The Hive (website)

Last updated

The Hive was a website that served as an information-sharing forum for individuals and groups interested in the practical synthesis, chemistry, biology, politics, and legal aspects of mind or body-altering drugs. Participants ranged from pure theorists to self-declared organized crime chemists as well as forensic chemists, who used the Hive to keep abreast of developments in clandestine chemistry. [1] At its peak, the Hive had thousands of participants from all over the world.[ citation needed ]

Contents

History

Although it had been in operation since 1997, The Hive gained broader awareness in 2001 when a Dateline NBC special The "X" Files aired. This investigation into the use and production of MDMA featured the Hive and its founder, who operated under the pseudonym 'Strike' (Hobart Huson). Strike was the founder and site designer of the Hive as well as the author of several popular books (Total Synthesis I and II, and Sources) instructing readers how to synthesize a variety of amphetamines (specifically MDMA), obtain equipment and chemicals, and avoid prosecution. He remained anonymous until Dateline's investigation and interviews revealed that Hobart Huson (owner of the Strike-recommended laboratory supplier "Science Alliance") was the man behind Strike. The NBC program showed Huson/Strike at his office/chemical warehouse, complete with a stuffed bee sitting by his computer. The program led to Huson's arrest and imprisonment, but also spurred the site's growth. A person by the username 'Rhodium' and a small group of dedicated individuals actually ran the Hive and its sister site Rhodium.ws for most of the sites' lifespans.

While The Hive was a public forum for asking questions and exchanging information, Rhodium.ws hosted a collection of drug synthesis information in more condensed and organized form, much of it derived from messages posted on the Hive. It also had a large collection of articles from academic journals, plus considerable general-purpose information on practical chemistry. Rhodium's site was also taken offline shortly after the Hive. Most of the archive is hosted by Erowid. Scattered across the net is more than 1.73 gigabytes of files that were once part of Rhodium's archive.[ citation needed ]

The Hive was closed in 2004 due to hosting issues. In 2015 the site was made accessible again as a complete archive at Erowid, but the forum pages however are now broken as of late 2016. The Hive now has a successor, "Thevespiary", which hosts a multitude of drug-related articles, synthesis guides, and drug-related news as well as pharmaceutical information.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MDMA</span> Psychoactive drug, often called ecstasy

3,4-Methyl​enedioxy​methamphetamine (MDMA), commonly known as ecstasy, and molly or mandy, is a potent empathogen–entactogen with stimulant and minor psychedelic properties primarily used for recreational purposes. The purported pharmacological effects that may be prosocial include altered sensations, increased energy, empathy, and pleasure. When taken by mouth, effects begin in 30 to 45 minutes and last three to six hours.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ryōji Noyori</span> Japanese chemist

Ryōji Noyori is a Japanese chemist. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2001, Noyori shared a half of the prize with William S. Knowles for the study of chirally catalyzed hydrogenations; the second half of the prize went to K. Barry Sharpless for his study in chirally catalyzed oxidation reactions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Shulgin</span> American medicinal chemist (1925–2014)

Alexander Theodore "Sasha" Shulgin was an American medicinal chemist, biochemist, organic chemist, pharmacologist, psychopharmacologist, and author. He is credited with introducing 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine to psychologists in the late 1970s for psychopharmaceutical use and for the discovery, synthesis and personal bioassay of over 230 psychoactive compounds for their psychedelic and entactogenic potential.

In chemistry, chemical synthesis is the artificial execution of chemical reactions to obtain one or several products. This occurs by physical and chemical manipulations usually involving one or more reactions. In modern laboratory uses, the process is reproducible and reliable.

<i>PiHKAL</i> 1991 book by Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin

PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story is a book by Dr. Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin, published in 1991. The subject of the work is psychoactive phenethylamine chemical derivatives, notably those that act as psychedelics and/or empathogen-entactogens. The main title, PiHKAL, is an acronym that stands for "Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Safrole</span> Chemical compound

Safrole is an organic compound with the formula CH2O2C6H3CH2CH=CH2. It is a colorless oily liquid, although impure samples can appear yellow. A member of the phenylpropanoid family of natural products, it is found in sassafras plants, among others. Small amounts are found in a wide variety of plants, where it functions as a natural antifeedant. Ocotea pretiosa, which grows in Brazil, and Sassafras albidum, which grows in eastern North America, are the main natural sources of safrole. It has a characteristic "sweet-shop" aroma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2C-B</span> Chemical compound

2C-B (4-Bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine) is a synthetic psychedelic drug of the 2C family, commonly used as a recreational drug. Initially synthesized by Alexander Shulgin in 1974, to date, the substance has limited scientific information regarding its pharmacological effects and pharmacokinetics on humans. The existing studies primarily classify 2C-B as a stimulant, and hallucinogen, and less commonly as an entactogen, and empathogen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2C-E</span> Chemical compound

2C-E is a psychedelic phenethylamine of the 2C family. It was first synthesized by Alexander Shulgin and documented in his book PiHKAL. Like the other substances in its family, it produces sensory and cognitive effects in its physical reactions with living organisms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erowid</span> Non-profit educational organization

Erowid, also called Erowid Center, is a non-profit educational organization that provides information about psychoactive plants and chemicals.

