March 10, 2010. USA Today. "Nation's sole marijuana farm focuses on limiting abuse." By Chris Joyner.

This article is about marijuana research being conducted at the University of Mississippi. The report quotes the main researcher as saying that marijuana may see use in treating Parkison's and cancer. The article is significant in that it brings to light the fact that the only federally mandated marijuana farm is under the control of the National Institute on Drug Abuse whose primary goal is to support Drug War polices rather than investigating medical uses for drugs.

March 5, 2010. Huffington Post. "Questions Coming Back to Life." by Craig K. Comstock.

This article discusses the reintegration of psychedelics into the mainstream culture, and mentions MAPS' research with veterans of war and PTSD. The author calls MAPS executive director Rick Doblin "persistent and ingenious."

February 22, 2010. Los Angeles Times. "Position on pot is a bit hazy." Editorial department.

When President Obama nominated Michele Leonhart to head the Drug Enforcement Administration last month, those hoping for a sensible federal policy regarding medical marijuana -- one that promotes scientific research into its medicinal value and eschews prosecution when it is used in accordance with local laws -- shivered.

February 19, 2010. MAPS. "Overview of amphetamine-type stimulant deaths in the UK - critical review and commentary." By Ilsa Jerome, Ph.D.

Despite news generated by a new study authored by Schifano and colleagues, ecstasy is not especially deadly in younger people.

February 18, 2010. The New York Times. "Howard Lotsof Dies at 66; Saw Drug Cure in a Plant" By Dennis Hevesi.

Howard Lotsof, discoverer and advocate of the anti-addicitve properties of ibogaine, is commemorated in this article.

February 12, 2010. Financial Times. "Charity pushes for LSD use in medicine" By Andrew Jack.

The Financial Times, a prominent business newspaper out of London, UK, published this report about the medical uses of LSD. The article chronicles psychedelic research science being advanced by The Beckley Foundation of the UK. Among LSD research mentioned are the one Swiss and two U.S. studies of psychedelic use as a medical application.

February 8, 2010. HerbalGram, The Journal of the American Botanical Council. "The State of Clinical Cannabis Research in the United States." By Lindsay Stafford.

This article comes from a peer-reviewed journal and with efficient detail describes the DEA's and NIDA's obstruction of medical marijuana research and the proposed MAPS-sponsored marijuana production facility at UMass Amherst. The author concludes that lengthy delays by the DEA "highlight the significance of the state-level medical marijuana movementWhile more people are able to obtain marijuana for treatment under some state laws, little research is being done to document the efficacy and safety of cannabis as a medicine."

February 5, 2010. High Times Magazine (online) "Psychedelic Science Conference to Be Held in California."

High Times Magazine, a popular marijuana and psychedelic periodical published this preview of the MAPS Psychedelic Science conference this April 15-18 in San Jose, California.

January 19, 2010. The New York Times. "Researchers Find Study of Medical Marijuana Discouraged". By Gardiner Harris.

Major national attention is being drawn to federal obstruction of medical marijuana research. The New York Times reported on the first page of the National section, about the DEA's refusal to license Professor Lyle Craker to operate a MAPS-sponsored marijuana production facility at UMass Amherst. Marijuana is the only Schedule I drug of which the federal government has a monopoly on the legal supply for research. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) determines who is granted marijuana. NIDA's mission does not include providing marijuana to researchers who seek to develop the plant form of marijuana into FDA-approved prescription medicines. In 2001, Craker submitted an application to the DEA to start a marijuana production facility sponsored by MAPS in order to grow marijuana for MAPS' medical marijuana drug development efforts. After years of inaction by the DEA, Craker filed a lawsuit against the DEA. On February 12, 2007, DEA Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Bittner presented a recommended ruling that it would be in the publics interest to end the NIDA monopoly on supply by licensing Craker. The DEA failed to respond for almost two years. Then, on January 14, 2009, the DEA rejected ALJ Bittner's recommendation. The DEA's final order has not gone into effect because we have a "Motion to Reconsider" pending before the DEA. However, the DEA is currently winning by delay. In turn, we have a pending appeal filed with the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals in order to launch a lawsuit should the DEA's final ruling actually go into effect. Our hope is that new leadership at the DEA will accept the original recommended ruling and reverse the DEAs pending Final Order. Unfortunately, President Obama has not yet appointed new leadership to replace the Bush-era leaders at the DEA.

January 13, 2010. Discover Magazine. "Treating Agony with Ecstasy." by David Jay Brown

This article gives information and statistics about a pilot study in South Carolina where MAPS-sponsored psychiatrist Michael Mithoefer is targeting PTSD with MDMA in victims of crime or war. The article points to the initial success of the study and mentions other MDMA/PTSD studies in the works at ohter research facilities.

January 8, 2010. The Psychedelic Press UK interviewed Dr. Rick Strassman, author of "DMT: The Spirit Molecule."

Dr. Strassman conducted medical research with the psychedelic substance DMT from 1990-1995; he was the first person in the United States after twenty years of prohibition to embark on human research with psychedelic, hallucinogenic, orentheogenic substances. Dr. Strassman discusses the process of writing "DMT: The Spirit Molecule" as well as future and ongoing psychedelic project.."

December 29, 2009. AlterNet. "10 Reasons the U.S. Military Should (Officially) Use Pot" By Penny Coleman.

This article discusses the sad state of affairs regarding medical marijuana and the US Veterans Association. Although marijuana may have a host of advantages over other treatments for traumatized vets the VA still won't study its efficacy.

December 23, 2009. Hplus Magazine. "Soul Medicine: Ecstasy (MDMA) as Therapy" by Oliver Hockenhull.

A beautifully written, brief history of MDMA.

December 14, 2009. The Huffington Post. "President Obama: Free the Medical Marijuana Researchers!" By Doug Bandow

This editorial urges President Obama to instruct the DEA to license Professor Craker to be able to grow marijuana for research, among other suggestions for increases scientific investigations of medical marijuana.

November 24, 2009. Vancouver Courier. "Therapists tout ecstasy as treatment for stress disorder" by Cheryl Rossi.

This article discusses MAPS planned MDMA/PTSD study in Vancouver, British Columbia and mentions former Vancouver Mayor Philip Owens support of the research.

November 20, 2009. 

Join Together. "AMA Calls for More Research into Medical Use of Marijuana" By Bob Curley

The federal government should consider moving marijuana out of Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act in order to facilitate clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medications, the American Medical Association (AMA) said in a new policy statement. Rick Doblin, Ph.D., executive director of MAPS, said the AMA policy shift demonstrates that there is "clearly more interest in medical marijuana in the medical community than ever before." However, Doblin -- who has long contended that NIDA has worked to block medical-marijuana research through its gatekeeping role over supplies of marijuana for research -- said the policy will have "zero effect in getting NIDA out of the loop." Doblin said that a unique and open-ended Public Health Service (PHS) review process for medical-marijuana research, coupled with NIDA's monopoly on the drug supply, has prevented most basic research studies on smoked marijuana from getting off the ground.

Originally appeared at: www.jointogether.org/news/features/2009/ama-says-marijuana-has.html

November 16, 2009. Telegraph.co.uk. Can mind-altering drugs have mental health benefits? by Arran Frood.

This article opens with an account of two deaths and one person entering into a coma as the result of a group psychotherpay session that allegedly involved illegal drugs. The article quickly moves to a discussion of the ideas behind psychedelic research and names several prominent people conducting studies. The author briefly recounts two sessions he particpated in which he was invited to because he has written about the use of hallucinogenic drug research for many years for scientific media such as Nature and New Scientist.

November 4, 2009. Alternet. "Letting the Science, Not the Politicians, Decide about Marijuana." By Jag Davies.

This is an incredibly intelligent article about the hypocrisy of Drug War officials and their obstruction of medical marijuana research. Author Jag Davies is the publications manager for the Drug Policy Alliance and a former MAPS staff member.

October 24, 2009. The Guardian. "Scientists study possible health benefits of LSD and Ecstasy." By Denis Campbell.

This article originally appeared in print on page 9 of the UK news section.

October 10, 2009. The Guardian. "Face to faith." By Alexander Beiner.

This article discusses how the prohibition of psychedelics infringes on persons ability to choose how they experience the divine. MAPS is mentioned for spearheading the renaissance in psychedelic research.

