Articles

FAQ

Drugs and the brain

Published: 18.04.2007

181 Substance information on the Internet

The Internet offers plenty of information on intoxicants but looking for it using search engines usually produces too many pages and sites that also vary in quality. Many communities that use and disseminate such information have begun to collect and evaluate web sites relating to substances. These virtual libraries or simple link lists include reference data bases, search engines, chat groups and documents such as online magazines, handbooks, legislation, individual articles, statistics etc.

Virtual libraries consist of WWW-addresses that are organised into systematic indices on various topics and described. The Finnish Virtual Library Project, started by the Finnish university libraries, is a subject index that is maintained decentrally. It covers over 60 subject areas and contains more than 12 000 references. Stakes information service maintains a virtual library on alcohol, drugs and other substances in connection with the Virtual Library Project. Currently it contains descriptions of about forty Finnish and foreign sites. In this virtual library you can find e.g. the sites of the following Finnish organisations: the A-Clinic Foundation, The Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies, Aseman Lapset, Free from Drugs, Makupalat: päihdepolitiikka: alkoholi ja huumeet (a collection of links relating to alcohol and drugs), Friends of Temperance, the Finnish Blue Ribbon, Alcohol and Drug Research & Prevention of Substance Abuse pages by Stakes, Finnish Association for Healthy Lifestyles and Finnish Centre for Health Promotion.

Other useful, Finnish alcohol and drug related sites include e.g. StatFin service and the WebStat virtual library maintained by Statistics Finland, the Central Temperance Library, Sosternet, the information service for social welfare and health organisations (in Finnish), the Finnish EMCDDA unit Stakes-Reitox and netzines Tiimi (in Finnish), Myötäote (in Finnish) and Dialogi (in Finnish)

There are also plenty of foreign services that can be used for free. These include e.g. the American reference indices such as the medical PubMed search engine by the MEDLINE, the ETOH database on substances and the AMEDEO service that offers medical literature free of charge as well as the English Social Science Information Gateway SOSIG.

Other useful foreign sites in the field of substances and substance abuse include the Virtual Clearinghouse ATOD that collects substance information from the net and is coordinated by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse; the AddictionSearch search engine and the site of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.

Outi Meriläinen
Informatician,
The National Institute for Health and Welfare