Clandestine chemistry is chemistry carried out in secret, and particularly in illegal drug laboratories. Larger labs are usually run by gangs or organized crime intending to produce for distribution on the black market. Smaller labs can be run by individual chemists working clandestinely in order to synthesize smaller amounts of controlled substances or simply out of a hobbyist interest in chemistry, often because of the difficulty in ascertaining the purity of other, illegally synthesized drugs obtained on the black market. The term clandestine lab is generally used in any situation involving the production of illicit compounds, regardless of whether the facilities being used qualify as a true laboratory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">3,4-Methylenedioxyamphetamine</span> Empathogen-entactogen, psychostimulant, and psychedelic drug of the amphetamine family

3,4-Methylenedioxyamphetamine is an empathogen-entactogen, psychostimulant, and psychedelic drug of the amphetamine family that is encountered mainly as a recreational drug. In its pharmacology, MDA is a serotonin–norepinephrine–dopamine releasing agent (SNDRA). In most countries, the drug is a controlled substance and its possession and sale are illegal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muscimol</span> Chemical compound

Muscimol is one of the principal psychoactive constituents of Amanita muscaria and related species of mushroom. Muscimol is a potent and selective orthosteric agonist for the GABAA receptors and displays sedative-hypnotic, depressant and hallucinogenic psychoactivity. This colorless or white solid is classified as an isoxazole.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David E. Nichols</span> American pharmacologist and medicinal chemist (born 1944)

David Earl Nichols is an American pharmacologist and medicinal chemist. Previously the Robert C. and Charlotte P. Anderson Distinguished Chair in Pharmacology at Purdue University, Nichols has worked in the field of psychoactive drugs since 1969. While still a graduate student, he patented the method that is used to make the optical isomers of hallucinogenic amphetamines. His contributions include the synthesis and reporting of escaline, LSZ, 6-APB, 2C-I-NBOMe and other NBOMe variants, and several others, as well as the coining of the term "entactogen".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Shulgin</span> American author (1931–2022)

Laura Ann Shulgin was an American author and the wife of chemist Alexander Shulgin, with whom she wrote PiHKAL and TiHKAL.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phenylacetone</span> Chemical compound

Phenylacetone, also known as phenyl-2-propanone, is an organic compound with the chemical formula C6H5CH2COCH3. It is a colorless oil that is soluble in organic solvents. It is a mono-substituted benzene derivative, consisting of an acetone attached to a phenyl group. As such, its systematic IUPAC name is 1-phenyl-2-propanone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2C-B-FLY</span> Psychedelic designer drug

2C-B-FLY is a psychedelic phenethylamine and designer drug of the 2C family. It was first synthesized in 1996 by Aaron Monte, Professor of Chemistry at UW-La Crosse.

Hobart Huson, also known as Strike, is the founder and site designer of online forum The Hive and author of several popular books such as Total Synthesis I and II, and Sources, in which he details methods of synthesizing a variety of amphetamines, obtaining equipment and chemicals, and avoiding prosecution for said activity. From his books, it is clear that MDMA was the drug he found to be most compelling : in the book, he describes it as "the most benign drug [I have] ever encountered."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phenyl-2-nitropropene</span> Chemical compound

1-Phenyl-2-nitropropene, or simply phenyl-2-nitropropene, or P2NP, as it is commonly referred to, is a chemical compound from the aromatic group of compounds, with the formula C9H9NO2. It is a light-yellow crystalline solid with a distinct smell. Phenyl-2-nitropropene is used in the pharmaceutical industry to manufacture the drug Adderall, an amphetamine mixture used to treat ADHD and narcolepsy. P2NP and other similar nitrostyrenes are also employed in the clandestine manufacture of drugs of the amphetamine class, and are listed as drug precursors in many countries.

ChemSpider is a freely accessible online database of chemicals owned by the Royal Society of Chemistry. It contains information on more than 100 million molecules from over 270 data sources, each of them receiving a unique identifier called ChemSpider Identifier.

Substituted amphetamines are a class of compounds based upon the amphetamine structure; it includes all derivative compounds which are formed by replacing, or substituting, one or more hydrogen atoms in the amphetamine core structure with substituents. The compounds in this class span a variety of pharmacological subclasses, including stimulants, empathogens, and hallucinogens, among others. Examples of substituted amphetamines are amphetamine (itself), methamphetamine, ephedrine, cathinone, phentermine, mephentermine, tranylcypromine, bupropion, methoxyphenamine, selegiline, amfepramone (diethylpropion), pyrovalerone, MDMA (ecstasy), and DOM (STP).

References

  1. ↑ Power, Mike (2 May 2013). Drugs 2.0: The Web Revolution That's Changing How the World Gets High. Portobello Books Ltd. ISBN   9781846274596.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.