October 2, 2009. Clinical Psychology Review. "Emerging treatments for PTSD." By Judith Cukor, Josh Spitalnick, JoAnn Difede, Albert Rizzo, and Barbara O. Rothbaum

This scientific, peer-reviewed paper has a section on MDMA. The authors quote an article from Rick Doblin, Ph.D. published in 2002 which was about MAPS' MDMA/PTSD Clinical Plan. They also quote Andy Parrott about MDMA's therapeutic potential, even though he has mostly written about the risks of MDMA.

October 1, 2009. Scientific American "LSD Returns--For Psychotherapeutics." By Gary Stix.

This article features commentary from MAPS-sponsored LSD researcher Peter Gasser, M.D.

  Psychology Today Brainstorm Blog. "Tripping at Horizons Psychedelic Conference." By Psychology Today Editors.

From September 25 to 27, about 350 people attended the third annual Horizons Conference, which took place at Judson Memorial Church in New York City. Experts from across North America and Europe gathered to discuss the ongoing renaissance in the exploration of psychedelic drugs. MAPS Deputy Director Valerie Mojeiko gave a thoughtful, personal and well-received presentation entitled, "Psychedelic Harm Reduction--Rethinking the 'Bad Trip'." Valeries talks was mentioned in this article.

September 29, 2009. The Mcgill Tribune "The Psychotherapy Movement: Acid's Long Trip Back to Clinical Research." By Carolyn Gregoire.

This report in Canada's Mcgill University Student paper is an excellent overview of the current status of LSD research and has quotes from MAPS Director of Communication Randolph Hencken, M.A..

September 27, 2009. San Francisco Chronicle. "LSD's long strange trip back into the lab." By Erin Allday

This article about LSD reemerging in research laboratories appeared on the front page of the Sunday paper.

September 2, 2009. Globe and Mail. "Landmark B.C. study lets trauma sufferers find relief with ecstasy." By Frances Bula.

August 20, 2009. The Daily Beast. "Is LSD Good For You?" By Paul Schrodt.

This article explores the resurgence of LSD research and includes information about cluster headaches and MAPS' Swiss study of LSD-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of anxiety associated with life-threatening illnesses.

August 10, 2009. Miller-Mccune. "The Ecstasy and the Agony." By Matt Palmquist,

Norwegian scientists Pl-rjan Johansen and Teri Krebs discuss their paper, "How could MDMA help anxiety disorders? A neurobiological rationale," published in the Journal of Pharmacology.

August 1, 2009. Scientific American. "Salvia on schedule: New rules on a mind-altering herb could slow medical research." By David Jay Brown.

This informative article on Salvia Divinorum is by MAPS' friend and guest editor David Jay Brown.

July 31, 2009. Washington Post. "All in due time." (Fed Page)

This short article discusses the Obama Administration's possible picks for new leadership at the Drug Enforcement Administration. The two front runners are rumored to be Deputy FBI Chief John Pistole, New York Assistant U.S. Attorney Boyd Johnson.

July 23, 2009. Good Times (Santa Cruz Weekly). "Transcendental Medication." By Damon Orion.

This cover article (image) in the Santa Cruz Weekly news and entertainment paper gives an up-to-date perspective of MAPS. MAPS operational headquarters are in Santa Cruz.

July 14, 2009. The Vancouver Observer. "Healing severe trauma with MDMA." By Brandi Cowen.

MAPS planned MDMA/PTSD research in Vancouver, Canada led by Principal Investigators Dr. Ingrid Pacey and Andrew Feldmar is featured in this article.

July 9, 2009. Der Spiegel. "Swiss Psychiatrist Fights Fear with LSD." By Samiha Shafy.

MAPS-sponsored Swiss study of LSD-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of anxiety associated with life threatening illnesses was featured in a popular German news magazine.

July 8, 2009. The Huffington Post. "Read the Never-Before-Published Letter From LSD-Inventor Albert Hofmann to Apple CEO Steve Jobs." By Ryan Grim.

This article discusses a letter from Albert Hofmann to Steve Jobs that was encouraged by MAPS President Rick Doblin. MAPS board member John Gilmore and MAPS Supporter Kevin Herbert are also included in the story.

July 2, 2009. Medical Marijuana Inc. "Medical Marijuana, Inc. Signs the First Cannabis Collective in Venice, California to Use Tax Remittance Card"

Medical Marijuana Inc. is a publicly traded company that recently signed Venice California Dispensary 99 High Art Collective. 99 High Art Collective is displaying light paintings by Dean Chamberlain. Sales of the paintings will benefit MAPS.

June 4, 2009. British TV News Channel 4. "Agony or Ecstasy the MDMA Dilemma." Reported by David Fuller.

This newsclip features Dr. Michael Mithoefer discussing his MAPS-sponsored study with MDMA to treat PTSD at the United Kingdom's Royal College of Psychiatry.

May 24, 2009. Gnostic Media. "Psycho-spiritual evolution an interview with Dr. Neal Goldsmith." Hosted by Jan Irvin.

This podcast has an interview with MAPS' good friend Dr. Neal Goldsmith. This an in-depth discussion of the influence of psychedelics on psychotherapy, with a lot about his personal background and experience.

May 18, 2009. CNN.Com. "Government Runs Nation's Only Legal Pot Garden." (permalink) By Mike Ahlers and Jeanne Meserve.

CNNs online story mentions MAPS' struggle to obtain a license for professor Craker to grow marijuana at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Rick Doblin's admission of marijuana use to DEA court is cited as one of the reasons that DEA is denying the application:

"[DEA...] objected to Craker's sponsor, saying the sponsor's 'past and ongoing' use of marijuana 'is unacceptable for anyone seeking to have a prominent role in overseeing' a marijuana farm.

April 22, 2009. Alternet. "The War on Pot Is an Abject Failure ... Now's the Time for a New Approach." By Jag Davies.

Former MAPS' Communication Director Jag Davies, now Beckley Foundation U.S. Public Policy Coordinator, probes the foundations proposals for international marijuana law reform.

April 1, 2009.  High Times. “MAPS’ Quest: The High Times Interview with Rick Doblin.” By David Bienenstock.

March 26, 2009. New York Times. “Relief for Patients.” By Editorial Staff.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced last week that the federal government will no longer prosecute dispensers of medical marijuana if they comply with state law.  The New York Times editorialist writes, “Mr. Holder deserves credit for recognizing that going after medical marijuana dispensers is not only bad policy, it is a distraction from work that really matters.”

March 23, 2009. New York Times. "Contraception Pill Strictures Are Eased by a Judge." By Natasha Singer.

This discussion is significant to MAPS because MAPS's plans to make MDMA and psychedelic drugs into prescription medicines are modeled on the success of a nonprofit entity making the oral contraception pill into a prescription medicine.

March 19, 2009. The New York Times. “Attorney General Signals Shift in Marijuana Policy.” By Thomas Watkins, The Associated Press.

On March 18, an article from NYTimes online reported that new Attorney General Eric Holder "signaled a change on medical marijuana policy Wednesday, saying federal agents will target marijuana distributors only when they violate both federal and state law. That would be a departure from the policy of the Bush administration, which targeted medical marijuana dispensaries in California even if they complied with that state's law."

  Reuters. "'Ecstasy' may help PTSD victims get better." By Anne Harding

This article discusses the March 1, 2009  Journal of Psychopharmacology article by Norweigian researchers Pal Johansen and Teri S. Krebs, titled “How could MDMA (ecstasy) help anxiety disorders? A neurobiological rationale.”  

  The Jerusalem Post. "High Times." By David Brinn

This article discusses the Israeli medical marijuana production facility and program supported by MAPS.

March 18, 2009. Congress Daily. "Obama Administration Likely to Review UMass Scientist's Bid to Grow Marijuana." By Katie Sanders.

On March 18, an article in the National Journal (Congress Daily) quoted an anonymous White House official saying that it was likely that there would be a review of the DEA's last-minute rejection of DEA ALJ Bittner's recommendation that it would be in the public interest for Prof. Lyle Craker to receive a DEA license to grow marijuana exclusively for federally-approved research.

March 10, 2009. Los Angeles Times. “The science of pot.” Editorial Desk.

The Los Angeles Times editorialized in favor of DEA licensing of Prof. Craker's medical marijuana production facility, citing as support President Obama's March 9, 2009 statement about scientific integrity. The LA Times editorial said, "DEA is one of the many federal agencies ready for enlightenment."

