WHAT ARE YOU ON | David Hillier
@whatareyou0n.bsky.social
A newsletter about drug culture and our dopamine-drenched brains. SUBSCRIBE ⬇ https://whatareyouon.substack.com/
"It's fucking shit." One Telegram vendors opinion in the current state of the UK cocaine market, which is undergoing a huge under-the-radar shortage. Teamed up with @ellajglover.bsky.social to find out what's going on and why no-one knows about it. whatareyouon.substack.com/p/inside-the...
Inside the Great 2026 Cocaine Drought
Purity is down and prices are up. Where has all the coke gone?
whatareyouon.substack.com
There's been a summer coke shortage and no-one seems to know why – or even that it's happening. But prices are up and purity is down. We tried to figure it out. whatareyouon.substack.com/p/inside-the...
Inside the Great 2026 Cocaine Drought
Purity is down and prices are up. Where has all the coke gone?
whatareyouon.substack.com
"If you look over the scale of human history, the idea of criminalising and prohibiting drugs is itself a very strange experiment. Prohibition itself is the experiment. " Have a read of our interview with the fantastic @kojokoram.bsky.social on WHAT ARE YOU ON substack.com/home/post/p-...
PROHIBITION IS THE EXPERIMENT
Kojo Koram on fixing the drug war's fetid wound
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Do something nice for someone today. Leave them alone. Life is hard enough without your bullshit.
Saw this about a UK coke drought on a vendor's menu last week. Prices have also gone up. Had it speculated because of Euro seizures, tho can't spk to the veracity of this. Anyway, we're going on holiday and don't want to ruin it by chasing dealers around but could be a story for the right hack >>
"Am I really someone who can take it or leave it?" .@ellajglover.bsky.social gives her sobriety experiment its sternest test – a 5 day festival on Portuguese astral plains. whatareyouon.substack.com/p/am-i-reall...
Am I really someone who can Take It or Leave It?
On skanking sober at 7am
whatareyouon.substack.com
Increasingly convinced that you can judge the quality of a Telegram vendor’s product by the drollness of their copy.
Big recco for this series by @emilydufton.bsky.social that questions the received notions of Nixon’s original War on Drugs – in particular, the cult of legitimacy surrounding Dan Baum’s infamous quote from John Erlichman (iykyk) that has shaped conceptions about the WOD substack.com/home/post/p-...
GUEST POST: Dan Baum Should Have Known Better
Emily Dufton on Reddit, John Ehrlichman, and Nixon’s real war on drugs
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"I was a very lucky fucker." Altered State author Matthew Collin interviewed about being in the right place at the right time for the acid house explosion, the misguided mythos of 90s nostalgia and ecstasy's longest UK legacy. whatareyouon.substack.com/p/what-is-th...
What is the meaning of Rave?
Altered State author Matthew Collin on MDMA, 90s myth-making + the legacy of long nights under the lasers
whatareyouon.substack.com
Delighted to be asked onto the @drugscience.bsky.social podcast to talk cocaine, alcohol and their chemical lovechild, cocaethylene. Discussed some of my motivations for writing about dr*gs too + growing up in the indie sleaze era of no information www.drugscience.org.uk/podcast
“Whatever that drug is, when you mix cocaine and alcohol, that’s my drug.’” Teamed up with @drugscience.bsky.social for a deep-dive into cocaethylene: the under-researched chemical formed when booze and coke collide. whatareyouon.substack.com/p/high-on-co...
High on Cocaethylene
The secret drug created when coke and booze collide
whatareyouon.substack.com
Wrote a short-ish piece about nitrous oxide breathalysers and the primordial dumbness of driving while doing NOS. whatareyouon.substack.com/p/go-fast-or...
GO FAST OR GO HOME
A police trial hopes to stop one of drug culture's dumbest trends – doing balloons behind the wheel.
whatareyouon.substack.com
How did a 31k-population city deep in Canada’a Yukon territory and Middlesbrough come top of the EUDA drugs wastewater charts for cocaine? @ellajglover.bsky.social and I tried to find out. (With thanks to @profianhamilton.bsky.social for the quotes.) whatareyouon.substack.com/p/the-worlds...
The World's Unexpected Coke Capitals
How two small cities topped the global cocaine charts
whatareyouon.substack.com
Our piece about the new slew of F2F dealer sourcing groups and bots has been republished by Talking Drugs. Anecdotally, these are ubiquitous amongst what you might call 'recreational plus' users, yet unknown to two drug service workers i spoke with www.talkingdrugs.org/social-media...
Social Media Drug Groups Are Changing the Dealing Game - TalkingDrugs
Social media drug groups are getting faster, more automated and leaner in connecting people with the goods they're looking for.
talkingdrugs.org
Anyone can now get a number for a local dealer, anywhere in the world. whatareyouon.substack.com/p/lost-in-th...
