Hamilton Morris

RIP Patrick Arnold, the legendary anabolic steroid chemist who created tetrahydrogestrinone aka "The Clear" and popularizer of the ring-open amphetamine-mimetic DMAA. You can listen to him discussing his research here: youtu.be/w6g18q-ksWk?si…

One of the reasonable points that Oliver made is that postmortem toxicology don't always test for kratom alkaloids and their metabolites, it should have been emphasized that the number of deaths attributed solely to 7-hydroxymitragynine is almost impossibly low. If this low number is a product of inadequate testing, more study needs to be done to estimate the incidence of 7-hydroxymitragynine-associated deaths relative to population exposure. Policy decisions need to be based on careful research that has yet to be done and effectively can't be done once these substances are prohibited.

While approvingly discussing the fact that "some states are taking action" (i.e., banning) he admits that it is "complicated" and hedges by saying "full-on prohibition and criminalization just isn't great drug policy." Yet the episode is full of scaremongering and never once vocalizes true opposition to the prohibition of kratom or 7-hydroxymitragynine, instead saying "there has to be a harm reduction plan to go alongside any potential ban" which is borderline oxymoronic.

@HamiltonMorris @LastWeekTonight @joerogan Or you can stop hysterically lying. He explicitly says he's AGAINST PROHIBITION, literally advocates for reasonable regulation and labeling requirements. Why do people always lie through their teeth about what he actually stands for. Malevolent ragebait every fucking time.

Surprisingly thoughtless reporting on "gas station drugs" from @LastWeekTonight. John Oliver clips me talking to @joerogan and instead of using the joke as an opportunity to suggest reasonable regulation and labeling requirements, tacitly approves of prohibition saying, nonsensically, that it must be accompanied by "harm reduction." What would that "harm reduction" be? Pharmaceutical opioid maintenance therapies, which Oliver has also criticized?

It's looks thoughtful to people who aren't thinking. He discusses bans throughout the episode uncritically, momentarily pays lip service to the idea that "full-on prohibition and criminalization just isn't great drug policy" then resumes scaremongering and says, "there has to be a harm reduction plan to go alongside any potential ban" without specifying what that harm reduction plan would be...because the answer is pharmaceutical opioid maintenance, which he has also repeatedly criticized.

He LITERALLY ended the segment with exactly what you just suggested. Did you watch the whole segment? He explicitly calls out the worthlessness of prohibition and exhorts states to NOT outright ban them without some plan to deal with the fallout, just as they did with opioid crisis. This was the opposite of thoughtless.

In 2006, my friend Stephen Watt wrote a piece of computer code while high on ketamine that was used to extract credit card information from TJ Maxx and the rotisserie chicken purveyor Boston Market. For writing the code, he was sentenced to pay $170,000,000 in restitution. This is his story: youtu.be/tRfzvpySDws?si…

I tried to cure my OCD with mushrooms. Filming The Mushroom Cure live in Boston April 10–11. @HamiltonMorris joins after each show. TheMushroomCure.com

I just released an interview with the legendary Hive bee methylman about his time working as an underground MDMA chemist: youtube.com/watch?v=owqLpb…

📍PRE-ORDER IS LIVE📍 Confessions of an English Opium Eater by Thomas De Quincey was originally published anonymously in 1821. It is half Dickensian memoir and half psychedelic fever dream. Thomas De Quincey, like many other English Romantics, was addicted to laudanum, a potent tincture made of opium dissolved in alcohol. This book documents his journey running away from school to meet his literary idols, discovering opium, and becoming a starved artist living in squalor and in the throes of addiction. This hardcover, illustrated edition features a new introduction by @HamiltonMorris , a renowned journalist, documentarian, and chemist who specializes in psychoactive drugs.  It is furnished with cover art, custom endpapers, and over 20 original illustrations by Hernan Conde de Boeck.  Interior book design by Sherill Chapman. This edition is limited to 3,000 copies. 9 inches tall by 6 inches wide. Estimated at around 500 pages. Page count is subject to change until printing.  Rounded spine with Smyth sewn binding and headbands. Deckled edges. Gold foiling.  Printed in the United States of America.

Interestingly, @grok is saying that the (apparently deleted?) drug price list from the Epstein files is a hoax or a meme. It's not a hoax, you can still read the document here on @jmailarchive jmail.world/drive/vol00009…

You can use the code HAMILTON to get a 20% discount

I'm working on a new edition of Confessions of an English Opium Eater with @GallowglassPB they recently released a beautiful poster from one of the book's new illustrations and you can get it here: gallowglassbooks.com/products/opium…

It has just come to my attention that this document has been deleted from the Epstein files, apparently it is one of many documents that the government deleted after the initial public release. The original file name for the download was, "EFTA00556982.pdf"

Interesting drug price list from the new Epstein file release

@RickDoblin @GilgameshRX A wrist tattoo depicting 5-hydroxy-2-methyl-1H-indol-7-aminide, genuinely unsure what the intended molecule was here, serotonin? I suspect AI may have played a role in this disaster.

I recently interviewed @RickDoblin for my podcast, but I was having trouble focusing because his LSD shirt actually depicted a novel seco-LSD analog. This compound has never been made, but it might have interesting activity, a similar seco-nor-LSD was patented by @GilgameshRX

Molecular diagrams drawn by the chemically illiterate are the new mistranslated Chinese character tattoo. This “THC” t-shirt actually depicts 11-HO-THC-C4

Two former members of Psymposia, an astroturf anti-psychedelic activist group, have come forward to describe Psymposia's work as DEA informants. Listen to my analysis here: patreon.com/posts/pod-139-…

I just released an interview with the chemistry educator Dave Farina of Professor Dave Explains. We discuss drug synthesis, disinformation, and political polarization in science. youtube.com/watch?v=Ca7xNM…

@DrugCulturesPod That's a great episode, thanks.

Hamilton, it’s crazier than that. The unsealed indictment literally alleges that PDVSA, Venezuela’s nationalized oil company, is secretly also responsible for large-scale drug trafficking, and that Maduro was personally overseeing this Brazen dishonesty to manufacture consent for taking over the country’s oil podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dru…

Everyone always knew the War on Drugs was never about drugs, but wow...they're not even pretending anymore! How on earth will seizing 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil combat "narco-terrorism"?