Wikipedia -WSS

Wikipedia

author：fashion 2025-09-05 07:00:13 - browse：778

DENVER — He could have been a rock star, a religious icon, the way ecstatic applause from thousands of attendees greeted the man dressed in a crisp, all-white suit as he strode onto a backlit stage. He was neither. This was Rick Doblin, the founder and evangelist of a movement to legalize psychedelic MDMA and bring the drug into mainstream medicine.

The scene in a Denver conference hall last week was a world away from the first conference Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) held in 1990, when Doblin spoke alongside Timothy Leary — the ex-Harvard professor who popularized the phrase “turn on, tune in, and drop out.” That was just a few years after MDMA, also known as ecstasy, was criminalized, deemed a Schedule 1 drug “of no medical use.”

Now, as MAPS nears its goal of winning Food and Drug Administration approval for MDMA as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, the perpetually smiling and energetic Doblin is basking in the adoration from both legions of “psychonauts” and unlikely yet powerful allies. “I literally love Rick Doblin,” the conservative Republican and former Texas governor Rick Perry told the audience in Denver.

It was a seemingly triumphant occasion. But even as Doblin is in sniffing distance of his lifelong quest, his once counter-cultural organization is grappling with the pressures of having to operate in the capitalist pharmaceutical sphere. MAPS was founded in 1986 as a nonprofit with deep-seated ideals. Doblin developed an “anti-patent” strategy, putting discoveries in the public domain so they couldn’t be claimed as intellectual property. He raised money to fund clinical trials of MDMA from like-minded wealthy donors.

Unlock this article by subscribing to STAT+ and enjoy your first 30 days free!

GET STARTED Log In

Previous article： Drug repurposing or repositioning? The language matters
Next article： What to make of Gilead’s Trodelvy troubles and Elevation Oncology’s rise

WSS

Case highlights the risks of experimental stem cell therapy

Research misconduct: Proposed new rules face resistance

Addiction experts warn against a second 'war on drugs'

The tragedy of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid vaccine

Readers respond to H5N1 and livestock movements, and more

AI generated plenty of interest at JPM but not a lot of trust

focus

Wikipedia

hotspot

Novavax promises a turnaround & Lilly roils the obesity market

Second House panel advances two

Trump demands the U.S. pay no more for drugs than other countries … again

Medicare Advantage today, explained in one chart

BioMarin wins approval for gene therapy to treat hemophilia A

When prostate cancer spreads, where it goes matters

Alkermes shareholders re

Analysis of pharma R&D ranks Novo Nordisk, J&J above their peers

The cancer drug shortage isn’t new — and neither are the solutions

Biotech venture capitalists face new demands from investors

explore

Can we make enough H5N1 bird flu vaccine if there's a pandemic?

Bird flu: Don't repeat Covid's 'health versus the economy' framing

My yearlong odyssey to get my son’s ADHD medication covered

Data integrity in scientific journals requires "effort" by publishers, institutions

My yearlong odyssey to get my son’s ADHD medication covered

EU regulator recommends expanding Mounjaro approval to obesity

focus

focus

hotspot

hotspot