Personally, I grew up being told to "just say no." So natrually, I said "no" for a while and then said "yes! yes! yes!" and took a bunch of drugs. Whe I first started, I was careless, crossing my fingers and trusting people that I definately should not have. Then I began reading HR sites such as Bluelight, Erowid and Pill Reports and slowly learned more about how what I was putting in my body was meant to alter me and how to ensure that I was actually taking what I intended to. And this research effectively eliminated a lot of the unsafe practicies from my drug use. Now, I do my best to contribute to the HR sites, doing what I can to help others make safer, more knowledable choices. And in doing that, I know that I am doing more good for the drug community that Howard/Rudd was/is simply by the shaking of head "no."
I am mainly an ecstasy user. And as ecstasy is both the second most popular drug in Australia and the most popular first 'hard drug' that young Aussies try, I feel that if we can target this crowd for effective HR techniques, as a generation, their improved maturity will soon branch out into the other drug scenes, causing those to become more resonsible as well. Obviously, PR is doing a great job at doing that, but pill testing isn't the only means of education, and I think you should keep the popularity of this drug in mind as you spend your money.
Just curious, but does your employer staff any experienced drug users, either past users or current? I think a lot of us resent the "just say no" approach because it is enforced by a group of people who laregly have no drug experience at all. Ask a lot of the intelligent, educated and responsible/resourceful users out there, and they will swear up and down that drugs have improved their lives immensely (that is not to say that some bad does come with the good, but same goes for lots of legal interests). We resent people telling us that we should not be entitled entitled to visit such greener pastures (this is largely concerning psycedelliacs such as LSD, MDMA, etc.), when they do not phenomenally/personally even know what those shades of green look like. We truly and wholeheartedly see drugs like LSD and MDMA as comparable, if not even richer, in experience to other activities like extreme sports, medidation, yoga, shamanism, higher education, etc. Yes, we are angered that others don't want to allow us to choose drugs as well as the other aforementioned lifestyles. But we are just as much saddened that others will never want to come to understand, either through experiences or vicariously, things that we are very greatful to have come to know.
And while arguments over legalisation can only be argued with respect to only personal experience in an idealized society (legalisation arguments are interwoven with many other political issues, such as organized crime, foreign relations, etc.), our government could effectively unbundle the drug debate into a political piece and a HR piece. Politicians can make rational arguments concerning the former, and we can decide about them like any other issue. Concerning the latter, us users will repsond much better to them if we feel at all like we are being respected as human beings who are capable of learning to responsibly use drugs, not a bunch of degenerates.
Concerning your grant, since it is from the government, yes, there definately could be a conflict of interests if you take the advice of bluelighters. I don't know much at all about such technicalities, but can they ask for the grant back if they don't like the website you make?
Simply put, you won't have the means to create a site that is on par with PR, BL, or Erowid. So concerning pill testing, message forums, and trip reports, you should leave that stuff to what's established. Though you should most definately advertise for and provide links to the big three from your website. But for uniqueness, it is difficult because the big three sits have tons of intelligent and thoughtful people on them, so pretty much everything original has been suggested and/or implemented.
Do you absolutely need to build a website? I think the best use for the grant would be for advertising the big three. I don't know how many times I've mentioned them to other users and they have no idea what I am talking about. I assume that because they are all legal sites, that advertising for them would be the same as advertising for any other website. Surely you would need to discuss this with the owners of the sites beforehand, but I think it's very important that every young Australian know what they are, even if their choices don't requite them to use them.
haha, just was in the mood for a rant.
