PSYCHEDELIC RENAISSANCE

Researchers see hope for PTSD, other ills in LSD, other drugs On
Sunday, Nov. 7, an eclectic group of students, therapists, artists
and health care practitioners gathered at the Draft House in downtown
Boulder for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
(MAPS) fall gala.

The crowd of roughly 100 people listened as Rick Doblin, founder
of MAPS, discussed the potential of psychedelic drugs to treat
conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), drug
dependence, and anxiety and depression associated with chronic
disease and end-of-life issues.

"It's not that psychedelics are the only way," Doblin said. "They're
tools that speed things up and allow a person to make changes in a
supportive context that they haven't been able to make before. We're
hoping that we can acknowledge the risks and honestly discuss and
prove the benefits as well."

Since Doblin founded MAPS in 1986, the nonprofit has developed and
funded clinical trials with different psychedelics, such as MDMA,
ibogaine and LSD. They are currently focusing their efforts on MDMA
for its potential as a treatment for PTSD, especially among war veterans.

"The most senior psychiatrist in the army from the Department of
Defense called me to find out about MDMA for PTSD," Doblin said.
"Things do change over time. If you can at least engage in a dialogue,
people may start to listen."

According to Brian Wallace, director of field development, MAPS
functions mainly as a pharmaceutical development company in accordance
with the guidelines of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"Our relationship with the FDA is more like a collaboration than
anything else," Wallace said. "There's no resistance on their part;
they just want to see the science."

During the weekend, MAPS, based out of Santa Cruz, Calif., hosted
numerous events in an effort to educate and inform the public of their
mission. The events included a talk by Doblin at CU Boulder, the MAPS
Mile High Marijuana Summit in Denver, and an MDMA-Assisted
Psychotherapy Workshop in Boulder. MAPS also partnered with the
Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), an international network of
students working to end the war on drugs.

"There's a huge shift happening right now, and MAPS has a very special
niche in the greater drug policy reform movement," Wallace said. "We
like to say that we're in the midst of a psychedelic research
renaissance. There's more research going on currently with psychedelic
drugs than there has been in the past 40 years."

Doblin is hopeful that within the next 10 years, MDMA will be a legal
prescription drug for use by licensed medical practitioners and therapists.

"We're now in a place where our society is in some ways increasingly
desperate," he said. "Last year the government spent $5.5 billion on
disability payments to 275,000 veterans and it's growing every year.
That's an enormous financial and emotional burden. It's up to us to be
more compassionate and understanding of the concerns of people who are
resisting drug reform. We have to really reach out to them and to the
enormous reservoirs of fear that have been produced by the massive
drug war propaganda machine.

Momentum is building, and I think things are more ripe for change than
they've ever been."