Ann Shulgin died this morning at the age of 91. Her writing made PiHKAL and TiHKAL more than books about chemistry and psychopharmacology, she made them into great love stories. I know that she believed consciousness survives death, I hope she's right and rejoining Sasha.
Molecular diagrams drawn by the chemically illiterate are the new mistranslated Chinese character tattoo. This “THC” t-shirt actually depicts 11-HO-THC-C4
I watched a man standing outside a party surrounded by NYPD last night, the man was shouting at them, “They’re doing illegal drugs in there!” An officer replied, “You’re just mad you got kicked out of the party, go home.” Dreamlike.
Today the DEA withdrew their plan to prohibit DiPT, 4-HO-DiPT, 5-MeO-MiPT, 5-MeO-DET, and 5-MeO-αMT. As opposition mounted, they decided to cancel the hearing. Kratom was the first time public opposition prevented the prohibition of a substance, now we have five more successes!
After more than 75 years of prohibition Thailand legalized their traditional medicine kratom. They also legalized medicinal use of Cannabis after 83 years of prohibition. Progress!
I just remembered that last night while I was on ambien I called the governor of Colorado to request criminal charges be filed against the police officers who murdered Elijah McClain
Every week I hear of a different acquaintance dying of an opioid overdose. Blaming Pharma does nothing. Blaming dealers does nothing. Give out fentanyl test kits. Get certified to administer naloxone, get your friends certified. Blame does nothing, naloxone saves lives.
When I was young child I was distressed because my nightlight had broken and I was afraid of the dark. My dad was making a film with Hawking and mentioned this in passing, the next time I saw Hawking he had brought me a new nightlight as a gift. Science as a candle in the dark!
2021 has had more overdose deaths than any year in history. I've lost four friends and many more acquaintances. I never dreamed I'd see so much unnatural death of young men outside of a war. If you have lost someone you love, know that you are not suffering alone.
Sometimes I gaze up at the stars and wonder, is any of this worth it? Writing, filmmaking, chemistry, to what end if it dosen’t change the world and make it a better place. Then I get messages like this and know that my efforts don’t fall on deaf ears.
A reminder to all who think the legality of Cannabis should remain a States' rights issue: The federal prohibition of Cannabis effectively renders the 4th Amendment moot. If a police officer claims to smell Cannabis it's probable cause to search your body, your car, or your home
Today the FDA rejected MDMA for treatment of PTSD. A terrible blow to patients, researchers, drug policy reformers (yes, medicalization facilitates policy reform), and the many brilliant people that worked tirelessly for decades to prove the safety and efficacy of this treatment.
I think tonight's piece about iboga is one of the best things I've ever made. I know the show can be hard to find, but track down a copy, turn up the volume, and watch it on a nice screen!
I accidentally dropped my phone into a vomit basin shared by the patients at an iboga ceremony. As I gazed down into the phone, now shimmering distantly through the sickness of so many strangers, the metaphor for everyday life became far more repulsive than the vomit itself.
Terracotta pots promote an unrealistic body image in plants. Not all plants have root systems that are wider than they are tall, what about Cactaceae with taproots as opposed to fibrous root systems? It's fucked up that it's 2018 and I still have to say this.
I'm not Israeli and this is a picture of me telling Joe Rogan that I *don't* think Moses was high on DMT from the burning bush. (Once a Hasidic jew came up to me in an airport and effusively thanked me for treating this claim with skepticism.)
It's nice to see the NYTimes reporting on toad conservation, slightly less nice to see a journalist rehashing years of work done by me and the Pharmacopeia team while strenuously avoiding any attribution.
In June 2017 I ordered a Lophophora koehresii specimen from Thailand. The cactus was held by
@USDA_APHIS
and, after a few weeks of protesting, I gave up on it. Today—2 years, 1 month, and 17 days later—the packaged was delivered with an empty pot and a single 100mg Viagra tablet.
I'm getting very tired of hearing people say their substance of choice is "not a drug." Instead of pretending the psychoactive plants or chemicals you enjoy aren't drugs, why not accept the far simpler truth that just because something's a drug doesn't mean it's bad?
Regardless of how you feel about Cannabis as a drug, you should recognize that Cannabis is used as a tool to justify unlawful searches throughout the country.
"Club drug" seems like an almost meaningless descriptor that people should abandon in any serious reporting or scholarship. What is a club drug, a drug used in clubs? Why are alcohol and cocaine not termed "club drugs" but ketamine is a "club drug"?
After a doctor offered me free dental work in exchange for an instagram mention I realized the real problem with healthcare in America isn’t about pharma or insurance, it’s about a class of citizens without enough instagram followers to incentivize free medical procedures.
After an Arizona man’s fatal overdose on chloroquine I’ve observed news outlets repeatedly describing his dose as “only one teaspoon.” I decided to repeatedly weigh one teaspoon of pure chloroquine diphosphate on an analytical balance and average the results, it was 4.783 grams.
