entertainment -WSS

entertainment

author：knowledge 2025-08-12 11:30:09 - browse：55

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： In age of alternative facts, a scholarly course on calling out crap
Next article： The new HIV moral panic

focus

WSS

Beam Therapeutics to lay off 20% of its staff, re

FDA warns J&J's Abiomed: We will regulate your software

Argenx drug significantly slows progression of nerve disorder

STAT Summit: Michael J. Fox on progress in Parkinson's research

Hospital price transparency does save money, advocate argues

FDA warns J&J's Abiomed: We will regulate your software

entertainment

entertainment

hotspot

Over 800 arrested across France in 3rd night of riots after fatal police shooting of teen

2023 STAT Wunderkinds: get to know the winners

At least 13 dead in Texas as scorching temps continue

STAT Summit: How a Chicago ER doctor tackles gun violence

George Santos makes 1st court appearance after pleading not guilty to 13 counts

The EU Joint Clinical Assessment needs to live up to its promise

Wildfire smoke exposes gaps in outdoor worker protections

The new HIV moral panic

Anesthesiologist group: stop taking Ozempic before surgery

HHS leader on health, climate change and biopharma emissions

focus

Solve the antibiotic resistance crisis with preventive drugs

CEOs share strategies for surviving biotech slump

4 killed in mass shooting in Georgia, shooter remains on the loose: Police

Eli Lilly to acquire Versanis in heated race for weight loss drugs

STAT Readout Newsletter: Today's biggest biotech updates

Medicare eyes cuts to doctors, raises to outpatient clinics in 2024

focus

knowledge

focus

hotspot