Bluelight is a drug enthusiast site with a harm reduction component. It does as much to encourage irresponsible drug use as it does to promote harm reduction.
Dancesafe, at least as it operated 10 years ago when I first discovered drugs, was a harm reduction site. Perhaps it reflected a more conservative North American approach to drugs, but it stuck to a mandate of harm reduction - not discussion posed as "questions" about ways to get high, ways to enhance or enjoy a high, brag about drug exploits or as a general social forum for drug culture. Sometimes dry but effective - a tightly moderated but non-judgmental model that neither promoted nor discouraged drug use but gave a unified strong message about safer ways to use drugs.
I didn't initially know about Bluelight, so for a long time I used only Dancesafe. That kept me on the straight and narrow and was the days when I used 1 pill spaced 3 to 4 months apart. I discovered Bluelight and the much more social and "free" nature of the discussion hooked me, but that's when I started to believe from all I read that I was way overboard in my caution when I saw what other people did and the advice they gave. Shortly thereafter I began my decline into nearly 7 years of various cycles of use / abuse of E.
I claim full responsibility for my own life and my decisions, but I wonder how my drug trajectory would have been had I stayed with the simple, straightforward and often firm message of Dancesafe.
As far as this business about people who use drugs knowing better than authorities and those who don't - that comes with a lot of caveats. Some (not all) people who use drugs are going to say they are fine and that drugs enhance one or more aspects of their life. That doesn't take into account that not everyone is on the same psychological, emotional, physical, emotional and socioeconomic standing. One person's view of harm reduction and what is okay may come from a place of dysfunction. For example, I was enthusiastic about E and championed it for years claiming I was fine - but it wasn't until after I quit and began to heal that I could see the psychological, emotional, physical and social toll it had taken on me in my interpersonal relationships and career.
