POD 122: Drug Analysis with Kykeon Analytics
Added 2025-01-17 06:04:54 +0000 UTCRecorded between bouts of tellurium chemistry, in this episode I interview the analytical chemist Rafael and the European drug policy reform activist Nuria Calzada about their work at Kykeon Analytics. We discuss drug education, drug sniffing dogs, drug testing and analysis, "harm reduction", and more.
Comments
It even 5 minutes in and already inducing so much nostalgia. Hushmail, SafeOrScam. I remember checking SafeOrScam constantly for reviews on MXE. I miss MXE. Hamilton, if you’re reading this, there’s a whole world of disso lovers waiting for MXE to return. 😏
Michael McCallum
2025-05-19 11:21:52 +0000 UTCAny time someone tries to give Hamilton props he just goes “yeah😐” and then just moves on it cracks me up
Michael Jones
2025-03-17 15:46:43 +0000 UTCPLEASE RELEASE THE PICKARD POD PLEEEEAASSSSEEE
Dumb Idiot
2025-03-03 23:32:35 +0000 UTCCORPSE SMELL. Ham, you funny af
Donovan
2025-02-24 21:57:54 +0000 UTCThat's a very interesting ",hack" re doping the sample with methanol. Good plausible deniability of consumption of the drug sample. Clever!
V R
2025-02-18 07:30:18 +0000 UTCAnd the obverse to this is that u try to show people how a study is good and they weaponise the shortcomings of science and resort to baseless scepticism - baseless in that they have no background on the subject so their objections aren't grounded in anything relevant to the conversation. "Oh well they couldn't just made this shit up you know, look at how Pfizer just buys off scientists" 🤦😭 The science illiteracy is alarming, I agree 110%
V R
2025-02-18 07:26:54 +0000 UTCMy biggest concern with harm reduction organization running FTIR, is that they are relying on spectra libraries and are not trained in analytical chemistry so the software makes a best guess based on the spectra and sometimes that prediction is not the best. I took some DMT I bought from a cannabis shop in DC, which is now closed, and had them run it through the FTIR. The guy, who was a nice person, but simply a former drug user who was running the device, told me that the sample contained MALT. I wasn't sure what that was, and asked him, and he said, "yeah man. Malt like they use for brewing beer. " I was sceptical, so I looked it up, and realized that MALT was in fact MALT (N-methyl-N-allyltryptamine or N,N-methylallyltryptamine), which is a lesser know tryptamine and the FTIR was saying there was a certain percentage chance that it contained MALT because the spectra was close and had some noise, probably from the other dirt left behind in the DMT extraction process. They sent it off to the UNC drug lab for confirmation and it turned out to be only DMT. So, the skill set of the people running the device makes a big difference too.
Cheminterested
2025-02-01 22:43:48 +0000 UTCI just listened to a bit more of the podcast, and she mentioned the UNC lab
Cheminterested
2025-02-01 02:14:52 +0000 UTCYes. Check out the UNC Street drug lab. You cannot send them samples yourself as an individual for legal reasons, but they work with many harm reduction organizations around the county. Find your local harm reduction coalition, and ask them if they have the free kits from the UNC lab. If they don't, they can request them from the website. Them you can give them a sample to send in for testing https://www.streetsafe.supply/
Cheminterested
2025-02-01 01:48:51 +0000 UTCI just wanted to say I am a huge advocate for analytical drug testing. There is an organization here in NC at UNC Chapel Hill called the UNC Street Drug Lab. They are a harm reduction organization that helps other HR organizations like drug users unions and harm reduction coalitions get set up with FTIRs for instant drug sample testing. Here is the link https://www.streetsafe.supply/ They also have a great newsletter with information about what they are seeing in the current drug supply. https://opioiddatalab.ghost.io/tags/ They also have free GCMS testing for samples sent to them, the only catch is you, as an individual, cannot send a sample you must go through an organization like a harm reduction coalition. Many work with them and have their free samples kits. The samples are placed into vials with, i think, methanol to make the drugs useless for consumption, in order to be able to send them through the mail legally. Hamilton, I would recommend reaching out to the guy who runs the lab, he is an amazing and cool guy named Dr. Nabarun Dasgupta. I think he would be a fantastic interview for the pod. As a former heroin and opioid user, I can understand the idea that taking the time to send off your heroin to be tested with GCMS, or even taking a sample to a local harm reduction organization for FTIR testing, might seem a bit crazy. When you are in active heroin addiction, you're not usually taking too much time between obtaining and consuming the drugs. These days I stick to Kratom daily, and the occasional psychedelics. So I was very excited to find out I could have my drugs tested. When the new pure 7 hydroxymitragynine tablets hit the market, I was curious and wanted to see what was actually in them, so I bought a few from 2 of the largest vendors in the Internet and sent them to the lab for testing. They came back as pure 7OH luckily and I shared that info with the 7OH subreddit. I tried them once and felt that they were definitely potent and probably felt more like a classical opioid, but they also made me more nauseous than my standard Kratom powder, so I decided not to take them again. I also had my go to brand of Kratom powder tested and that came back clean as well. I have mentioned to other heroin users that they should try to get their drugs tested with these organizations, or at least get some fentanyl test strips from a local harm reduction organization. I think the test strips are great, but if you check out the UNC Street drug lab's website you will see that other more potent opiods are now showing up in the heroin supply. Things like nitazines are popping up now, and I image as the government cracks down on fentanyl precursors, that we will see more of it.
