krzysio
March 20th, 2011, 05:02 PM
Having accurate information about drugs is important in order to make responsible decisions regarding yourself and others. But at the same time it is often difficult to find reliable information, especially when the drug in question is an illicit one. Below is a brief FAQ to make clearer some of the issues involved:
* Q: Who can be trusted to provide factual information? A: No one individual should be considered an infallible source of information on drugs. Not students or teachers. Not friends or parents. Not drug dealers or police officers. Not drug dealers or physicians. Not even medical researchers. All information that an individual tells you should be considered suspect until looked up in more formal sources. There are at least two reasons for this: First, research on drugs takes place at a rapid pace and you cannot assume that anyone--even medical researchers or physicians--can know everything. Second, you cannot assume that someone wants to tell you the truth. Drugs are a very controversial subject matter and sometimes people want to push a particular side or opinion.
* Q: Are biased or otherwise unreliable sources completely useless? A: Nope. They can be useful in bringing up issues that you can later research in better sources.
* Q: Are written sources reliable? A: While I'd generally advice that all claims made by individuals be looked up in more formal, written sources, it is important to know that bias and misinformation occurs in this format as well.
* Q: Where can I find some fairly reliable resources? http://www.virtualteen.org/forums/showthread.php?t=98437
* Q: What can be done to offset the unreliability of both formal and informal sources? A: I have two suggestions: First, consult a variety of sources when researching the same drug or topic. This increases the probability of all pertinent issues being brought up and reduces the selective information bias of any one source. Second, you should be critical of the reliability of each source. I can't fully explain how to do this in a short post. But I think that http://ods.od.nih.gov/Health_Information/How_To_Evaluate_Health_Information_on_the_Internet_Questions_and_Answers.aspx does a decent job of outlining the general idea.
Good luck finding what you need and stay healthy!
* Q: Who can be trusted to provide factual information? A: No one individual should be considered an infallible source of information on drugs. Not students or teachers. Not friends or parents. Not drug dealers or police officers. Not drug dealers or physicians. Not even medical researchers. All information that an individual tells you should be considered suspect until looked up in more formal sources. There are at least two reasons for this: First, research on drugs takes place at a rapid pace and you cannot assume that anyone--even medical researchers or physicians--can know everything. Second, you cannot assume that someone wants to tell you the truth. Drugs are a very controversial subject matter and sometimes people want to push a particular side or opinion.
* Q: Are biased or otherwise unreliable sources completely useless? A: Nope. They can be useful in bringing up issues that you can later research in better sources.
* Q: Are written sources reliable? A: While I'd generally advice that all claims made by individuals be looked up in more formal, written sources, it is important to know that bias and misinformation occurs in this format as well.
* Q: Where can I find some fairly reliable resources? http://www.virtualteen.org/forums/showthread.php?t=98437
* Q: What can be done to offset the unreliability of both formal and informal sources? A: I have two suggestions: First, consult a variety of sources when researching the same drug or topic. This increases the probability of all pertinent issues being brought up and reduces the selective information bias of any one source. Second, you should be critical of the reliability of each source. I can't fully explain how to do this in a short post. But I think that http://ods.od.nih.gov/Health_Information/How_To_Evaluate_Health_Information_on_the_Internet_Questions_and_Answers.aspx does a decent job of outlining the general idea.
Good luck finding what you need and stay healthy!