Two months have passed since the last update of our bot. Then we added a database with Dosages and Useful Links to it. Now it’s the turn of the new module.
Check updated mindheal bot in Telegram
Drug combos and their effects. On the fly
The Combination module allows users to learn about possible consequences or positive interactions when combining certain psychoactive substances.
Using Combinations is easier than ever:
- Launching a bot
- Choose a Combination command
- Send the bot the name of the first substance
- Send the bot the name of the second substance
- Instantly get an answer about how dangerous or safe this combination is.
The bot may not know some substance. Then it will ask you to check the spelling, write another name or try your luck with another one.
You can also leave substance 1 on the go, and change substance 2 in stages. This is useful if you quickly want to know several combinations of a single substance.
While you are in the Combinations module of our bot, two commands will always be available at the bottom:
- Restart – dropping all the entered substances. They will still remain in the history of reading
- Home – exit from the Combination module to the main screen of the bot.
Won’t ChatGPT tell me about the Combinations?
As with Dosages, we cannot yet rely on AI responses regarding the combination of psychoactive substances. ChatGPT has access to limited data, this data may be outdated, and the banalest thing is that it can get confused in the answers and give very ambiguous recommendations.
And if in general, encyclopedic and search questions, language models are already far ahead of those search engines, then specific, sensitive, and complex information still needs to be selected and checked manually by specialists. The combination of drugs is exactly such a case.
Where do we get the data from
At first, I started to build a database on my own, but I quickly realized that it would take too much time. There is enough information about the combination of substances in the public domain, and I turned to those who have already passed this path. Tripsit, a time-tested site with a very positive community, has one of the most popular pages with combinations.
But when I was about to start working in this direction, the Internet, as it often happens, threw me a real uncut gem – BB Medical Forum. I was amazed by people’s attitudes to health, knowledge, and data systematics. Some combinations contained long descriptions of the pharmacology of substances with mention of studies and very balanced conclusions. I met a similar attitude somewhere on Pubmed or Erowid.
I contacted the forum administration, and they readily met me halfway, which once again surprised and pleased me. We received a ready-made database with combinations and started working on the update. I express my great gratitude to the administration of the forum!
Answers with different informativity
You may notice that some of the answers in the Combinations are stingy, and the other is detailed. This happens for two reasons:
- Not all combinations in the database have a detailed description yet.
- I manually double-check and add descriptions of combinations in order to avoid errors and misinformation. It takes a lot of time.
We continue to work on both points.
Verified Сombinations
Despite the fact that it turned out to automate the whole process, sensitive data such as the interaction of psychoactive substances need to be rechecked and supplemented for the safety of users. Gradually, I will go through all the combinations in Combinations (sorry) and I will consider the work done.
At the beginning of the description of each combination that I checked, there will be a special icon.
👨⚕️ – this means that the information about the combination is unambiguous and relevant. If this icon is not present before the combination, then it is still in operation.
You can speed up the work on specific combinations if you send us the combinations of substances you are interested in. Also, if you notice errors or outdated data, feel free to contact us and we will update the information.
Our support chat in the Telegram app
Data Security in the Bot
At the moment, in terms of GDPR:
We don’t save or retain any of the user’s proprietary information or questions in our bot.
We can count anonymized data to collect statistics. We only count the numbers: a question to the ChatGPT or a click on a specific module is “plus one”. That’s all we see. We need to find out how many people use our bot and which of the modules are most in demand. We specifically do not want to have access to your data. In the future, we will focus even more on security and anonymity.
Plans for the next update
There’s a lot of work ahead. Infinitely many. And the next update may not come out in two months, although we will try. First of all, we are waiting for a colossal job of verifying Combinations. We also need to work with text editing, add more synonyms to the names of substances, and do many other little things to polish and improve the user experience.
Our main goal for the next update will be to migrate the bot to other services – Whatsapp, Messenger, and Discord. I can’t say if it will work out, but we will work hard in this direction.
We will be glad to receive help from users, starting from the indication of errors, and ending with advice on technical and legal matters.
That’s all the news for today. Thanks for your attention!
I am also grateful to everyone who has worked and is working on the mindheal project and making its existence real. Thank you, friends 🙏
Check mindheal bot in Telegram
Harm Reduction and Addictology for Everyone!
