Hamilton Morris

 ( 1987 Births ) 

Morris's interest in psychoactive substances blossomed in his late teens when he began reading pharmacology information hosted on websites such as Bluelight and Erowid. He began writing for Vice Magazine as a college sophomore. He wrote a piece called 'The Magic Jews' in 2008 documenting his experience taking LSD with a group of Hasidic Judaism. Vice later hired him to write a monthly print column titled "Hamilton's Pharmacopeia" in 2009 that evolved into a series of articles and documentaries for VBS.tv focused on the science of psychoactive drugs.

Morris was a correspondent and producer for Vice on HBO until 2021, and is a contributor to Harper's Magazine. Morris frequently consults with media on the subject of psychoactive drugs and conducts pharmacological research at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia with an emphasis on the synthesis and history of dissociative anesthetics.

In September 2021, Morris left Vice to work as a full-time chemistry consultant at the biotechnology startup, Compass Pathways. In October 2021, it was reported that Morris was working as a chemist in Jason Wallach's lab at the University of the Sciences's Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. He is said to have worked with Wallach studying the chemistry and pharmacology of psychedelics for more than a decade. Wallach's lab has a contract with Compass Pathways to develop novel psychedelic therapeutics. Morris has coauthored on with Wallach, including a 2014 review on dissociatives and a 2023 study identifying serotonergic psychedelics as mediating hallucinogenic-like effects (i.e., the head-twitch response) via activation of the serotonin 5-HT_2A receptor Gq protein signaling pathway. Although Morris left Vice, he said that he plans to continue to write, podcast, and potentially make additional films in the future.

Morris is notable in asserting, based on self-experimentation and along with Jonathan Ott, that bufotenin is active as a psychedelic. According to Morris, its effects are like a cross between those of dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and 5-MeO-DMT.

• S0E1: SiHKAL: Shulgins I Have Known and Loved: The Man who Birthed Ecstasy in a Test-Tube (with Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin)
• S0E2: The Icelandic Skin-Disease Mushroom Fashion Fiasco
• S0E3: Getting High on Krystle: Underground LSD Palace (about Krystle Cole and her involvement with Gordon Todd Skinner, William Leonard Pickard, and their clandestine LSD laboratory)
• S0E4: The Sapo Diaries: Tripping on Hallucinogenic Frogs / Getting High on Frogs ( Phyllomedusa bicolor skin secretions ("sapo") in Amazonia)
• S0E5: Nzambi: Investigating the Haitian Zombie (Wade Davis's theory of tetrodotoxin-mediated zombification in Haiti)
• S0E6: Hamilton Morris and the Philosophers Stone: The Rise of Psychedelic Truffles in Amsterdam (about psilocybin-containing in the Netherlands)
• S0E7: Hamilton's Tanks for the Memories: Sensory Deprivation Tanks (about isolation tank with Joe Rogan)
• S0E8: The Ambien Effect: Medical Miracles With Ambien (about zolpidem treating brain damage)
• S0E9: Getting High on HIV Medication (efavirenz as a classical psychedelic)
• S0E10: Swazi Gold / Swaziland: Gold Mine of Marijuana (about cannabis in Swaziland)
• S0E11: The Synthetic Marijuana Steampunk Rock Opera (about "designer drug" in New Zealand with Matt Bowden)

• S1E1: The Story of the South African Methaqualone (about recreational use of methaqualone in South Africa)
• S1E2: A Positive Phencyclidine Story (including Steve-O)
• S1E3: Shepherdess: The Story of Salvia divinorum
• S1E4: Magic Mushrooms in Mexico (with Maria Sabina's son)
• S1E5: Fish N' Trips (about hallucinogenic fish and ichthyoallyeinotoxism)
• S1E6: The Lazy Lizard School of Hedonism (with Casey Hardison and Darrell Lemaire)

• S2E1: The Psychedelic toad (about Bufo alvarius and the )
• S2E2: Peyote: The Divine Messenger
• S2E3: Kratom: The Forbidden Leaf
• S2E4: Wizards of DMT
• S2E5: Ketamine: Realms and Realities
• S2E6: A Clandestine Chemist's Tale (with Steve Gill)
• S2E7: A Fungal Fairy Tale (about Amanita muscaria, muscimol, and gaboxadol, with Povl Krogsgaard-Larsen and Carsten Holler)
• S2E8: The Cactus Apprentice (about the San Pedro cactus)

• S3E1: Synthetic Toad Venom Machine (about Bufo alvarius and the )
• S3E2: A Positive Methamphetamine Story (with Uncle Fester)
• S3E3: Xenon: The Perfect Anesthetic? (about Czech Republic xenon clinics)
• S3E4: Natural Tramadol, Synthetic Ibogaine (about naturally occurring tramadol in Africa, recreational use of tramadol in Africa, entheogenic use of ibogaine in Africa, and chemical synthesis of ibogaine)
• S3E5: Bufotenine: In Search of Hataj (about bufotenin-containing hallucinogenic snuff in South America)
• S3E6: Ultra LSD (with Dan Panaccione about ergot, Amanda Feilding about trepanation and the Beckley Foundation, David E. Nichols about CE-LAD, and Bryan L. Roth about serotonin 5-HT_2A receptor ultra-large-scale docking (Ultra-LSD))

Morris also almost featured lysergamide producer Lizard Labs in the third season of the show. Transcript.

• The Hamilton Morris Podcast (some freely available, some on Patreon)

• Gonzo journalism
• Responsible drug use
• Recreational drug use
• Akasha Song

• Hamilton Morris - Psychedelic Science Review (PSR)
• HamiltonMorris - X (formerly Twitter)
• Hamilton Morris - Google Scholar
• The Hamilton Morris Podcast - Patreon
• Updated and Reorganised Wiki / Index of Hamilton Morris Content - r/HamiltonMorris - Reddit
• I'm Hamilton Morris, I've traveled the world studying drugs, their creators, and their impact on society for almost a decade. AMA. - r/IAmA - Reddit
• target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> A Psychonaut’s Adventures in Videoland - The New York Times