People who are interested in psychoactive cacti, ketamine, and LSD are generally unfazed by strangeness. Any such person will likely know of Erowid, as will most
toxicologists and many E.R. doctors. When the site launched, in 1995, it
served as a repository of drug-culture esoterica, drawing just a few
hits a day. Today, Erowid contains highly detailed profiles of more than
three hundred and fifty psychoactive substances, from caffeine to
methamphetamine. Last year, the site had at least seventeen million
unique visitors.
In
October, on the twentieth anniversary of Erowid’s launch, I traveled
to the home of its founders, in the Gold Country of northeast
California, where the Central Valley gives way to the Sierra Nevada and
road signs along I-80 start marking the altitude. The hills are dotted
with Gold Rush museums and monuments, along with evidence of a thriving
cannabis-growing scene. Local television weathermen refer to the region
as the Mother Lode.
-The New Yorker