March 9, 2009. The Times of India. “Rave party narcotic may help in psychiatric treatment”

  Eureka Alert! “Ecstasy could help patients with post-traumatic stress disorder: New research published in Journal of Psychopharmacology.” By Mithu Mukherjee

March 8, 2009. Nature Medicine. "US drug agency blunts supply of marijuana for research." By Arran Frood.

Nature Medicine, a prestigious research magazine, has published an article on the Cracker case.

  e! Science News, Sawf News. "Ecstasy could help patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD)"

March 7, 2009. cnet. “Ecstasy treatment draws rave reviews.” by Mark Rutherford

March 5, 2009. The Economist (Print Edition). "Failed states and failed policies: How to stop the drug wars." Editorial Desk.

March 4, 2009. Blog.wired.com. “Ecstasy Pushed as PTSD Treatment.” By Noah Shachtman.

  Military.com. 'Party' Drug Could be PTSD Treatment. By Bryan Mitchell.

Military.com is one of the most active websites online, and gets more hits than Erowid. MAPS is excited that news of our research is reaching the military audience. The comments by the readers are very intriguing.

March 1, 2009. Journal of Psychopharmacology. "How could MDMA (ecstasy) help anxiety disorders? A neurobiological rationale." By P Johansen and TS Krebs.

This is a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

February 27, 2009. San Francisco Chronicle. “U.S. to yield marijuana jurisdiction to states.” By Bob Egelko.

This Chronicle article reports on the end of DEA medical marijuana raids under the Obama Administration. MAPS DEA lawsuit is mentioned in the last lines:  "The Bush administration also blocked a University of Massachusetts researcher's attempt to grow marijuana for studies of its medical properties. Piper, of the Drug Policy Alliance, said he hopes Obama will reverse that position. 'If you removed the obstacles to research,' he said, 'in 10 to 15 years, marijuana will be available in pharmacies.'"

February 17, 2009. Guardian.co.uk. “Ecstasy trials for combat stress.” By David Adams.

February 11, 2009. Counterpunch. "Change we can smoke?" By Fred Gardner.

This online political newsletter examines the possibilities around the DEA/Craker lawsuit and what the courts and Obama Administration might do. MAPS President Rick Doblin PhD discusses the best and worst scenarios for the political and legal outcomes.

February 10, 2009. New Scientist. "Ecstasy's Legacy: So far, so good." By Graham Lawton

This article discusses contemporary research into the risks of MDMA use as a recreational drug. It points out that long term studies show very few impairments as a result of moderate ecstasy use.

January 30, 2009. Search Magazine. “Mystics Under the Microscope.” By Peter Bebergal.

Is there such a thing as a core, common mystical experience? This article looks at the research into this question.

January 29, 2009. McClatchy Newspapers. "Medical marijuana raid raises question: Whats Obama policy?" By Michael Doyle.

One week after Obama took office the DEA raided a South Tahoe medical marijuana dispensary. This article discusses the legal conundrum that Obama has inherited in the fight between federal law and state law regarding medical marijuana.

  The Colorado Springs Independent. “Less agony, no Ecstasy.” By Anthony Lane.

Dr. Mithoefer is mentioned in this military town’s publication about veterans with PTSD.

January 26, 2009. Marketplace-American Public Media. “Food vendors sell with personal touch.”

Vaporizers aren’t just for inhaling marijuana vapors anymore – they are also good for creating enhancing aromas for the culinary elite.

January 19, 2009. Boston Globe. “Marijuana Monopoly.” Letter to the editor by Rick Doblin PhD.

January 16, 2009. CNN.com. “Keeping the lid on pot.” By Caleb Hellerman.

A CNN editorial about the DEA's refusal to grant Prof. Craker a license to grow marijuana for research purposes.

  Daily Kos and Drug Law Reform Project. “In Parting Shot, Bush Bush’s DEA Blocks FDA Research Route for Medical Marijuana.”

January 14, 2009. The Boston Phoenix. “The DEA Says No (Again) to Medical Marijuana. Now What? High on Obama?” By Mike Milliard.

January 13, 2009. Associate Press. “DEA denies professor's marijuana-for-research bid.” By Andrew Miga.

  Scientific American (Magazine). “No way, dude: DEA just says "no" to scientist's pot request.” By Jordan Lite.

  Reason Magazine Online. “Marijuana Monopoly Maintained.” By Jacob Sullum.

  The Med Guru. "DEA rejects professors plea to grow medical marijuana for research." By Riya Chauhan.

  Boston Globe. “UMass loses marijuana lab bid.” By Bina Venkataraman.

January 12, 2009. MAPS and the ACLU put out a press release in response to the DEA’s ruling against the MAPS-sponsored marijuana production facility at UMass Amherst.

  Salem-News.com. “DEA Rejects Judge's Ruling, Quashes Medical Marijuana Research Project.”

  Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul). “DEA rejects UMass professor's bid to grow marijuana for medical research.” By Andrew Miga with contributions from Rodrique Ngowi.

  Boston Globe. "DEA rejects UMass request to grow medical marijuana." By Bina Venkataraman, Globe Correspondent

  Political Blotter, Inside the Bay Area (ibabuzz.com). “DEA Rejects Lifting Feds Marijuana Monopoly.” By Josh Richman.

January 7, 2009. New York Times. “Purple Heart is Ruled Out for Traumatic Stress.” By Lizette Alvarez and Erik Eckholm.

Despite scientific evidence that trauma from war can cause debilitating Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the US Pentagon has officially refused to honor vets with a PTSD a Purple Heart – an honor for being wounded in war. MAPS’ goal is to help veterans who suffer from PTSD with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy.

January 2, 2009. HaMagazin. "Prescription for a Joint." by Dan Even, translated by Dana Peleg, MA.

An excellent article on the Israeli medical marijuana program published in an Israeli newspaper.

December 29, 2009. AlterNet. "10 Reasons the U.S. Military Should (Officially) Use Pot" By Penny Coleman.

This article discusses the sad state of affairs regarding medical marijuana and the US Veterans Association. Although marijuana may have a host of advantages over other treatments for traumatized vets the VA still won't study its efficacy.

December 23, 2009. Hplus Magazine. "Soul Medicine: Ecstasy (MDMA) as Therapy" by Oliver Hockenhull.

A beautifully written, brief history of MDMA.

December 14, 2009. The Huffington Post. "President Obama: Free the Medical Marijuana Researchers!" By Doug Bandow

This editorial urges President Obama to instruct the DEA to license Professor Craker to be able to grow marijuana for research, among other suggestions for increases scientific investigations of medical marijuana.

November 24, 2009. Vancouver Courier. "Therapists tout ecstasy as treatment for stress disorder" by Cheryl Rossi.

This article discusses MAPS planned MDMA/PTSD study in Vancouver, British Columbia and mentions former Vancouver Mayor Philip Owens support of the research.

November 20, 2009. 

Join Together. "AMA Calls for More Research into Medical Use of Marijuana" By Bob Curley

The federal government should consider moving marijuana out of Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act in order to facilitate clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medications, the American Medical Association (AMA) said in a new policy statement. Rick Doblin, Ph.D., executive director of MAPS, said the AMA policy shift demonstrates that there is "clearly more interest in medical marijuana in the medical community than ever before." However, Doblin -- who has long contended that NIDA has worked to block medical-marijuana research through its gatekeeping role over supplies of marijuana for research -- said the policy will have "zero effect in getting NIDA out of the loop." Doblin said that a unique and open-ended Public Health Service (PHS) review process for medical-marijuana research, coupled with NIDA's monopoly on the drug supply, has prevented most basic research studies on smoked marijuana from getting off the ground.

Originally appeared at: www.jointogether.org/news/features/2009/ama-says-marijuana-has.html

November 16, 2009. Telegraph.co.uk. Can mind-altering drugs have mental health benefits? by Arran Frood.

This article opens with an account of two deaths and one person entering into a coma as the result of a group psychotherpay session that allegedly involved illegal drugs. The article quickly moves to a discussion of the ideas behind psychedelic research and names several prominent people conducting studies. The author briefly recounts two sessions he particpated in which he was invited to because he has written about the use of hallucinogenic drug research for many years for scientific media such as Nature and New Scientist.

November 4, 2009. Alternet. "Letting the Science, Not the Politicians, Decide about Marijuana." By Jag Davies.

This is an incredibly intelligent article about the hypocrisy of Drug War officials and their obstruction of medical marijuana research. Author Jag Davies is the publications manager for the Drug Policy Alliance and a former MAPS staff member.

