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Hamilton's Pharmacopeia
2016 · TV series · documentary · 44 min episodes · 3 seasons
Created by Hamilton Morris
Join an incredible journey through the history, chemistry and societal impacts of the world’s most extraordinary drugs.
6 positivefrom 6 commenters
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6 comments on Hacker News
The Xenon episode of Hamilton's Pharmacopeia is one of the very best episodes of that series, I don't know the best way to find it on streaming currently, it was available I believe on Netflix (or maybe it was Hulu?): https://www.vicetv.com/en_us/video/xenon-the-perfect-anesthetic/5fd3b93bd4b2c85e6438b4cb
The full episode takes very disturbing twists and turns, worth a watch.
Hamilton's Pharmacopeia (a docuseries featuring a pharmacologist) has an episode where Hamilton visits and interviews a women who was involved there.
12 minute clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7qliVpGEk0&vl=en
Vice has always been hit and miss for me. On one hand you have some really well produced documentaries, such as Hamilton's Pharmacopeia, the great reports on Ukrainian Protests or Xinjiang camps.
On the other hand you have stuff like this: https://www.vice.com/en/article/gy8pxm/gluten-free-people-are-getting-laid-way-more-than-the-rest-of-us
Psilocybin and LSD are on their way to legalization, but the enormous host of compounds in their phenethylamine family might not be so lucky due to a systematic problem with U.S. drug scheduling policy. This family shows enormous potential for treating some of our trickiest mental health / public health problems (addiction, depression, anxiety, OCD, and the list goes on) but the policy for newly discovered phenethylamines and tryptamines seems to be "Schedule first, worry about it later." This slows scientific research down dramatically, research that we need in order to even know in the first place whether a compound might have "high potential for abuse and no known medical potential." If there is medical potential (and in these families at least there usually is), what took days to Schedule will take millions of dollars and years or even decades to reschedule...per compound.
So, while I celebrate the progress being made for a couple of promising compounds with a relatively large base of recognition and support, I'm hoping that I see a more sane approach to drug policy within my lifetime (Portugal seems to be the fashionable example these days).
I'll also second /u/jrowley 's recommendation of Michael Pollan's recent book "How to Change Your Mind" as a good primer, and would recommend the TV show "Hamilton's Pharmacopeia" as another fascinating dive into the subject.
Yes, a great look into some of them is on Hamilton's Pharmacopeia on VICELAND [1] and early version of the show on Youtube [2] that delves into many of psychedelics and other drugs. Hamilton Morris does the show and is the son of Errol Morris who is a great documentary filmmaker. The documentary show takes an honest look at the origins, stories and science of substances from a scientific objective point of view.
The point across many of the episodes is that locking up drugs in the immutable prison of the Controlled Substances scheduling is possibly locking up cures that might be useful down the line, besides the obvious issue of the state telling people what they can and can't put in their body, the drug wars are a unnecessary violence and costly enforcement over a health matter.
The war on vegetables and plants should end and this generation should do it. Adults are responsible enough to know what they put in their body and for the ones that have trouble with addiction, the focus should be on healthcare not executive criminal force that is very costly in funds and possible uses of drugs that are locked up in the prison of the Controlled Substances Act as a controlled substance. In a free country you are responsible for yourself, the state should back off on drugs because they are more dangerous illegal than legal due to black markets, cartels, legal issues harsher than the drug and more.
Due to the hard line, we miss out on scientific health advantages of these drugs and people aim to make more synthetics that mimic them that may be more harmful than the original with unknown effects.
Unfortunately it looks like the US is doubling down on the drug war with the new Schedule A that allows them to put on biologically similar drugs and synthetics on the list with SITSA [3].
My take is that drugs should be legal or at a minimum entirely decriminalized, there should be substance warnings but ultimately the liability of the user taking the drug is on the user, not a doctor. The only time a producer should get in legal issues is when they are selling what isn't on the label just like with food. A big problem with overdoses and drug deaths is due to people getting the wrong substance, for instance fentanyl because it is cheaper in other opioids. The hardline of putting liability on the doctors and pharma companies is also leading to patients looking for alternatives after their doctor stops their prescription for fear of legal issues, what follows is where most overdoses and trouble happens as there is no addiction help after even legal use of drugs. The hardline on opioids even further exacerbate the problem.
We need a new Bill of Rights amendment for Right to Body to do this. This is a health issue not a criminal one and it is too costly to possible health advances to lock up helpful chemical configurations that need more study. We need a Right to Body amendment at some point to get the state out of it and make drugs a health related matter not a criminal one.
The Controlled Substances Act is flawed because of the locked and immutable nature of it, besides the fact that the drug wars are a failure and it is a health issue not a criminal one.
Any drug on the CSA should have to be re-proven every year to be medically dangerous to be kept on the list.
The problem is that once drugs get classified as a controlled substance, it is very difficult to get them out because neither the public nor legislature can easily remove it. The CSA list is managed entirely wrong. The CSA was setup to target certain dissidents initially by Nixon, it is nearly criminal that the drug war is ran by an organization that is untouchable and maintained by the enforcer not the health institutions.
The CSA should be completely abolished or recreated with expiring classifications, and the FDA can make recommendations on safety but then it is up to the people to decide what they do with their bodies with the liability on them.
Marijuana is an example where the Controlled Substances Act harms medical uses of drugs on the list, if is very difficult to change it even with 93% medical marijuana support [4] and 64% recreational marijuana support [5] in the US. It is nearly criminal that marijuana/cannabis, psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, and other drugs and psychedelics that help people which are also safer than most drugs and alcohol, based on the user themselves rather than what the state says, are criminal and not medical.
[1] https://www.hulu.com/hamiltons-pharmacopeia
[2] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDbSvEZka6GH9XhvsMrwH7hC52LGWbXEQ
[3] https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2851
[4] http://thehill.com/homenews/news/385018-poll-support-for-legal-marijuana-hits-all-time-high
[5] https://news.gallup.com/poll/221018/record-high-support-legalizing-marijuana.aspx
For some awesome insight into Magic Mushrooms, Hamilton's Pharmacopeia on Viceland had a great episode:
https://www.viceland.com/en_us/video/magic-mushrooms-in-mexico/5824ee7c26bc7bcd771ba6c3