Happy August,

1. Major Site Renovation
   
   We've just finished a major renovation of the whole Erowid site this past week. Functionally it's quite similar, but you'll notice that we've reorganized the substance information into a few sections. There are now 5 sections under the main Plants and Drugs header which are as follows :
   
   - Psychoactive Plants
   (Erowid.org/plants/)
   - Psychoactive Chemicals
   (Erowid.org/chemicals/)
   - Medicinal Herbs
   (Erowid.org/herbs/)
   - Pharmaceuticals
   (Erowid.org/pharms/)
   - Nootropics
   (Erowid.org/smarts/)
   
   The main Psychoactives Vault (Erowid.org/psychoactives/) has an index of the most common psychoactive plants and chemicals, so it should serve as a good starting point for most research. It replaces the previous Entheogen Vaults (Erowid.org/entheogens/) which are now reserved for information about the spiritual and traditional use of psychoactives rather than being a catch-all for everything. We've made this move because we could no longer bear to have substances like heroin, ghb and meth listed under 'entheogens'. We aren't going to play the good drug / bad drug game, but the term 'entheogen' has a very specific meaning which our site organization was no longer supporting.
   
   We're hoping that this new organization will allow us to continue to expand while still allowing people to find the information they're looking for. Most old URLs should still work since we spent some time and effort setting up redirects to the new locations.
   
   It's difficult to make sure that everything works after a large reorganization like this, so if you find anything broken, please let us know. We're also looking for feedback on the new design, so if you have any suggestions or complaints...feel free to tell us.
   
   
   
2. We've added a bunch of new stuff
   
   During the site overhaul we added a bunch of new information. It was a pretty confusing process and we ended up not keeping track of most of the new files. Primarily these were in the Psychoactive Plant Vaults. The new organization has allowed us to expand this section to include a lot more information about specific plants and we're going to continue working to fill out this area.
   
   
   
3. Ketamine now Schedule III
   
   The DEA added Ketamine to federal schedule III through emergency scheduling near the end of July. This took effect August 12th, 1999. There is currently a bill going through congress that would officially add Ketamine to the list of schedule III drugs. If passed, this bill would also make GHB schedule I.
   
   
   peace,
   fire & earth
   
   
   

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