This week, I want to tell you about a resource you’ve probably overlooked. Krystle Cole runs a site called NeuroSoup. It’s very similar to Erowid, in that there are informational hubs based around drugs and places to discuss things. But instead of being stewarded by veiled, noble guardians, Krystle came out from behind the shadows and told her story, which frankly is utterly astonishing. If any of the readers out there know their history, in 2003, an underground missile silo was raided by the DEA. Two chemists lived there, producing (allegedly) 90% of the world’s LSD. Krystle was in that world for 3 years, and it utterly changed her. There was a stunning VICE segment done on this, in case you’re interested in where all the acid went.

She could’ve spent the rest of her life ruminating on her experiences, but she struck out and decided to try and help people make sense of the experiences they were having, just like she did. Going into psychology, she’s spent her life not only educating people, but really just trying to make sure people didn’t get as lost in that world as she did. I think this kind of wounded healer needs to be celebrated. She walked the walk, unlike the dozens of authority figures that wag their fingers at ravers but haven’t ever done drugs. She is better than you at drugs. If she wasn’t, she’d be dead. She’s spending her life getting better at it, and in doing so, creating one of the only repositories of usable information about these experiences that exist on the internet, besides Erowid & Pill Reports.

This gets to the central stupid thing about the War on Drugs. At this point, because research on these things has only just started again in the last decade, people wanting to have these experiences could only rely on other lay-people’s experience. Which causes giant problems when it comes to reproducible dosages & variability in effect, especially with a new drug. This is preposterous. NeuroSoup should be celebrated, but the fact that it needs to exist makes me scared for the kids out there diving headlong into a lot of this stuff. This is what the community has created to protect itself. Just imagine what could be done if people actually helped or made the stuff legal such that we could figure it out instead of scrolling through forums hoping.

I’m so glad that Krystle is there to actually focus on helping people. We’ll be talking about her on Twitter using #bioDFF from 4:30-5:30pm, so come on in and learn from one of the best fighters we’ve got out there.