October 24, 2009. The Guardian. "Scientists study possible health benefits of LSD and Ecstasy." By Denis Campbell.

This article originally appeared in print on page 9 of the UK news section.

October 10, 2009. The Guardian. "Face to faith." By Alexander Beiner.

This article discusses how the prohibition of psychedelics infringes on persons ability to choose how they experience the divine. MAPS is mentioned for spearheading the renaissance in psychedelic research.

October 2, 2009. Clinical Psychology Review. "Emerging treatments for PTSD." By Judith Cukor, Josh Spitalnick, JoAnn Difede, Albert Rizzo, and Barbara O. Rothbaum

This scientific, peer-reviewed paper has a section on MDMA. The authors quote an article from Rick Doblin, Ph.D. published in 2002 which was about MAPS' MDMA/PTSD Clinical Plan. They also quote Andy Parrott about MDMA's therapeutic potential, even though he has mostly written about the risks of MDMA.

October 1, 2009. Scientific American "LSD Returns--For Psychotherapeutics." By Gary Stix.

This article features commentary from MAPS-sponsored LSD researcher Peter Gasser, M.D.

  Psychology Today Brainstorm Blog. "Tripping at Horizons Psychedelic Conference." By Psychology Today Editors.

From September 25 to 27, about 350 people attended the third annual Horizons Conference, which took place at Judson Memorial Church in New York City. Experts from across North America and Europe gathered to discuss the ongoing renaissance in the exploration of psychedelic drugs. MAPS Deputy Director Valerie Mojeiko gave a thoughtful, personal and well-received presentation entitled, "Psychedelic Harm Reduction--Rethinking the 'Bad Trip'." Valeries talks was mentioned in this article.

September 29, 2009. The Mcgill Tribune "The Psychotherapy Movement: Acid's Long Trip Back to Clinical Research." By Carolyn Gregoire.

This report in Canada's Mcgill University Student paper is an excellent overview of the current status of LSD research and has quotes from MAPS Director of Communication Randolph Hencken, M.A..

September 27, 2009. San Francisco Chronicle. "LSD's long strange trip back into the lab." By Erin Allday

This article about LSD reemerging in research laboratories appeared on the front page of the Sunday paper.

September 2, 2009. Globe and Mail. "Landmark B.C. study lets trauma sufferers find relief with ecstasy." By Frances Bula.

August 20, 2009. The Daily Beast. "Is LSD Good For You?" By Paul Schrodt.

This article explores the resurgence of LSD research and includes information about cluster headaches and MAPS' Swiss study of LSD-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of anxiety associated with life-threatening illnesses.

August 10, 2009. Miller-Mccune. "The Ecstasy and the Agony." By Matt Palmquist,

Norwegian scientists Pl-rjan Johansen and Teri Krebs discuss their paper, "How could MDMA help anxiety disorders? A neurobiological rationale," published in the Journal of Pharmacology.

August 1, 2009. Scientific American. "Salvia on schedule: New rules on a mind-altering herb could slow medical research." By David Jay Brown.

This informative article on Salvia Divinorum is by MAPS' friend and guest editor David Jay Brown.

July 31, 2009. Washington Post. "All in due time." (Fed Page)

This short article discusses the Obama Administration's possible picks for new leadership at the Drug Enforcement Administration. The two front runners are rumored to be Deputy FBI Chief John Pistole, New York Assistant U.S. Attorney Boyd Johnson.

July 23, 2009. Good Times (Santa Cruz Weekly). "Transcendental Medication." By Damon Orion.

This cover article (image) in the Santa Cruz Weekly news and entertainment paper gives an up-to-date perspective of MAPS. MAPS operational headquarters are in Santa Cruz.

July 14, 2009. The Vancouver Observer. "Healing severe trauma with MDMA." By Brandi Cowen.

MAPS planned MDMA/PTSD research in Vancouver, Canada led by Principal Investigators Dr. Ingrid Pacey and Andrew Feldmar is featured in this article.

July 9, 2009. Der Spiegel. "Swiss Psychiatrist Fights Fear with LSD." By Samiha Shafy.

MAPS-sponsored Swiss study of LSD-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of anxiety associated with life threatening illnesses was featured in a popular German news magazine.

July 8, 2009. The Huffington Post. "Read the Never-Before-Published Letter From LSD-Inventor Albert Hofmann to Apple CEO Steve Jobs." By Ryan Grim.

This article discusses a letter from Albert Hofmann to Steve Jobs that was encouraged by MAPS President Rick Doblin. MAPS board member John Gilmore and MAPS Supporter Kevin Herbert are also included in the story.

July 2, 2009. Medical Marijuana Inc. "Medical Marijuana, Inc. Signs the First Cannabis Collective in Venice, California to Use Tax Remittance Card"

Medical Marijuana Inc. is a publicly traded company that recently signed Venice California Dispensary 99 High Art Collective. 99 High Art Collective is displaying light paintings by Dean Chamberlain. Sales of the paintings will benefit MAPS.

June 4, 2009. British TV News Channel 4. "Agony or Ecstasy the MDMA Dilemma." Reported by David Fuller.

This newsclip features Dr. Michael Mithoefer discussing his MAPS-sponsored study with MDMA to treat PTSD at the United Kingdom's Royal College of Psychiatry.

May 24, 2009. Gnostic Media. "Psycho-spiritual evolution an interview with Dr. Neal Goldsmith." Hosted by Jan Irvin.

This podcast has an interview with MAPS' good friend Dr. Neal Goldsmith. This an in-depth discussion of the influence of psychedelics on psychotherapy, with a lot about his personal background and experience.

May 18, 2009. CNN.Com. "Government Runs Nation's Only Legal Pot Garden." (permalink) By Mike Ahlers and Jeanne Meserve.

CNNs online story mentions MAPS' struggle to obtain a license for professor Craker to grow marijuana at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Rick Doblin's admission of marijuana use to DEA court is cited as one of the reasons that DEA is denying the application:

"[DEA...] objected to Craker's sponsor, saying the sponsor's 'past and ongoing' use of marijuana 'is unacceptable for anyone seeking to have a prominent role in overseeing' a marijuana farm.

April 22, 2009. Alternet. "The War on Pot Is an Abject Failure ... Now's the Time for a New Approach." By Jag Davies.

Former MAPS' Communication Director Jag Davies, now Beckley Foundation U.S. Public Policy Coordinator, probes the foundations proposals for international marijuana law reform.

April 1, 2009.  High Times. “MAPS’ Quest: The High Times Interview with Rick Doblin.” By David Bienenstock.

March 26, 2009. New York Times. “Relief for Patients.” By Editorial Staff.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced last week that the federal government will no longer prosecute dispensers of medical marijuana if they comply with state law.  The New York Times editorialist writes, “Mr. Holder deserves credit for recognizing that going after medical marijuana dispensers is not only bad policy, it is a distraction from work that really matters.”

March 23, 2009. New York Times. "Contraception Pill Strictures Are Eased by a Judge." By Natasha Singer.

This discussion is significant to MAPS because MAPS's plans to make MDMA and psychedelic drugs into prescription medicines are modeled on the success of a nonprofit entity making the oral contraception pill into a prescription medicine.

March 19, 2009. The New York Times. “Attorney General Signals Shift in Marijuana Policy.” By Thomas Watkins, The Associated Press.

On March 18, an article from NYTimes online reported that new Attorney General Eric Holder "signaled a change on medical marijuana policy Wednesday, saying federal agents will target marijuana distributors only when they violate both federal and state law. That would be a departure from the policy of the Bush administration, which targeted medical marijuana dispensaries in California even if they complied with that state's law."

  Reuters. "'Ecstasy' may help PTSD victims get better." By Anne Harding

This article discusses the March 1, 2009  Journal of Psychopharmacology article by Norweigian researchers Pal Johansen and Teri S. Krebs, titled “How could MDMA (ecstasy) help anxiety disorders? A neurobiological rationale.”  

  The Jerusalem Post. "High Times." By David Brinn

This article discusses the Israeli medical marijuana production facility and program supported by MAPS.

March 18, 2009. Congress Daily. "Obama Administration Likely to Review UMass Scientist's Bid to Grow Marijuana." By Katie Sanders.

