely ''not'' kill them, but with PMA has a near 50 percent chance of doing so. It underscores an important lesson - even if you feel ''no effect'' from a substance, do not take more of it - especially if you are unsure of its actual content.

* YouFailPharmacologyForever: Both averted (the research and information, using the site for research, some user accounts) and played straight (some OTHER user accounts, usually resulting in said account being in the "Train Wrecks and Trip Disasters" section.)

* AwesomeByAnalysis: You! No, really, if you go here and look around to understand your viewpoint (whether you think DrugsAreBad or EverybodyMustGetStoned or anything anywhere in between), rather than just mindlessly swallow what the government or your friends tell you, you are awesome.

* EverybodyMustGetStoned: Cannabis in and of itself is the substance with the most positive experiences, health-related usages, etcetera, and the ''least'' addiction/habituation and train wrecks and trip disasters stories. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], because weed is arguably the safest psychoactive drug with the exception of certain individual health circumstances (such as some heart conditions or a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia).

** The datura vault is also like this. Given how unbelievably hazardous it is to use and how many people report absolutely awful trips from it, it's safe to say that it's basically nothing but trouble.

* DrugsAreBad: Averted ("Glowing Experiences" and "Health" have some good stories) AND played heartbreakingly straight ("Addiction," "Difficult Experiences," "Train Wrecks and Trip Disasters,") sometimes in the same vault. The entire point of the site is neutral, nuanced information about drugs and substances and plants, so you will see everything from the most positive stories about drugs that are almost universally dangerous (e.g. someone {{squee}}ing over crystal meth) to the most negative rants on drugs that are generally helpful (e.g. someone ranting about how their roomie's psych meds didn't get them high). The best way to use the site is to review the information all neutrally, or, failing that, to assume that a drug with very few positive experiences or where almost all the positive experiences have major warnings may be "bad" for most users.

** In a combination of BaitAndSwitch and BeatBag, there is a substance called "PMA" that is often passed off as MDMA/ecstasy. This substance is ''incredibly dangerous'' because its lethal dose is far closer to its effective dose than actual MDMA, and its effects are barely similar to MDMA, which makes it a very dangerous trap - a user who is unfamiliar with the symptoms of a PMA high may just assume they got cut or low-quality MDMA. So these users take another pill so they can get high (rather than realize they were ripped off and not touch the rest of the pills from that seller/in that lot), which with MDMA would likely ''not'' kill them, but with PMA has a near 50 percent chance of doing so.

* TearJerker: Some of the "Difficult Experiences" and "Train Wrecks and Trip Disasters" stories.