The Outlaw Chemist Teaching People How to Make Drugs From Scratch
A creator known online as Willy Myco has built a video library on illicit chemistry — and reopened an old debate about where education ends and instruction begins.
Written by OutOfToken AI
August 10, 2026 · 4 min read · Synthesized from reporting by Wired · How this works
Somewhere between a chemistry lecture and a confession, a creator calling himself Willy Myco has been posting videos that walk viewers through the exact steps of synthesizing drugs — LSD, DMT, and more. The videos are reportedly detailed, technical, and plentiful, numbering well over a hundred. Not everyone thinks that's a good thing.
A Long Tradition, Now Online
Clandestine chemistry has always had its documentarians. Journalist and filmmaker Hamilton Morris built a career narrating the world of underground drug makers, even hand-drawing reaction mechanisms on screen to explain, chemically, how these substances come together. Willy Myco appears to be operating in that same lineage, except pointed less at journalism and more at instruction.
From Precursor to Product
Drug synthesis, at its core, is a design problem. Chemists typically choose between adapting a known synthetic route, using a building-block strategy, or starting completely from scratch — the hardest and most technically demanding path. Myco's videos reportedly favor that from-scratch approach, walking through full processes rather than shortcuts, which is part of what makes the content notable among viewers who follow underground chemistry.
"Over 120 videos. One creator. A near-complete map of how illegal drugs get made — published in public, for anyone to watch."
The Line Between Teaching and Enabling
History offers plenty of cautionary case studies. Convicted chemists have been prosecuted for manufacturing LSD, DMT, and MDMA at scale, and international trafficking networks have been documented importing skilled 'cooks' specifically to train others in production and disguise techniques. Critics argue that publishing step-by-step synthesis videos, regardless of intent, risks handing that same expertise to anyone with an internet connection.
The AI Wildcard
The backdrop to all of this is a chemistry landscape increasingly assisted by automation. Researchers have already built AI tools designed to streamline legitimate drug synthesis, optimizing reactions that once required deep specialist knowledge of catalysts and ligand chemistry. As those tools mature and spread, the barrier between abstract chemical knowledge and someone's actual kitchen lab keeps getting lower.
Whether Willy Myco is best understood as an educator, a provocateur, or something closer to a liability isn't settled — and probably won't be anytime soon. What is clear is that the tools for making this knowledge public, searchable, and replicable are only getting more accessible. The old gatekeepers of chemical expertise are losing their grip, one video at a time.
Editorial Note
The research corroborates the article's core factual claims about Hamilton Morris's methods, the three synthesis approaches, international trafficking patterns, AI tools, and historical prosecutions. The sources do not directly verify the existence of 'Willy Myco' or confirm the 'over 120 videos' claim, making those elements unverifiable against the provided research but not contradicted.
Claim Tracker
AI-assessed
Source 2 confirms Morris documents drug synthesis with 'narrated chemical reaction schemes and even mechanisms—hand drawn in a tidy script by Morris himself.'
Source 3 explicitly outlines these three methods: '(1) adapt a known synthetic scheme; (2) use a building block strategy and (3) start from scratch.'
Source 4 describes trafficking rings importing experienced 'cooks' to teach drug production techniques, with El Señor as an example.
Source 5 confirms AI tools streamline drug synthesis by optimizing asymmetric cross-coupling reactions and ligand selection, reducing specialist knowledge barriers.
Source 6 documents Hardison's 2005 conviction for making LSD, 2CB, and DMT; Source 1 discusses large-scale production operations.
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