The ballot measure to decriminalize psilocybin in Denver passed. It's an amazing accomplishment, but the narrow margin of victory should serve as a reminder that public support of psychedelics is far from unanimous.
A male Cannabis specimen collected by Emily Dickinson between 1839 and 1846. Note that it is unlabeled or the label has been removed, out of hundreds of her specimens archived at the Harvard herbarium this is the only one without a label.
Many people contact me to ask if they can ask a question. As a matter of principle, I won't answer questions asked by people asking to ask a question. Life is too short for prefatory meta-questions, simply ask the question.
The DEA have announced their intention to place five tryptamine psychedelics in schedule I on February 14. Despite apparent progress, the gears of prohibition continue to grind away at personal and scientific freedom.
Wow, so S-ketamine is now being descibed as "ketamine-like" and a "chemical cousin of ketamine." I should hope S-ketamine is ketamine-like, given that it's ketamine and being used medicinally for the same indications as racemic ketamine.
I encourage everyone to watch this talk given by
@drcarlhart
at last year's
@HorizonsConf
. He expertly describes the connection between racist policing and drug prohibition.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) at 10:00PM watch the first televised total synthesis of MDMA. Nothing like this has ever appeared on TV, it’s not an episode to miss.
If you’re a journalist reporting on a drug that’s primarily used by desperate/poor/disadvantaged people, consider whether your reporting will help those people or promote discriminatory laws that will help keep those people in a desperate/poor/disadvantaged position
Here is a link to buy my expanded and updated version of Ken Nelson's classic work on Bufo alvarius. It features a low cost process for the large scale production of 5-MeO-DMT. 100% of the profit goes to
@MichaelJFoxOrg
Reach for the stars, don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't run a print advertising campaign in the NY subway system depicting amphetamine synthesis.
Never underestimate Pharma's ability to convince a credulous public that an enantiopure or enantioenriched preparation of a previously used racemate is a completely new drug. I suppose this is their justification for charging $31 a mg for a drug that otherwise costs ~1000x less
Just watched the movie Fatal Attraction and was amazed by how cute the family dog was. Went to look him up on imdb and found his performance was uncredited. Does anyone know what dog played the dog in Fatal Attraction and if he has played a dog in other movies?
Can any chemists who still have access to analytical equipment identify the fragrance in Purell hand sanitizer? If society is still standing in two months, I'd like to petition the DEA to have it classified as a schedule I controlled substance.
Just because your perspective is unoriginal dosen’t mean it’s true. Oxycodone has been known to be addictive since at least the 1950s, no thinking doctor should have ever assumed a high potency morphine derivative is non-addictive just because a salesperson told them so.
At 10:00PM EST tonight the season finale of Hamilton's Pharmacopeia will air (it will be available on Amazon and iTunes tomorrow). It features the greats
@zenbrainest
, David E. Nichols, and Amanda Feilding
@BeckleyResearch
I hope you all enjoyed the season.
A CBD store in Austin whose sign depicts 8,9-dihydrocannabidiol (forgiving 1,3-cyclohexadiene in what should be a benzene ring). I'm diene from all these structural inaccuracies!
The third pressing of Ken's Bufo alvarius pamphlet is now available for pre-order in toad venom yellow, in addition to a shirt with a drawing I did of a toad non-enzymatically synthesizing 5-MeO-DMT that is printed with europium-doped strontium aluminate.
For generations, napiform root bearing cacti have been cultivated in pots designed for fibrous root systems, today this travesty ends. I present the first terra-cotta pot designed specifically to promote taproot health:
For anyone that has watched the new
@joerogan
bit about the vaginaless woman who was impregnated via a knife wound, here is the medical case report that inspired the story.
Less than three years after oxycodone was first synthesized in 1916 reports of addiction had been published in the medical literature. History sure does repeat itself.
How is SeaWorld a publically traded stock? Who is investing in SeaWorld? Who is saying, "Got my retirement money invested in SeaWorld" or "I'm making bank day trading SeaWorld."
Excited to reunite with
@joerogan
tomorrow after almost seven years apart. Looking back at the previous podcast, we didn't seem too stoned, but I was also watching the video at 2x speed (recommended).
I appreciate that there's an investigation into the legality of George Floyd's 2004 arrest, but it should be clear that even if George Floyd was "guilty", nobody should spend ten months locked in a cage for selling a crumb of alkaloidal material.
On ibogaine I thought “I want to listen to the song tobacco” genuinely feeling for a moment that tobacco was a song, then realizing the craving for nicotine and music were interchangable and experientially identical
At midnight tonight five psychedelics will be prohibited by the DEA. I am fighting this along with many others, but if you haven't yet left a comment on the Federal Register website now is the time to do it and remind others to do the same!
On wikipedia I read the Jim Jones quote, "If you're born in capitalist America, racist America, fascist America, then you're born with a big dildo in sin." I liked his unexpected use of the word "dildo" and looked up the source, only to find the word dildo was not actually used.