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Erowid Monthly
We need around 140 donations in the next four days to succeed with our September fundraising challenge! We're striving for 818 unique contributions before September 30th, which would make this the most contributions we've ever received in a single month.

It's a challenge to do fundraising for Erowid Center. Many people ask why we need money at all. Some feel that obtaining donations should be easy for us, given the number of visitors who use the site. Still others believe that we receive funding from the government.

Erowid is a small non-profit that depends entirely on donations from people like you in order to continue to document psychoactive drugs. We have a relatively modest budget, but we do need to pay our staff (the equivalent of 3.5 full-time people) who work hard every day to keep the site up-to-date, check facts, track emerging drugs and drug trends, and keep the servers up, running, and secure.

Please support Erowid with a contribution of any size in September!

https://erowid.org/donations/sept_drive.php
Drug Geek Factlet
The death of 18-year-old American Kyle Nolan is drawing attention after he traveled to the Madre de Dios region of Peru to attend an ayahuasca retreat and died under unknown conditions. Shockingly, the shaman in charge of the retreat buried his body and lied to family members for more than two weeks before leading police to the body. Nolan's father held a fundraiser to cover costs to bring the body home for further autopsy while toxicology results are pending in Peru.
Events
Rencontres Nationales de la Réduction des Risques Liés à l'Usage de Drogues
(Oct 25-26, 2012) in Paris, France
http://rdr2012.a-f-r.org

Plenaries, panels, posters, and exhibitions on harm reduction projects and policies in francophone Europe (esp. France). Hosted by l'Association Franç¨aise pour la Rˇéduction des risques [AFR; French Association for Risk Reduction].
Latest Additions
Over the last four years, Erowid volunteers have worked countless hours transcribing and proofreading lab books produced from the 1960s through the 1980s by chemist Alexander Shulgin. The first fully digital and searchable version available for public comment is Book 6.
Inspired by transformative experiences with 5-MeO-DMT, author James Oroc examines the paradox inherent in embracing entheogens -- psychoactive substances used to bring about a spiritual experience -- while remaining uncomfortable with the concept of "God" or divinity.
Issue 7 of the Psychozoic Press (Spring 1984) features Part 3 of an interview with Terence McKenna, Tom Lyttle's personal account "LSD vs Insanity", details of ayahuasca drinkers amongst the Chama Indians, a 2C-B trip report, book reviews, reader letters, and more.
An interview with Albert Hofmann in 1983, by Don Rothenberg, PhD. Transcoded from VHS with some quality issues, this is nonetheless an interesting and previously unpublished interview with the inventor of LSD from 29 years ago.
Crew Notes
In June, Erowid crew members Jon Hanna and Tania Manning interviewed Dr. David Nichols just before he retired from his position as Chair in Pharmacology at Purdue University College of Pharmacy's Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology. Highlights of this interview will appear in the November issue of Erowid Extracts. One of the topics discussed was Nichols' work with LSD analogs:

"LSD sorta violates the principles of medicinal chemistry. You expect to see potency change in a regular way. When you see it change very abruptly, that's when there must be some sensitive spot, or there's a steric restriction, or something. So we did a lot of amide modification, and made a lot of derivative analogs of LSD. We still don't know why LSD is as potent as it is. But it interacts with a lot of different receptors."

The Erowid crew wishes Dr. Dave the best with his new position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
From the Vaults
Fire Erowid examines the rumor that Peruvian Torch cactus is "10x stronger" than San Pedro. This was the second installment in the "Myth Debunking" series of Erowid-authored articles, from 2001.
More New Content
  1. 2C-I-NBOMe-Related Fatalities / Deaths
    The few published accounts of deaths linked to the recreational use of this psychedelic phenethylamine fall into the categories of pharmacological fatalities and behavioral fatalities.
  2. On-Site Drug Analysis at the Boom Festival
    TEDI's report about the results of on-site drug analysis conducted by TEDI and Energy Control at the large Boom Festival in Portugal in july/August 2012. The most common drugs found were MDMA, LSD, cocaine, ketamine, and a substance Energy Control has not yet identified.
  3. Lamid
    Commentary and effects description for methylisopropyl-lysergamide (lamid), an LSD analog that appeared on the LSD market in the 1990s.
  4. Opiates/Opioids Bits and Pieces
    A short bit about the use of antihistamines to reduce the side effects (itching, nausea, vertigo) of opiates and opioids.
Ecstasy Data
EcstasyData is a project of Erowid Center that conducts laboratory testing of street ecstasy tablets and publishes these and other test results online.
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If you find Erowid a useful resource and are interested in supporting its future development, please consider donating or becoming a member. Donations to Erowid Center are tax-deductible in the United States.
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