“Seeing what it was like when it was legal and experiencing that, and experiencing situations where people would take it, the kind of experiences and healings, and learnings that people would have, was amazing.” And it was the party drug nature of it that really got it criminalized.” “What a lot of people don’t know is that MDMA was a therapy drug before it was a party drug. Rick’s predictions for psychedelic medicine in the years to come How FDA approval of MDMA will lead to an international cascade of approval and rescheduling The results of the first phase three studies of MDMA for PTSD The politics of concerns about MDMA neurotoxicity and how this impacted MAPS’ early approach MAPS’ “two-pronged” strategy for mass mental healthĮarly efforts to get an MDMA therapy protocol approved by the FDA following prohibition Rick’s first experiences with MDMA and early experiments with MDMA therapy The history of the MDMA’s synthesis and legality Rick closes out this discussion by emphasizing the need for mass mental health in our day and age, and sharing MAPS’ lofty goals of training thousands of therapists to hopefully bring psychedelic therapy to millions of patients in the coming decades. ![]() This development will have broad global impacts, spurring other countries to promptly follow suit. These studies show high statistical significance and an amazing effect size resulting from MDMA-assisted therapy, with results being mirrored at all research locations and showing durability over time.īecause of this amazing progress, Rick believes we are at the final stretch prior to full FDA approval for MDMA use in a therapeutic context for PTSD, and subsequent rescheduling of the substance by the DEA, which he believes will take place in mid to late 2023. Rick shares the progression of these studies, highlighting the results from the most recent phase three investigations which are the last step prior to FDA approval for the therapeutic protocol. Since that time, MAPS has gone on to do incredibly impactful work in developing studies researching the safety and efficacy of MDMA-assisted therapy, specifically for post-traumatic stress disorder. Following this experience, however, he became convinced of its therapeutic potential and he shares some of his own early experiences of using MDMA to help people heal, including a very touching tale of his own grandmother’s struggle with depression.įrom here, Rick discusses the founding of MAPS and his decision to pursue education in policy in order to better understand strategies for furthering MDMA-therapy even while living under prohibition. ![]() Rick recalls his own initial experiences with the empathogenic compound, stating that he was initially skeptical of its value, prior to gaining first-hand experience. It was during this period of legality that therapeutic uses of MDMA were first developed and it was only later that the drug became repurposed as a recreational substance to be used in social settings, which consequently led to its emergency scheduling by the DEA. ![]() The compound was originally synthesized by famed chemist Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin and, unlike the classic serotonergic psychedelics, it was not scheduled under the Controlled Substances Act in the early 70s. Rick begins this wide-ranging conversation discussing the early days of MDMA. Through MAPS, Rick aspires to develop legal contexts for beneficial uses of psychedelics and marijuana as prescription medicines, but also for self-development and personal growth in otherwise healthy individuals. ![]() He received his doctorate in public policy from Harvard and has also studied under the father of transpersonal psychology Stanislav Grof. Rick Doblin is the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. In this episode of the Psychedelic Medicine Podcast (formerly the Plant Medicine Podcast), Rick Doblin joins to discuss the past, present, and future of MDMA-assisted therapy.
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