Cheminterested
2025-02-01 01:44:51 +0000 UTCSuperb pod Sir 🤝🏻
Drugs Nick
2025-01-24 11:17:36 +0000 UTCBro I'm a Mary Jane activist since day 1 and I've preached to local criminalized users about the gray area involved in search and seizure cases. Plain abuse of power and incorrect definition of probable cause. Countless variables sadly are not considered. Ignorance 😭. P.s. HM you never went anywhere buddy youve been numero uno since dia uno 💜
mason Jiles
2025-01-21 19:48:24 +0000 UTCI think one thing you guys didn't touch on, but is very important is that the American public is basically scientifically illiterate. Even if you're someone who understands how science works, spotting stuff like p-hacking (or studies asking the wrong kind of question) when it's outside your field can be difficult. And this means that even if we pretend everyone was acting in good faith, it's very easy to convince people with misinterpretations of real data.
Sam Thede
2025-01-18 19:17:04 +0000 UTCaffirmative hamilton, drop the pickard audio post-haste, and we love, love, love, your heart and soul brother❤️
tobes mclovin
2025-01-18 01:49:31 +0000 UTCThis is truly the golden age of this podcast. Absolutely amazing stuff
justin mozal
2025-01-17 21:32:16 +0000 UTCYes, thank you for reminding me!
Hamilton Morris
2025-01-17 16:34:04 +0000 UTCBrilliant work sir. Safeorscam was good but before that we had undrugged
Ari Givony
2025-01-17 13:37:21 +0000 UTCWoo
M
2025-01-17 11:56:18 +0000 UTCIf I was an attorney, I'd try to bring the drug-sniffing dog into the court room for cross examination and see if he could testify. In a drug-related prosecution, this would be the least absurd thing happening in the court room
Armchair Idiot
2025-01-17 10:58:51 +0000 UTCI'm actually finding a hard time sourcing it now that I'm looking. I thought it would be easy since I know you can buy albuterol powder from Chinese chemical vendors. People buy that for weight loss though so there is a demand for it, unlike fluticasone. I might try making an inquiry to a chinese chemical vendor and see if I get a response. American drugs are stupidly expensive, especially for something that needs to be taken daily, it really adds up. I'll let you know if I can find a vendor. Definitely be careful if you ever do this though. Fluticasone is dosed in the microgram range so make sure you've done your math right when diluting it.
Armchair Idiot
2025-01-17 10:30:17 +0000 UTCDamn that would save me an incredible amount of money and I hadn’t even thought how easy it would probably be. If you manage to find a trustworthy vendor I would very much appreciate a dm with the website or contact number.
Anthony
2025-01-17 09:35:05 +0000 UTCHey! Adding to the evidence base here. As part of my PhD, I conducted a systematic review, and one of the interventions we examined was policing/drug detection dogs. As mentioned in this episode, the evidence shows they often make things even more risky. For those interested, here’s the link! https://harmreductionjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12954-024-00949-4
Christopher Eassey
2025-01-17 08:00:22 +0000 UTCThere might be one in the US, if there is let me know, but I would send it to kykeon. I very much doubt one in the US would be as cheap.
Hamilton Morris
2025-01-17 07:15:45 +0000 UTCHamilton would you say that perfectionism is problematic for you as well?
Samantha Firoze Sethna
2025-01-17 07:14:30 +0000 UTCI've been planning on buying some bulk fluticasone powder from China to make my own homemade Flonase. Is there a good (hopefully cheap) drug testing facility like this in the US or should I just send it to Kykeon?
Armchair Idiot
2025-01-17 06:49:30 +0000 UTC