On March 18, an article in the National Journal (Congress Daily) quoted an anonymous White House official saying that it was likely that there would be a review of the DEA's last-minute rejection of DEA ALJ Bittner's recommendation that it would be in the public interest for Prof. Lyle Craker to receive a DEA license to grow marijuana exclusively for federally-approved research.

March 10, 2009. Los Angeles Times. “The science of pot.” Editorial Desk.

The Los Angeles Times editorialized in favor of DEA licensing of Prof. Craker's medical marijuana production facility, citing as support President Obama's March 9, 2009 statement about scientific integrity. The LA Times editorial said, "DEA is one of the many federal agencies ready for enlightenment."

March 9, 2009. The Times of India. “Rave party narcotic may help in psychiatric treatment”

  Eureka Alert! “Ecstasy could help patients with post-traumatic stress disorder: New research published in Journal of Psychopharmacology.” By Mithu Mukherjee

March 8, 2009. Nature Medicine. "US drug agency blunts supply of marijuana for research." By Arran Frood.

Nature Medicine, a prestigious research magazine, has published an article on the Cracker case.

  e! Science News, Sawf News. "Ecstasy could help patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD)"

March 7, 2009. cnet. “Ecstasy treatment draws rave reviews.” by Mark Rutherford

March 5, 2009. The Economist (Print Edition). "Failed states and failed policies: How to stop the drug wars." Editorial Desk.

March 4, 2009. Blog.wired.com. “Ecstasy Pushed as PTSD Treatment.” By Noah Shachtman.

  Military.com. 'Party' Drug Could be PTSD Treatment. By Bryan Mitchell.

Military.com is one of the most active websites online, and gets more hits than Erowid. MAPS is excited that news of our research is reaching the military audience. The comments by the readers are very intriguing.

March 1, 2009. Journal of Psychopharmacology. "How could MDMA (ecstasy) help anxiety disorders? A neurobiological rationale." By P Johansen and TS Krebs.

This is a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

February 27, 2009. San Francisco Chronicle. “U.S. to yield marijuana jurisdiction to states.” By Bob Egelko.

This Chronicle article reports on the end of DEA medical marijuana raids under the Obama Administration. MAPS DEA lawsuit is mentioned in the last lines:  "The Bush administration also blocked a University of Massachusetts researcher's attempt to grow marijuana for studies of its medical properties. Piper, of the Drug Policy Alliance, said he hopes Obama will reverse that position. 'If you removed the obstacles to research,' he said, 'in 10 to 15 years, marijuana will be available in pharmacies.'"

February 17, 2009. Guardian.co.uk. “Ecstasy trials for combat stress.” By David Adams.

February 11, 2009. Counterpunch. "Change we can smoke?" By Fred Gardner.

This online political newsletter examines the possibilities around the DEA/Craker lawsuit and what the courts and Obama Administration might do. MAPS President Rick Doblin PhD discusses the best and worst scenarios for the political and legal outcomes.

February 10, 2009. New Scientist. "Ecstasy's Legacy: So far, so good." By Graham Lawton

This article discusses contemporary research into the risks of MDMA use as a recreational drug. It points out that long term studies show very few impairments as a result of moderate ecstasy use.

January 30, 2009. Search Magazine. “Mystics Under the Microscope.” By Peter Bebergal.

Is there such a thing as a core, common mystical experience? This article looks at the research into this question.

January 29, 2009. McClatchy Newspapers. "Medical marijuana raid raises question: Whats Obama policy?" By Michael Doyle.

One week after Obama took office the DEA raided a South Tahoe medical marijuana dispensary. This article discusses the legal conundrum that Obama has inherited in the fight between federal law and state law regarding medical marijuana.

  The Colorado Springs Independent. “Less agony, no Ecstasy.” By Anthony Lane.

Dr. Mithoefer is mentioned in this military town’s publication about veterans with PTSD.

January 26, 2009. Marketplace-American Public Media. “Food vendors sell with personal touch.”

Vaporizers aren’t just for inhaling marijuana vapors anymore – they are also good for creating enhancing aromas for the culinary elite.

January 19, 2009. Boston Globe. “Marijuana Monopoly.” Letter to the editor by Rick Doblin PhD.

January 16, 2009. CNN.com. “Keeping the lid on pot.” By Caleb Hellerman.

A CNN editorial about the DEA's refusal to grant Prof. Craker a license to grow marijuana for research purposes.

  Daily Kos and Drug Law Reform Project. “In Parting Shot, Bush Bush’s DEA Blocks FDA Research Route for Medical Marijuana.”

January 14, 2009. The Boston Phoenix. “The DEA Says No (Again) to Medical Marijuana. Now What? High on Obama?” By Mike Milliard.

January 13, 2009. Associate Press. “DEA denies professor's marijuana-for-research bid.” By Andrew Miga.

  Scientific American (Magazine). “No way, dude: DEA just says "no" to scientist's pot request.” By Jordan Lite.

  Reason Magazine Online. “Marijuana Monopoly Maintained.” By Jacob Sullum.

  The Med Guru. "DEA rejects professors plea to grow medical marijuana for research." By Riya Chauhan.

  Boston Globe. “UMass loses marijuana lab bid.” By Bina Venkataraman.

January 12, 2009. MAPS and the ACLU put out a press release in response to the DEA’s ruling against the MAPS-sponsored marijuana production facility at UMass Amherst.

  Salem-News.com. “DEA Rejects Judge's Ruling, Quashes Medical Marijuana Research Project.”

  Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul). “DEA rejects UMass professor's bid to grow marijuana for medical research.” By Andrew Miga with contributions from Rodrique Ngowi.

  Boston Globe. "DEA rejects UMass request to grow medical marijuana." By Bina Venkataraman, Globe Correspondent

  Political Blotter, Inside the Bay Area (ibabuzz.com). “DEA Rejects Lifting Feds Marijuana Monopoly.” By Josh Richman.

January 7, 2009. New York Times. “Purple Heart is Ruled Out for Traumatic Stress.” By Lizette Alvarez and Erik Eckholm.

Despite scientific evidence that trauma from war can cause debilitating Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the US Pentagon has officially refused to honor vets with a PTSD a Purple Heart – an honor for being wounded in war. MAPS’ goal is to help veterans who suffer from PTSD with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy.

January 2, 2009. HaMagazin. "Prescription for a Joint." by Dan Even, translated by Dana Peleg, MA.

An excellent article on the Israeli medical marijuana program published in an Israeli newspaper.

December 29, 2008. The New York Times (p. MM39). "Albert Hofmann: Day Tripper, born 1906." (Permalink).

This is glowing article about the father of LSD. Albert is honored as a tolerant man who was thoughtful in his pursuits of science and spirituality.

December 19, 2008. The Economist: "Agony and Ecstasy: Ecstasy may be good for those who cant get over something truly horrible." (Permalink).

This is well written article that explores stories of two patients in Dr. Mithoefers study, the history of MDMA, and efforts of MAPS and other scientists in the psychedelic research renaissance.

December 1, 2008. CNS Neuroscience and Therapeutics. The Pharmacology of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide: A Review. By Torsten Passie MD, John H. Halpern MD, Dirk O. Stichtenoth, Hinderk M. Emrich, & Annelie Hintzen.

This comprehensive review of LSD was authored by colleagues of MAPS. MAPS’ Swiss LSD/end-of-life anxiety study is the research that Dr. Passie referred to at the end of the following abstract:

“With the entry of new methods of research and better study oversight, scientific interest in LSD has resumed for brain research and experimental treatments. Due to the lack of any comprehensive review since the 1950s and the widely dispersed experimental literature, the present review focuses on all aspects of the pharmacology and psychopharmacology of LSD. A thorough search of the experimental literature regarding the pharmacology of LSD was performed and the extracted results are given in this review. (Psycho-) pharmacological research on LSD was extensive and produced nearly 10,000 scientific papers. The pharmacology of LSD is complex and its mechanisms of action are still not completely understood. LSD is physiologically well tolerated and psychological reactions can be controlled in a medically supervised setting, but complications may easily result from uncontrolled use by layman. Actually there is new interest in LSD as an experimental tool for elucidating neural mechanisms of (states of) consciousness and there are recently discovered treatment options with LSD in cluster headache and with the terminally ill.”

November 21, 2008. The Huffington Post. Obama Drug Czar Pick: No Recovery from War on Drugs? by Maia Szalavitz.

November 20, 2008. Nature (Vol. 456) : “Ecstasy could augment the benefits of psychotherapy.” By Nature Editors.

