When the first pages of Psiconáutica.org went online in 1996, the internet reached homes in the Canary Islands via dial-up modem and was billed by the minute. In Spanish there was virtually nothing to read about psychoactive substances beyond an institutional leaflet or a crime-section news item. Those first pages were written from a flat in the Escaleritas neighbourhood of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and they became the first Spanish-language website devoted to drugs and altered states of consciousness.
Thirty years on, the project is still running, still Canarian — and has just completed the biggest overhaul in its history.
From Escaleritas to the Spanish-language Erowid
Built from the periphery of the periphery, with no resources beyond its author’s, the site came to occupy in the Spanish-speaking world the place Erowid was then beginning to occupy in English: an archive of information about substances written for adult readers — not to frighten them, and not to sell them anything. Today the portal is run from Fuerteventura by its founder, Raúl del Pino, and its historical archive remains intact: more than 500 explanatory articles, now revised and reorganised.
A psychedelics guide with twelve monographs
The centrepiece of the new era is the Psychedelics Guide, a thematic index that organises the archive into twelve monographs: psilocybin, LSD, ayahuasca and DMT, MDMA, mescaline, ketamine, iboga, salvia divinorum, microdosing, psychedelic science and therapy, harm reduction, and the history and culture of psychedelic thought.
Each guide works as an entry point: an updated introduction, a block of frequently asked questions and, from there, the archive articles that develop each aspect in depth. The aim is to let readers move from the overview to the detail without getting lost — something a three-decade-old archive did not make easy.
Science news, every day
The second major addition is current affairs. The site now has a daily news section tracking recent psychedelic research: clinical trials of psilocybin for anorexia nervosa or depression, and studies involving DMT, ketamine or MDMA published in journals such as Nature, JAMA or The New England Journal of Medicine — all written in-house, with cited, verifiable sources.
“Back then the challenge was getting published at all; today the challenge is that what gets published can be trusted. That’s what we’re working on: explaining what is known about these substances without demonising them and without cheerleading, treating the reader as an adult,” says Del Pino.
The same editorial line as in 1996
The approach has not changed: the site places itself in the tradition of cognitive liberty embodied in Spain by Antonio Escohotado. The legal status of each substance is presented as a fact, not as a sermon, and harm reduction is framed from a respect for personal autonomy, without inflating dangers or promising miracles.
“Someone who decides not to use doesn’t need us to scare them, and someone who decides to use needs accurate information, not moralising,” the editor adds.
Non-profit, and no reader tracking
The project is non-profit and is in the process of being constituted as an association. It also keeps two decisions that are unusual on today’s web: it collects no personal data from visitors, and it restricts advanced-chemistry technical documentation to registered users — a balance between a commitment to free information and responsible publishing.
Thirty years on
Amid the full swing of the so-called psychedelic renaissance, the sector’s longest-running website — born when getting online was still an act of faith — reaches its thirtieth anniversary with its archive in order, its sources in the footnotes and the same statement of intent it started with.
Raúl del Pino also directs Fuertedélica, the international conference on psychedelics and mental health held in Fuerteventura. If you are interested in the science behind these approaches, you can start with our guide to ketamine-assisted therapy (KAP).
The new era can be seen at psiconautica.org.
