Wikipedia -WSS

Wikipedia

author：Wikipedia 2025-08-23 05:01:18 - browse：4

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： Cancer drug shortages should be causing more outrage
Next article： Feds fine Medicare Advantage plans for overcharging members

WSS

Radiation, mainstay of cancer treatment, begins a fade

What AAP's gender

Bird flu reported in person exposed to presumably infected cattle

Departing Stanford president retracts two papers

Medicare Advantage 2025 payments will dip, Biden administration says

Drug companies' payments and gifts affect physicians' prescribing

explore

Wikipedia

focus

Affirmative action in medical school literally saved lives

AstraZeneca challenges Medicare drug negotiation program

Affirmative action in medical school literally saved lives

Pancreatic cancer is often deadly, but new discoveries are raising hope

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

How a symptom of dementia informs our understanding of creativity

Medical leaders decry Supreme Court decision on affirmative action

Young boy dies in trial for Pfizer Duchenne gene therapy

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

Multiple sclerosis has subtypes with different best treatments: study

Wikipedia

Australia’s approach to dialysis celebrates life

Study: Black kids more likely to die after surgery than white kids

Feds fine Medicare Advantage plans for overcharging members

Bird flu in dairy cattle: New measures to control spread to humans

Overprescribed: High cost isn't America's only drug problem

Scientists uncover potential path to treating deadly childhood tumor

hotspot

hotspot

knowledge

entertainment