entertainment -WSS

entertainment

author：entertainment 2025-09-30 21:08:01 - browse：28233

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： Getting Alzheimer's drug Leqembi to patients can be a challenge

Wikipedia

WSS

Advances in CAR

Element Biosciences CEO lays out genome sequencing strategy

Why does health care cost so much? A reading guide

ALS advocates say criticism of new drugs misses bigger picture

More tobacco lobbyists active in statehouses

ALS advocates say criticism of new drugs misses bigger picture

hotspot

entertainment

entertainment

Supreme Court strikes down use of affirmative action

Orangutan used medicinal plant to treat wound, first time ever seen

Peter Hotez and the public health issue of online harassment

How generative AI is inspiring dreams of a health data revolution

Novavax promises a turnaround & Lilly roils the obesity market

Ethical issues complicate the benefits of medical crowdfunding

The high cost of giving birth even with insurance

Bird flu in milk supply is likely coming from asymptomatic cows

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

Bird flu outbreak in cows is latest avian flu curveball

hotspot

Medical bills so high, Medicare adding extra digits to claim forms

H5N1 bird flu found in pasteurized milk: what we know

Bird flu outbreak in cows is latest avian flu curveball

Close Medicare's dangerous gaps in addiction treatment coverage

Cell therapy fails to slow type 1 diabetes, but safety is established

Orangutan used medicinal plant to treat wound, first time ever seen

Wikipedia

Wikipedia

Wikipedia

focus