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Educated Guesses and Other Ways to Address the Pharmacological Uncertainty of Designer Drugs: An Exploratory Study of Experimentation Through an Online Drug Forum
This study examines how experimentation with designer drugs is mediated by the Internet. We selected a popular drug forum that presents reports on self-experimentation with little or even completely unexplored designer drugs to examine: (1) how participants report their “trying out” of new compounds...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
SAGE Publications
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5046164/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27721526 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0091450916662164 |
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author | Berning, Moritz Hardon, Anita |
author_facet | Berning, Moritz Hardon, Anita |
author_sort | Berning, Moritz |
collection | PubMed |
description | This study examines how experimentation with designer drugs is mediated by the Internet. We selected a popular drug forum that presents reports on self-experimentation with little or even completely unexplored designer drugs to examine: (1) how participants report their “trying out” of new compounds and (2) how participants reduce the pharmacological uncertainty associated with using these substances. Our methods included passive observation online, engaging more actively with the online community using an avatar, and off-line interviews with key interlocutors to validate our online findings. This article reflects on how forum participants experiment with designer drugs, their trust in suppliers and the testimonials of others, the use of ethno-scientific techniques that involve numerical weighing, “allergy dosing,” and the use of standardized trip reports. We suggest that these techniques contribute to a sense of control in the face of the possible toxicity of unknown or little-known designer drugs. The online reporting of effects allows users to experience not only the thrill of a new kind of high but also connection with others in the self-experimenting drug community. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5046164 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | SAGE Publications |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-50461642016-10-07 Educated Guesses and Other Ways to Address the Pharmacological Uncertainty of Designer Drugs: An Exploratory Study of Experimentation Through an Online Drug Forum Berning, Moritz Hardon, Anita Contemp Drug Probl Articles This study examines how experimentation with designer drugs is mediated by the Internet. We selected a popular drug forum that presents reports on self-experimentation with little or even completely unexplored designer drugs to examine: (1) how participants report their “trying out” of new compounds and (2) how participants reduce the pharmacological uncertainty associated with using these substances. Our methods included passive observation online, engaging more actively with the online community using an avatar, and off-line interviews with key interlocutors to validate our online findings. This article reflects on how forum participants experiment with designer drugs, their trust in suppliers and the testimonials of others, the use of ethno-scientific techniques that involve numerical weighing, “allergy dosing,” and the use of standardized trip reports. We suggest that these techniques contribute to a sense of control in the face of the possible toxicity of unknown or little-known designer drugs. The online reporting of effects allows users to experience not only the thrill of a new kind of high but also connection with others in the self-experimenting drug community. SAGE Publications 2016-07-27 2016-09 /pmc/articles/PMC5046164/ /pubmed/27721526 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0091450916662164 Text en © The Author(s) 2016 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). |
spellingShingle | Articles Berning, Moritz Hardon, Anita Educated Guesses and Other Ways to Address the Pharmacological Uncertainty of Designer Drugs: An Exploratory Study of Experimentation Through an Online Drug Forum |
title | Educated Guesses and Other Ways to Address the Pharmacological Uncertainty of Designer Drugs: An Exploratory Study of Experimentation Through an Online Drug Forum |
title_full | Educated Guesses and Other Ways to Address the Pharmacological Uncertainty of Designer Drugs: An Exploratory Study of Experimentation Through an Online Drug Forum |
title_fullStr | Educated Guesses and Other Ways to Address the Pharmacological Uncertainty of Designer Drugs: An Exploratory Study of Experimentation Through an Online Drug Forum |
title_full_unstemmed | Educated Guesses and Other Ways to Address the Pharmacological Uncertainty of Designer Drugs: An Exploratory Study of Experimentation Through an Online Drug Forum |
title_short | Educated Guesses and Other Ways to Address the Pharmacological Uncertainty of Designer Drugs: An Exploratory Study of Experimentation Through an Online Drug Forum |
title_sort | educated guesses and other ways to address the pharmacological uncertainty of designer drugs: an exploratory study of experimentation through an online drug forum |
topic | Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5046164/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27721526 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0091450916662164 |
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