Hamilton Morris

Hamilton Morris (born April 14, 1987) is an American journalist, filmmaker, chemist, and scientific researcher. He is most well-known for his television series Hamilton's Pharmacopeia, which aired from 2016 to 2021 and covered the chemistry, history, and cultural impact of various psychoactive drugs, particularly psychedelics. He is considered to be among the leading psychoactive drug journalists. He was raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Morris has described being a pyromaniac and interested in explosives and poisons as a child. In his teenage years, he appeared in television commercials, notably a 2002 advertisement for the first-generation iPod.

Morris first explored psychoactive drugs by trying Salvia divinorum with his friends in high school around the age of 14, which left him in a state of "astonishment" and led him to learn how to chemically extract salvinorin A from the plant. However, it was not until Morris learned about Alexander Shulgin and novel research chemicals via a New York Times article a few years later in 2005 that he became more interested in and "obsessed" with psychoactive drugs. Relatedly, Morris discovered and began frequenting psychoactive drug websites such as Bluelight and Erowid.

Morris attended the University of Chicago and The New School, where he studied anthropology and chemistry, including under the psychedelic drug expert Nicolas Langlitz. 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 has also written for Harper's Magazine

In his Hamilton's Pharmacopeia web series for Vice Media, which ran from 2009 to 2016 and spanned 11episodes, Morris covered topics including Phyllomedusa bicolor (sapo or kambo), Haitian zombies and tetradotoxin, Alexander and Ann Shulgin, Krystle Cole and William Leonard Pickard, magic truffles, sensory deprivation tanks with Joe Rogan, zolpidem, efavirenz, cannabinoids, and Matt Bowden s. The show had episodes covering a variety of psychoactive drugs, including LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, bufotenin, DMT, 5-MeO-DMT, methamphetamine, methaqualone (Quaaludes), phencyclidine (PCP), ketamine, xenon, ibogaine, kratom, Salvia divinorum, Amanita muscaria, and hallucinogenic fish, among others. In one episode, Morris revealed Ken Nelson as the author of the 1984 Bufo Alvarius: the Psychedelic Toad of the Sonoran Desert pamphlet, which described how to use Incilius alvarius toad venom containing 5-MeO-DMT as a psychedelic drug. Other topics that Morris has covered or been interested in covering include the Temple of the True Inner Light, Lizard Labs, Ariadne, and 7-OH.

Morris worked part-time as a chemist and pharmacologist in Jason Wallach's lab at the University of the Sciences's Philadelphia College of Pharmacy for more than a decade, from 2010 until at least late 2022. He has coauthored scientific papers on hallucinogens 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-HT2A receptor Gq signaling pathway. In September 2021, Morris left Vice to work as a full-time chemistry consultant at the biotechnology startup, Compass Pathways.

Morris has personally developed and tested novel psychoactive drugs, such as the psychedelic lysergamide FP-LAD In addition, he has explored and helped characterize obscure existing psychoactive drugs. According to Morris, the effects of this drug are like a cross between those of DMT and 5-MeO-DMT. gaboxadol, and α,N,N-trimethyltryptamine (α,N,N-TMT).

Morris has an ongoing conflict with the psychedelic media organization and self-described "watchdog group" Psymposia.

Reception Morris is considered to be among the world's leading psychoactive drug journalists.

Personal life Morris describes himself as scientifically oriented, a hardened and cynical atheist and materialist, and "not spiritual at all", though he is sympathetic to spiritual and shamanic traditions employing entheogens. Morris is a psychonaut and has extensively experimented with psychoactive drugs. Morris has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and takes stimulant medication for his symptoms.

Projects Some notable projects of Morris include:

Hamilton's Pharmacopeia (web series, Vice Media, 2009–2016) Hamilton's Pharmacopeia (TV series, Viceland, 2016–2021) (see also concise episode list) The Hamilton Morris Podcast (2020–present)