The renowned publication Nature mentioned the preliminary successes of our MDMA/PTSD pilot study.

November 13, 2008. Nature (online): "Illegal drug shows promise in treating trauma symptoms: MDMA may boost the benefits of psychotherapy, trial suggests." By Arran Frood.

  CNN: "Ecstasy may help PTSD." Reported by CNN Chief Health Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

This two-minute cable television news segment was broadcast the day Dr. Mithoefer presented the findings of our MDMA/PTSD pilot study at the International Society for Traumatic Studies conference. Gail Westerfeld, one of Mithoefers Subjects, told CNN that she has been without nightmares for four years after her MDMA-assisted therapy sessions.

November 12, 2008. WJZ Baltimore (TV news transcript w/ links): “Could Tripping On Acid Help Those With Cancer?” Reported by Derek Valcourt.

November 6, 2008. Slate Magazine contributor Amanda Schaffer wrote an excellent article on the promise of, and obstacles to, medical marijuana research. The article discusses a variety of successful research applications of marijuana and marijuana derivatives.

October 28, 2008. The National Review featured an article about Burning Man that discusses Entheon Village.

October 21, 2008. British Psychiatrist Ben Sessa, wrote an opinion piece for the Progress in Neurology and Psychiatry about the need for more exploration into psychedelic drugs.

October 20, 2008. Archaeologists from North Carolina unearthed evidence that supports the belief that humankind has pursued altered states long before the modern era. Writer Jonathan Wune-Jones reported in the UK telegraph that researchers from the University College of London and North Carolina State University found artifacts of drug paraphernalia that were used for inhaling drugs over 2100 years ago.

October 13, 2008. UKs The Independent reported that ethics experts believe that psychedelics should be available to enhance and demedicalise a persons death experience.

October 8, 2008. Neal M. Goldsmith, Ph.D. was interviewed on Friday, 26 September, 2008 at 12:00 AM on Bob Fass' radio show on WBAI FM. The topic was Psychotherapy, Psychedelics, and the Emergence of an Integral Society. You can listen to it here: http://www.maps.org/avarchive/sept26.2008_radiounamable.mp3 [MAPS Permalink].

  Audio recordings of the talks from the 2008 Horizon's NYC Conference are available at this URL: http://www.archive.org/details/Horizons2008.

October 7, 2008. Arran Frood wrote another great article about the therapeutic applications of Psychedelics for The Independent, a London based media.  This time Frood explored how people with cluster headaches are finding permanent relief from using LSD.

October 2, 2008.  Ecollegetimes.com staff writer Emily Murray wrote a well-balanced article on Salvia Divinorum. She interviewed MAPS Communications Director Randolph Hencken who told her, "our concern about people outlawing this drug is that it is a knee jerk reaction to something they don't understand. It would take this potentially useful substance that naturally occurs on our planet out of the hands of researchers who could possibly find that salvia is the tool we need to cure cancer, Alzheimer's or schizophrenia."

September 25, 2008. Steve Wishinia reported on Alternet about the second annual Horizons conference in New York City. MAPS president Rick Doblin was a speaker at the event, as were Sasha and Ann Shulgin, and numerous other noted persons in the psychedelic renaissance.

September 19, 2008. Roland Griffiths won the "Best Scientist" award from the Baltimore City Paper. Griffiths and his team at John Hopkins were honored for the courage to study the spiritual benefits of psychedlic use and for bringing the research "out of the dorm room and back into the laboratory."

September 16, 2008. Reality Sandwich, published an updated and extended version of Charles Shaw's article Emerging from the Dark Age: The Revival of Psychedelic Medicine. Charles writes in detail about his own journey out of the darkness with the assistance of entheogens.

  The Wall Street Journal printed a hostile article about Burning Man. Journalist Travis Kavulla’s article explicitly mentioned Entheon Village as a “klatch of latter-day hippies and New Agers” and he attempted to discredit Charles Shaw as a witless one-liner wielding conspiracy theorist.  A few days later the Wall Street Journal printed Shaw’s abridged rebuttal to Kavulla’s article.

September 15, 2008. The federal court ruled on the side of California’s medical marijuana law. U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel, found that the federal government had made a concerted effort to sabotage state medical marijuana laws. This is a long overdue victor in the federal court system, and a triumph for California, Wo/men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM), and Santa Cruz city and county (plaintiffs in this court case).

September 11, 2008. ABC News Online (permalink) featured Michael Mithoefer's MDMA/PTSD research in Russell Goldman's article "Hurdles keep street drugs out of medicine chest." The article discusses the problems that scientists face when trying to conduct research with drugs that are illegal, but are suspected of having medical benefits.

MAPS president Rick Doblin is quoted, "It is hard to quantify the lost benefits by not allowing this research to go on. But how can the government justify keeping drugs that improve or save people's lives out of their hands?"

September 10, 2008.  The BBC's Arran Frood authored an optimistic article about the future of psychedelics as a prescription medicine in his article "Is doctor-precribed LSD and 'shrooms on the way."

September 8, 2008. Earth and Fire Erowid wrote an excellent essay that was part of a Cato Institute online discussion. Responses to the essay came from Jacob Sullum, Jonathan Caulkins, and Mark Kleiman.

September 5, 2008. The New Scientist, a preeminent science weekly, printed a compelling interview with MAPS president Rick Doblin. Journalist Arran Frood noted that Doblin “kept the faith” in spite of bureaucratic obstacles to psychedelic research.

August 25, 2008. Canada’s Calgary Herald published an article titled "Tripping Into Mental Health," which is an enthusiastic response to Andrew Feldmár’s editorial in the Guardian. Kevin Brooker, the author, credits MAPS with opening the doors to MDMA research.

August 23, 2008.  The Times Online (permalink) featured Amanda Fielding of the Beckley Foundation in Arran Frood's article "Can illegal drugs help depression?" The Beckley foundation is a generous funder of MAPS. Amanda told Frood, “What motivates me is that I feel [scientific researchwith pscyhedelic drugs is] an area where one can contribute a real benefit to humanity.”

August 20, 2008. Andrew Feldmár, the 68-year-old Canadian banned from entering the United States after a border guard found an article he had written about entheogen-assisted psychotherapy, wrote an editorial for the UK's Guardian about the numerous healing potentials of psychedelic psychotherapy.

August 14, 2008. The Herald Tribune from Sarasota, Florida, home to MAPS President Rick Doblin's Alma Mater New College, featured a article on Doblin, and MAPS' MDMA/PTSD research. Former acting director of NIDA Glen Hanson tries to detract the possibility of MDMA ever being approved as a prescription medicine, but Doblin counters that pre-existing MDMA data will expedite the process of approval by the FDA. NORML's executive director Alan St. Pierre likens Doblin to a mythical deity, "Rick is Pan," St. Pierre says. "He's Pan with the fife. And I've got to admit, I'm not immune to that at all."

August 12, 2008. The telegraph.co.uk (Permalink) published a straightforward article about the resurgence of psychedelic research. Graham Tibbet's piece Drugs like LSD and Ecstasy could help terminally ill, discusses the MAPS sponsored LSD study in Switzerland, MDMA/PTSD research, Grobs Harbor-UCLA psilocybin research, and Grifiths psilocybin research.

  August 12, 2008 Psychedelic research appeared in the Guardian (Permalink) again. Journalist James Randerson wrote about research done by MAPS, Griffith, and Grob in the piece Clinical trials test potential of hallucinogenic drugs to help patients with terminal illnesses.

The online edition contains an audio clip by the author, and lengthy video clip of Pamela Sakuda, a subject with cancer from Grobs study, discussing her experience with psilocybin.

MAPS president Rick Doblin was quoted: These drugs, these experiences are not for the mystic who wants to sit on the mountain top and meditate. They are not for the counter-culture rebel. They are for everybody,

  August 12, 2008 A third article about the psychedelic renaissance appeared online in the Mail Online (Permalink) reported about the clinical trials with LSD, MDMA and psilocybin. Norbert Litzinger, the husband of the late Pamela Sakuda, declared that Sakuda's participation the Grobs psilocybin study greatly benefited the final days of her life.

July 30, 2008. An excellent radio show (MAPS permalink) on WUNC FM broadcast out of Chapel Hill, North Carolina featured an interview with Anne Levy about her experience as a subject in Dr. Charlie Grob's study on the use of psilocybin for treatment of anxiety in late stage cancer patients.

