# Hamilton Morris

Hamilton Morris (born April 14, 1987) is an American journalist, documentarian, and scientific researcher. He is the creator and director of the television series Hamilton's Pharmacopeia, in which he investigated the chemistry, history, and cultural impact of various psychoactive drugs. Morris is considered to be one of the world's leading drug journalists.

## Biography

Hamilton Morris was born in New York City, the son of Julia Sheehan, an art historian, and documentary filmmaker Errol Morris. He was raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As a teenager, Morris appeared in television commercials, notably a 2002 advertisement for the first-generation iPod. He attended the University of Chicago and The New School, where he studied anthropology and chemistry. He earned a bachelor of science (BSc) degree in liberal arts from The New School.
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 Jews. 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 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-HT$_{2A}$ receptor G$_q$ 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.

## Projects
### Hamilton's Pharmacopeia web series, Vice Media (2010–2016)

Morris published a web series called Hamilton's Pharmacopeia for Vice Media with some of the following episodes:
* 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 William Leonard Pickard's clandestine 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 magic truffles in the Netherlands)
* S0E7: Hamilton's Tanks for the Memories: Sensory Deprivation Tanks (about sensory deprivation tanks 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 "legal highs" in New Zealand with Matt Bowden)

### Hamilton's Pharmacopeia TV series, Viceland (2016–2021)

Morris published a TV series for Viceland with the following seasons and episodes:

#### Season 1 (2016)

* S1E1: The Story of the South African Quaalude
* S1E2: A Positive PCP Story (including Steve-O)
* S1E3: Shepherdess: The Story of Salvia Divinorum
* S1E4: Magic Mushrooms in Mexico
* S1E5: Fish N' Trips (about hallucinogenic fish)
* S1E6: The Lazy Lizard School of Hedonism (with Casey Hardison and Darrell Lemaire)

#### Season 2 (2018)

* S2E1: The Psychedelic Toad (about Bufo alvarius)
* 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)
* S2E8: The Cactus Apprentice (about the San Pedro cactus)

#### Season 3 (2021)

* S3E1: Synthetic Toad Venom Machine (about Bufo alvarius)
* S3E2: A Positive Methamphetamine Story
* S3E3: Xenon: The Perfect Anesthetic?
* S3E4: Natural Tramadol, Synthetic Ibogaine
* S3E5: Bufotenine: In Search of Hataj
* S3E6: Ultra LSD

### The Hamilton Morris Podcast (2020–)

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