Drugs on the web; the Psychonaut 2002 EU project.
OBJECTIVE
Only a few formal assessments of websites with drug-related contents have been carried out. We aimed here at fostering collection and analysis of data from web pages related to information on consumption, manufacture and sales of psychoactive substances.


METHODS
An 8-language, two-engine, assessment of the information available in a purposeful sample of 1633 unique websites was carried out.


RESULTS
A pro-drug and a harm reduction approach were evident, respectively, in 18% and 10% of websites accessed. About 1 in 10 websites offered either psychoactive compounds for sale or detailed data on drugs' synthesis/extraction procedures. Information on a number of psychoactive substances and on unusual drugs' combinations not found in the Medline was elicited.


CONCLUSIONS
This represents the first review which is both comprehensive and multilingual of the online available information on psychoactive compounds. Health professionals may need to be aware of the web being a new drug resource for information and possibly purchase.
Schifano
Fabrizio
F
Division of Mental Health-Addictive Behaviour, St. George's, University of London, Cranmer Terrace, London, SW17 0RE, UK.
Deluca
Paolo
P
Baldacchino
Alex
A
Peltoniemi
Teuvo
T
Scherbaum
Norbert
N
Torrens
Marta
M
Farre
Magi
M
Flores
Irene
I
Rossi
Mariangela
M
Eastwood
Dorte
D
Guionnet
Claude
C
Rawaf
Salman
S
Agosti
Lisa
L
Di Furia
Lucia
L
Brigada
Raffaella
R
Majava
Aino
A
Siemann
Holger
H
Leoni
Mauro
M
Tomasin
Antonella
A
Rovetto
Francesco
F
Ghodse
A Hamid
AH
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D020407:Internet; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000600:supply & distribution / Q000627:therapeutic use
D011619:Psychotropic Drugs