July 11, 2008. Charles Shaw published an insightful article on psychedelic research and MAPS on Alternet titled Emerging from the Drug War Dark Age: LSD and Other Psychedelic Medicines Make a Comeback. Shaw wrote: More than anyone else in his field, [MAPS president] Doblin is all too familiar with what he refers to as the 40-year-long bad trip that researchers like him have faced in dealing with the fallout from the introduction of LSD and other psychedelic compounds to the Western psyche in the mid 1960s. This 40-year intellectual Dark Age, Doblin says, has been characterized by enormous fear and misinformation and a vested interest in exaggerated stories about drugs to keep prohibition alive.

July 6, 2008. The Sunday Baltimore Sun published an editorial ("Tuning In, Not Out") supporting research into the therapeutic potential of psychedelics. The editorial mentions the MAPS-supported research into MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in people with PTSD and ends by stating, "Instead of banning drugs that are perceived as bad simply because of their recreational use, scientists should be encouraged to pursue legitimate study - lest we miss out on a valuable medicinal tool."

July 3, 2008. Nature News published a piece on Griffiths' follow-up to his human psilocybin research. MAPS President Rick Doblin posted a comment in response to the piece.

July 2, 2008. A web exclusive piece published online by Newsweek discusses Griffiths' psilocybin research and his piece containing guidelines for human research with psychedelic compounds, relating it to the history and future of human stuides with psychedelic compounds.

July 1, 2008. Roland Griffiths and his study of psilocybin have made the news again, as recounted in this Associated Press news report, with the appearance of a 14-month follow-up to his original study that reported mystical experiences after psilocybin, but not methylphenidate. In the follow-up, people continue to say their experiences with psilocybin were some of the most meaningful in their lives.

  Wired just published a story on Roland Griffiths' recently published 14-month follow-up to his initial human psilocybin study, and discusses another paper that he and collaborators M Johnson and W Richards publish in the same journal that presents guidelines for conducting research with high doses of psychedelic compounds, a report Griffiths describes in the Wired story as possibly the more important of the two papers.

  CNN News produced a segment discussing Griffiths' follow-up research.

  Though the article is called "The Counter-culture Colonel," Jim transcends the Culture/Counter-Culture divisions. Jim's ability to be on good terms with US Military, Ann and Sasha, and others in the psychedelic community are an example of how we need to go about integrating psychedelics within our culture, being in close touch with diverse elements and trusted by all.

  The psilocybin/mystical experience study was primarily funded by the Council on Spiritual Practices. Bob Jesse, founder of the Council on Spiritual Practices, has recently sent out a fundraising letter seeking support for further research in healthy volunteers.

June 18, 2008. British Psychiatrist Ben Sessa, in a scholarly exploration, argued for the renewal of research into psychedelic drugs in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

June 12, 2008. Virginia Prescott with New Hampshire Public Radio interviews freelance writer Peter Bebergal who is based in Cambridge, Mass., and wrote about the new wave of psychedelic-drug research for the Boston Phoenix.

June 1, 2008. These two articles - from the Boston Phoenix and the UK Independent respectively - both give MAPS' ongoing research some excellent reviews.

May 30, 2008. This recent letter from Rick Doblin, Ph.D. to the editor of The Economist about Albert Hofmann's death appeared in an audio release of the paper and is available here in MP3 format.

May 19, 2008. 

From MAPS: Letter to Editor of the Economist

Dear Editor,

The obituary for Albert Hofmann, the inventor of LSD who died April 29 at age 102, reported that LSD research was stopped in the early 1970s and never resumed. Actually, a protocol evaluating LSD-assisted psychotherapy in subjects with anxiety associated with end-of-life issues was approved in Switzerland in December 2007, shortly before Albert's wife, Anita Hofmann, died, after 72 years of marriage. Albert spoke about that approval as " the fulfillment of my heart's desire." The first LSD session in that study took place on Tuesday, May 13. This will become the first controlled, scientific study of the therapeutic potential of LSD in over 36 years. As Albert hoped, his problem child may yet become a wonder child, much as perhaps the most feared drug of all, thalidomide, has returned as a prescription drug to treat cancer and leprosy.

Furthermore, to set the record straight (so to speak), Albert himself took LSD for the last time at age 97.

Rick Doblin, Ph.D.
President, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS, www.maps.org)

[MAPS is sponsoring the Swiss LSD study]

May 13, 2008. Another short audio clip about Albert Hofmann and his 'Problem Child' (MP3) from NPR.

May 8, 2008. The May 8 issue of the well-known medical journal The Lancet published "Research on psychedelics moves into the mainstream", a news article that discusses renewed research into therapeutic uses of psychedelic drugs and MDMA.

May 7, 2008. Remembrances - 'Father of LSD' Dies at 102 by Scott Simon: This MP3 recording from the Weekend Edition (Saturday, May 3, 2008) of NPR discusses Albert Hofmann, the self-described "father of LSD," and his discovery of the substance while working for a pharmaceutical company in 1938 and includes Rick Doblin's comments about Hofmann's discovery and the state of current (and past historical) LSD research.

  Presidential Politics in a Changing America (MP3): from WED APR 30, 2008 - America as a whole is more diverse than ever before, but its increasingly crowded with citieseven neighborhoods--where everybody thinks like everybody else. What does that mean for the presidential campaigns? Is "political unification" a distant dream? Also, an update on a sluggish economy, and the life and death of Albert Hofman, who accidentally discovered LSD and started the "psychedelic generation."

May 4, 2008. The Sunday Times (London) recently published "Ecstasy is the Key to Treating PTSD," an in-depth piece on MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in people with PTSD, focusing on Dr. Mithoefer's MAPS-supported study and featuring quotes from MAPS president Rick Doblin and British psychiatrist Ben Sessa.

May 3, 2008. Another extraordinary obituary of Albert Hofmann by Benedict Carey from the NY Times.

April 30, 2008. 

Albert Hofmann Obituaries Rolling Stone Magazine (PDF) Gaia Media London Times London Telegraph Chicago Tribune NY Times LA Times Washington Post CNN Reuters SFGate National Post (Canada) The Economist NZZ (German language only) NY Times Obituary by Benedict Carey Rick Doblin comments on Albert's life in Google News Gaia Media Memorial of Albert Hofmann

  This recent article entitled LSD May Shed Hippie Image With Swiss Study of Medical Benefits focused on MAPS Swiss LSD study directed by Peter Gasser, M.D. discusses both the current political climate that lead to the study's approval and the counter-cultural currents that spawned the banning of this research in the 1960's.

April 15, 2008. Two intriguing articles about MAPS' involvement in the World Psychedelic Forum 2008 were recently published in the Basler Zeitung newspaper. The first article entitled "Of the Enlightened and the De-Narcotised" is slightly critical about the conference, but it notes that Doblin's comments were balanced, and Michael Mithoefers research was solid. The second article aptly entitled "I am no cheerleader for psychedelic drug" features an interview with Rick Doblin, Ph.D. at the conference.

April 2, 2008. The drug war barrels onward in Kansas as this article from The Capital-Journal Editorial Board suggests. The article discusses the recent legislation to ban sales of hallucinogen in Kansas, boldly claiming that this legislation "isn't an overreaction, it's good for the state"

  This recent article by Arran Frood which was published in the London Times discusses some of the more exciting and far-sighted uses of psychedelics in the treatment of various illnesses.

March 17, 2008.  World Radio Switzerland aired a segment about the World Psychedelic Forum in Basel. The segment featured conference organizer Dieter Hagenbach and MAPS sponsored researcher Dr. Peter Gasser.

March 12, 2008. This intriguing webisode of an interview with MAPS' Founder and President Rick Doblin, Ph.D. was filmed in New York a few months ago by the PostModernTimes.

March 11, 2008. A recent article from the AP entitled Is Salvia the Next Marijuana" by Jessica Gresko discusses the US Federal Government's upcoming crackdown on Salvia Divinorum. The article highlights the notion that this legislation is basically an overreaction to a minor problem, despite the fact that no one is disputing the fact "that the plant impairs judgment and the ability to drive".

February 26, 2008. Counterpunch recently published this online article by Fred Gardner entitled American College of Physicians Takes Pro-Cannabis Stand (Mostly) discussing (as the title implies) the ACP's nearly-unanimous endorsement of dropping the US Federal Government's "monopoly" on Medical Marijuana Research in the United States.

