200,000 Hits a Month

ConnTech (sufflib@tiac.net)
Thu, 19 Jun 1997 22:40:43 -0400 

Date: Thu, 19 Jun 1997 22:40:43 -0400
Message-Id: <3.0.32.19970619224627.007b7bd0@tiac.net>
From: ConnTech <sufflib@tiac.net>
To: Multiple recipients of list <conntech>
Subject: 200,000 Hits a Month


Even as parents, teachers and government officials urge adolescents to say
no to drugs, the Internet is burgeoning as an alluring bazaar where anyone
with a computer can find out how to get high on LSD, eavesdrop on what it
is like to snort heroin or cocaine, check the going price for marijuana or
copy the chemical formula for methamphetamine, the stimulant better known
as speed.

The audience is certainly there. The Center for Media Education, a
Washington group that monitors quality on the Internet, reports that nearly
5 million children from 2 to 17 years of age used online services in 1996
and that more than 9 million college students use the Internet regularly.

"We really are witnessing the development of the most powerful medium that
has ever existed, in terms of its ability to attract and interest young
people," said Jeff Chester, the center's executive director.

The drug culture on the Internet has proliferated in several ways. One is
in the tolerance or outright endorsement of illegal drugs, especially
marijuana, in online forums and chat groups. Another is in explicit
instructions for growing, processing and consuming drugs.

The Internet lacks a quality control mechanism to separate fact from
hyperbole or from outright falsehood, even in discussion that may
ultimately encourage an activity that remains illegal, for Americans of all
ages.

David L. Rosenbloom, president of Join Together, a Boston organization that
helps community groups fight drug and alcohol abuse says "Sophisticated
graphics make a difference. It's more powerful than television and radio,
because it is interactive."

Holmstrom, of High Times, says the monthly number of electronic visits to
his magazine's Web site has doubled since last December. Now, he said, "we
are averaging 200,000 home page visitors a month."

Copyright Mercury Center, June 19, 1997
Edited for ConnTech.  Full text (lots more) at:
http://www.sjmercury.com/news/breaking/docs/059485.htm