fashion -WSS

fashion

author：explore 2025-10-03 00:39:28 - browse：1

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： Food as medicine: CMS rules hamper 'prescribing' of fruits, veggies
Next article： Covid silver lining: Unprecedented look at human immune system

WSS

Use wet bulb globe temperature, not heat index, to protect workers

Hundreds died while taking an arthritis drug, but nobody alerted patients

Readout Newsletter: Sanofi, Novavax, Maze x Shionogi news

Telehealth startups turn to complex chronic diseases

U.K. decision on ALS drug has neurologists, advocates up in arms

Florida Supreme Court upholds state's abortion ban

focus

fashion

knowledge

BioMarin wins approval for gene therapy to treat hemophilia A

Researchers test human milk's ability to repair gut microbiome

In Memoriam: Notable people who died in 2023

Making AI in medicine accessible to smaller, and rural hospitals

Virginia high school admissions case could be legal follow

U.K. decision on ALS drug has neurologists, advocates up in arms

Malaria cases in Florida and Texas: Here’s what you need to know

Use wet bulb globe temperature, not heat index, to protect workers

How one medical school became remarkably diverse

Scientific mystery highlights the blind spots in genomics databases

focus

Brain worms: The science behind RFK Jr.'s parasitic infection

Brain worms: The science behind RFK Jr.'s parasitic infection

U.K. decision on ALS drug has neurologists, advocates up in arms

Multiple sclerosis has subtypes with different best treatments: study

Medicare says breakthrough device reimbursement rule to come by summer

Oral obesity drug from Viking Therapeutics hits key early target

explore

hotspot

focus

knowledge