entertainment -WSS

entertainment

author：Wikipedia 2025-09-30 18:00:11 - browse：85922

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： Moonlake's readout produced a cash windfall. Risks remain
Next article： What causes an itch? Researchers may have solved the mystery

WSS

Listen: Biogen's potential pivot, & Illumina's next chapter

What American doctors can learn from their Israeli counterparts

A new House health package & hospitals’ new site

Trump surgeon general acknowledges mistakes during Covid

Pharma patents targeted by Biden in move to slash drug prices

Teach medical students about patients with intellectual disabilities

entertainment

entertainment

knowledge

Medicare details structure of new drug price negotiation program

CMS should re

How one medical school became remarkably diverse

FDA needs staff influx to meet gene therapy needs, Marks says

Medical records are filled with copy

AbbVie buys Immunogen, maker of targeted cancer drugs, for $10B

Indiana Supreme Court upholds abortion ban, says state constitution gives only limited protections

What American doctors can learn from their Israeli counterparts

Duchenne breakthrough therapy leaves behind pioneering families

SCOTUS to consider access to abortion pill mifepristone

focus

'Make People Better': The CRISPR babies story you probably don't know

How to protect patients from sexual assault

STAT Health News: mRNA flu shots, Purdue SCOTUS case, etc

After sickle

House transparency, PBM reform bill gains bipartisan support

What causes an itch? Researchers may have solved the mystery

focus

focus

leisure time

focus