Hamlin’s PCP Jail Shock

Harry Hamlin is opening up about a harrowing moment from his past — one that began as a simple college favor and ended with a drug he never intended to try.

On a recent episode of his and wife Lisa Rinna’s podcast, Let’s Not Talk About the Husband, the actor revisited the chain of events that landed him behind bars in the early ’70s. What started as transporting a stash of pills and a small amount of marijuana for a fraternity brother eventually spiraled into an 18-day county jail sentence served on weekends.

Hamlin explained that he had flown home to Los Angeles for Thanksgiving with the drugs tucked inside his guitar case, unaware that the pills were speed. When the intended recipients rejected the delivery, he simply carried them back north — a decision he now recognizes as ill-fated.

Once arrested, a courtroom mix-up turned what had been a minor plea deal into actual jail time. And despite assurances from the warden that he would be “OK,” Hamlin soon found himself housed in a felony cell. There, the atmosphere was far stranger than he expected: inmates openly passed around a joint that gave off no smell at all.

The next morning, one inmate insisted he take a hit. Hamlin refused repeatedly — until the pressure became impossible to escape. The joint, he later learned, was laced with PCP.
“I was so stoned because the guy forced me to take three or four hits of it and I was completely messed up after I had that,” Hamlin recalled.

The unsettling experience, born from a college errand gone wrong, has remained with him for more than five decades.