[Worldwide] Building a better drug scale! V2: Focusing on what's important for community reports
Admin note: Please complete this survey and choose Bluelight as your fave org for the researchers to donate to! :love:
Hello!
Our names are Raimondo Bruno, Brianna Doyle, Shahni Watts and Stephen Bright – we are from the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Tasmania and Edith Cowan University. This project is part of Brianna’s honours degree.
We’re trying to make a scale (a questionnaire) for rating drugs. Specifically, one that might be useful for community reports of good, bad and unusual experiences.
We started this process last year. A group of us, including academics and people with living experience, looked at all of the existing scales in the scientific literature to rate positives and negatives of drug effects. We tried to boil this down to the smallest number of questions. Then we took that out to people who use drugs internationally to ask what questions were important to them. The general consensus was that there are a lot of different aspects of...
ARTICLE: 'The art of punishment and shame'
Welcome to the community discussion thread for the article 'The art of punishment and shame' by Edward Hazel, also known as M!$TER-ED.
Ed's article was inspired by streaM Freak's recent article on shame, as well as the Bluelight recovery support forums.
Feel free to post your thoughts about the article, and/or any questions you might have.
Here in the Bluelight Article Discussion forum, we also invite article authors to respond to the discussion if they wish.
Constructive criticism and civil debate are welcome; however, abusive comments will not be tolerated. The Bluelight User Agreement (BLUA) applies, as it does across our site. :)
New Terms of Use rolling out ~Tues/Wed this week
Hi everyone
For years now, we've been working on updating our terms of service, which includes the Bluelight User Agreement. The new terms will provide more protection from legal risks and clarity for anyone using these services and website about what we are offering, what our responsibilities are, as well as what we expect from users of our services. Finally, we are ready to roll out the new terms. Thanks to everyone who has helped so far!
Over the coming 24-48 hours, you'll experience the following changes:
- unregistered guests will be required to agree to the new terms via a cookie-like pop-up (this may be required more than once, but not more than once during the same session)
- registered users of the forum will be required to agree to the new terms only once (as recorded in your user record)
Let us know of any hiccups or concerns, here or at [email protected]
Thanks
Monica & the board of Bluelight Communities Ltd
ARTICLE: 'Grey area cannabis in the US (2026)'
Welcome to the community discussion thread for the article 'Grey area cannabis in the US (2026)' by Anthony Tomcykoski, aka @ions.
Feel free to post your thoughts about the article, and/or any questions you might have.
Here in the Bluelight Article Discussion forum, we also invite article authors to respond to the discussion if they wish.
Constructive criticism and civil debate are welcome; however, abusive comments will not be tolerated. The Bluelight User Agreement (BLUA) applies, as it does across our site. :)
ARTICLE: 'Shedding shame'
Welcome to the community discussion thread for the article 'Shedding shame' by streaM Freak.
Feel free to post your thoughts about the article, and/or any questions you might have.
Here in the Bluelight Article Discussion forum, we also invite article authors to respond to the discussion if they wish.
Constructive criticism and civil debate are welcome; however, abusive comments will not be tolerated. The Bluelight User Agreement (BLUA) applies, as it does across our site. :)
Support Not Punish - 26 June 2026!
Support Don't Punish is a global advocacy campaign calling for drug policies based on health and human rights. The global day of action is June 26, 2026. Bluelight is one of the campaign's supporting organisations.
This year we are featuring artwork commissioned by AIVL. This art represents answers that community gave to the question: "If people who use drugs were always cared for and supported, what would you see?"
You can find merch from AIVL using these hand-drawn images here, and you can purchase Bluelight's t-shirt, made in collaboration with Support Not Punish, here.
ARTICLE: 'More than a forum: reconnecting with my community through Bluelight'
Welcome to the community discussion thread for the article 'More than a forum: reconnecting with my community through Bluelight' by Edward Hazel, also known as M!$TER-ED.
Feel free to post your thoughts about the article, and/or any questions you might have.
Here in the Bluelight Article Discussion forum, we also invite article authors to respond to the discussion if they wish.
Constructive criticism and civil debate are welcome; however, abusive comments will not be tolerated. The Bluelight User Agreement (BLUA) applies, as it does across our site. :)
Announcing deductible gift recipient status (in AUS) & roll out of new terms of use
Hello everyone
We have a couple of announcements:
1. Last week, we found out that the Australian Tax Office accepted our application to become a deductible gift recipient charity. This means if you are Australian, you can claim your donation to Bluelight as a tax deduction! Unfortunately this status is not global, but it is also a sign of our legitimate status as a charity working to reduce drug-related harms in our communities. We will soon be overhauling our donation portal to make it easier for people to donate in their own currency, as well as one-off or recurring contributions. We will let you know when the new portal has launched, but in the meantime, anyone can make a one-time tax-deductible donation in Australian dollars here.
2. Over the past couple of years, we've been engaging both US and Australian lawyers to update our terms of use. We've now finalised the wording and will be rolling it out soon. What does this mean for you? Some time over the next month, you will...