LOST IN THE SOURCE
Telegram and WhatsApp dealer groups are changing how we buy drugs
whatareyouon.substack.com
There are now loads of global dial-a-dealer Telegram and WhatsApp groups, where you can land in a city and pick up before you've even reached your AirBnB. I wrote about my experiences – and conflicted thoughts on this democratisation of drugs access whatareyouon.substack.com/p/lost-in-th...
LOST IN THE SOURCE
The rise of dial-a-dealer groups
whatareyouon.substack.com
With 4/20 coming up I wrote a short elegy for my teenage stoner days, a couple of decades before anyone had heard of Stardawg. whatareyouon.substack.com/p/bongs-bric...
Bongs, Brickdust and Boredom
Smoking weed in the 90s
whatareyouon.substack.com
Proud to announce that @theloopuk.bsky.social has started 2 regular drug checking services in London, with a 3rd opening soon! Free, non judgmental #harmreduction advice from dedicated professionals. Read @whatareyou0n.bsky.social’s article here:- whatareyouon.substack.com/p/inside-the...
Inside the Loop's London Launch
An A–K of the capital’s new drug checking service
whatareyouon.substack.com
You can now get your drugs checked in LDN. We took a proper look at @theloopuk.bsky.social new services, with CEO Katy Porter. If you’re thinking of heading down (or curious how they made it happen) have a read. Next service is this Saturday in Camden. whatareyouon.substack.com/p/inside-the...
Inside the Loop's London Launch
An A–K of the capital’s new drug-checking service
whatareyouon.substack.com
A new edition of THE BUMP – our round-up of news and distorted views from the drug mediasphere – is out. Featuring psychedelics, weed, the chattering classes, and an old banger on bananas and coke from @maxdaly.bsky.social whatareyouon.substack.com/p/the-bump-3...
THE BUMP #3: Weed War III
It's all (sort of) kicking off...
whatareyouon.substack.com
"Running for the shelter of her mother's little helper" From Victorian morphine tonics to 1950s benzos and barbies to millennial wine-o’clock, @ellajglover.bsky.social tells the history of drugs aimed at the “mum market”. 🙏 to @dhbuffalo.bsky.social for the smarts. substack.com/home/post/p-...
a Brief History of Mother’s Little Helpers
"Mums, like most humans, do use drugs"
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Just published this by everyone's pal, Andre Gomes from TalkingDrugs. It looks at Europe ascent to Peak Coke, and the futility of using law enforcement to come down the other side W/insights from @steverolles.bsky.social and @joshtorrance.bsky.social whatareyouon.substack.com/p/europes-pe...
EUROPE'S PEAK COKE ERA
How we built a cocaine mountain
whatareyouon.substack.com
I gave up ultra-processed foods for a month to see if it made me happier and healthier. (Not convinced it did either, though I haven't drunk a Coke Zero this year.) substack.com/home/post/p-...
My Year of Giving Up: UPFs
A month without ultra-processed food
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Fascinating piece by @whatareyou0n.bsky.social on fear, fun, (lack of) alcohol & generational change in nightlife, with brief comment from my students. open.substack.com/pub/whatarey...
should Young People drink more?
Fear in the age of abstinence
open.substack.com
Should young people be drinking more? Scott Galloway thinks so, booze providing a route to the connectivity current generations supposedly lack. I dug into it w/experts like @melissaoldham.bsky.social @fmeasham.bsky.social and @michaelkill.bsky.social whatareyouon.substack.com/p/should-you...
should Young People drink more?
Fear in the age of abstinence
whatareyouon.substack.com
Can psychedelics help you lock-in during your workout? @ellajglover.bsky.social investigates this new fitness trend, then gives it a go in her local gym. whatareyouon.substack.com/p/locked-in-...
Locked-in and Loaded
Can psychedelics help you lift?
whatareyouon.substack.com
Withdrawal? Crime? Other drug use? A comprehensive review of minimum unit pricing found these fears don’t materialise – while health benefits do. In our latest blog, Dr James Clay of @uviccisur.bsky.social explains. www.ias.org.uk/2025/12/18/m...
Minimum unit pricing works – and it works for the people who need it most - Institute of Alcohol Studies
Real-world evidence from multiple countries shows that minimum unit pricing works: it cuts the purchase of high-strength cheap alcohol, improves health outcomes, and benefits those facing the highest ...
ias.org.uk
New referrals to treatment for ice (crystal meth) have doubled in 5 years. Is this drug – perennially niche in the UK but made famous by Breaking Bad – coming out of hibernation? New post on WHAT ARE YOU ON 👇 whatareyouon.substack.com/p/ice-in-the...