February 21, 2008. In what will most likely turn out to be a critical paradigm shift in the battle for Medical Marijuana rights recently, this article from the LA Times entitled "Physicians group urges easing of ban on medical marijuana" discusses the American College of Physicians' decree that "the federal government [should] ease its strict ban on marijuana as medicine and hasten research into the drug's therapeutic uses."

February 19, 2008. Another intriging video from the BBC's Horizons Series is this clip entitled "Brittan's Most Dangerous Drug".

February 18, 2008. Listen to this excellent radio interview (available as WAV or MP3) on "Shattered Lives" with MAPS Staffer Lauren Anderson Payne.

February 12 was the one-year anniversary of DEA Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittners historic ruling in which she found that it would be in the public interest for the DEA to license Prof. Craker to produce marijuana for federally approved research, breaking NIDA's monopoly on the supply of marijuana legal for research. Since Judge Bittner's ruling, the DEA has predictably opted for its strategy of delay and has not yet issued a final ruling in response to Judge Bittner's recommendation.

On Monday, January 28, Sharon North interviewed MAPS Government Relations Associate Lauren Anderson Payne on Shattered Lives Radio KZFR, Community Radio for the Sacramento Valley. They discussed the current state of Professor Craker's bid for a license to produce research-grade marijuana for use in FDA-approved protocols. Currently MAPS is working with several other organizations to try to secure Senatorial support for the UMass-Amherst facility. We're starting to mobilize grassroots activists to contact their Senators to provide local support, in addition to the policy arguments we're providing directly to Senatorial staff. We're optimistic that other Senators will soon join Sens. Kennedy and Kerry by signing a letter of support addressed to the DEA urging it to implement Bittners ruling. Let your Senators know that you think medical marijuana research should be put in the hands of scientists, not blocked by politicians! Find your Senators' contact info at www.senate.gov and call them today! Your calls can make an important difference, in combination with our work in DC.

February 17, 2008. This excellent article by Scott Thill from AlterNet entitled "Breaking the Drug Taboo: Group of Traumatized Veterans Get Ecstasy Treatment" discusses MAPS' role in helping US Military Veterans to get treatment for PTSD as well as providing an insightful overview of MAPS' MDMA/PTSD research in general.

February 12, 2008. This video from BBC entitled Horizons: Psychedelic Science is an excellent introduction into the science and theory behind the psychedelic research movement and the ideas that motivated its founders and continues to drive its proponents.

February 8, 2008. This article from the Associated Press talks about the U.N.'s concern with the recent installation of computerized medical marijuana vending machines in Los Angeles California.

February 6, 2008. This short snippet about the UN NGO's Consultation in Canada from The Province brings up some interesting issues, both criticizing the United States "War On Drugs" and offering the viewpoints of both those for Drug legalization and against it.

January 28, 2008. MAPS Staffer Valerie Mojeiko Speaks on Psychedelic Therapy at the University of Amsterdam:
On January 28th MAPS Program Director Valerie Mojeiko addressed an audience of over two hundred and fifty psychology students and faculty, as well as others interested in MAPS research, at the University of Amsterdam. Her powerpoint presentation is available as a ZIP file online. Ms. Mojeiko spoke about MAPS current research into the use of LSD and MDMA in psychotherapy and about the principles of psychedelic emergency work. The talk was co-sponsored by Stichting Open, a Dutch foundation that is seeking to stimulate academic research into psychedelic substances.

January 23, 2008. This newspaper article was recently published in the TAGES ANZEIGER paper discussing the new MAPS' sponsored Swiss LSD study - the first of its kind to be initiated in over 40 years. You can find the original German language article as a PDF here.

January 18, 2008. This article by Mark Morford of the SF Chronicle gives a dashing and daring comparison of MDMA with other "licit" drugs (such as Lyrica from Pfizer used to treat fibromyalgia).

January 5, 2008. Now available: a transcript of the December 2007 Swiss TV interview with LSD's creator Albert Hofmann and MAPS' researcher Peter Gasser.

December 25, 2007. The Chicago Tribune recently published this article about Illinois State's proposed rescheduling of Salvia Divinorum as an illegal drug.

December 5, 2007. Scientific American Mind magazine published this (PDF) article by David Jay Brown about psychedelic medicine in their December/January 2007 issue. The article "Psychedelic Healing?" summarizes much of the research into psychedelics that has gone on in recent years, most of which has been supported by MAPS. Brown discusses how psychedelics are being studied as treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, cluster headaches, anxiety associated with cancer, drug addiction, and other difficult-to-treat psychiatric disorders.

November 29, 2007. Sessa and Nutt have recently published an editorial in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, "MDMA, politics and medical research: Have we thrown the baby out with the bathwater?", speaking out against the effects of politics and regulation on medical research with MDMA and in favor of more basic and medical research. In their editorial, Sessa and Nutt discuss the costs to the research enterprise imposed by regulation of MDMA, and proposes at least three avenues of further research. The piece is provocative and uneven, but makes for encouraging reading for supporters of MDMA psychotherapy research.

November 27, 2007. Two Spanish-language summaries of the recent Washington Post Sunday Magazine article entitled "The Peace Drug" about MAPS' South Carolina MDMA/PTSD study (published on Nov. 26, 2007) were published in the ABC (PDF) and El Mundo (PDF) newspapers in Spain.

November 26, 2007. After the article about the MAPS-sponsored MDMA/PTSD study appeared in the Washington Post, Dr. Mithoefer and Post editor Tom Shroder were interviewed live on NPR's on "Tell Me More" hosted by Michelle Martin.

November 25, 2007. Washington Post magazine published an article (MAPS PDF Permalink) featured as the cover story about MAPS’ and Dr. Michael Mithoefer’s MDMA-PTSD research entitled "Peace Drug". This article is overall positive with one minor mistake--the idea of MDMA being prescribed only by specially trained therapists in psychedelic clinics is attributed to Dr. Michael Mithoefer when it should have been attributed to Rick Doblin Ph.D.’s dissertation. This article is unique as it is the first time that a reporter has been allowed to interview a research participant from this historic study. You can read the comments about this article here.

November 12, 2007. The Freakonomics blog on The New York Times site features an interesting point/counterpoint-style review of the arguments for against the prohibition of marijuana.

November 9, 2007. The American Psychiatric Association has passed a unanimous resolution supporting medical marijuana.

November 8, 2007. MAPS member Diana Slattery has an interesting article on Reality Sandwich in which she interviews Thomas Roberts, PhD, about the future of psychedelic research. Click here to read "Rising Researchers on the Psychedelic Horizon."

November 4, 2007. According to a new study by Swiss researchers, teenagers who smoke marijuana but not tobacco appear to be more likely to get good grades, play sports and live with both parents than those who also use tobacco. Moreover, the study found that teens who smoke pot were more likely to have a good relationship with their friends than teens who smoked neither tobacco nor pot, found the study published in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. Click here to read a report.

November 1, 2007. 

Short snippets of speeches on various topics by Rick Doblin, PhD, and other psychedelic related videos from a fundraiser in Houston, TX

• 1. General http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMBwPToKdOc
• 2. LSD http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxRyFUfoH3I
• 3. MDMA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIo5zf7AFu4
• 4. Marijuana 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGBjGrHPr8c
• 5. Marijuana 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8jP3D8iAmY

These YouTube videos feature Rick Doblin, founder and president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies

October 30, 2007. Canada's largest urban weekly, The Georgia Straight, published a feature article about the MAPS-sponsored observational case study in British Columbia evaluating ibogaine treatment in subjects with opiate dependence. The article includes some interesting personal anecdotes and analysis from MAPS President Rick Doblin, PhD, as well as a discussion of MAPS' FDA Phase II research evaluating MDMA-, LSD-, and psyilocybin-assisted psychotherapy.

October 29, 2007. London's Guardian published an article about a consulting survey of the British public finding that Albert Hofmann, PhD, shares the top spot for #1 as the person considered to be the greatest living genius. Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who is best known for synthesizing LSD, shares the top spot with British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee, and surprisingly ranks ahead of Stephen Hawking (#7), Nelson Mandela (#5), Matt Groening (#4) and George Soros (#3). Click here to read "Sheer Genius: From the Web to Homer Simpson." In 2006, MAPS published a new edition of Hofmann's long-out-of-print autobiographical book, LSD: My Problem Child. MAPS is also raising funds for LSD and psilocybin research by selling books and visionary artwork signed by Albert Hofmann. For details and more information, please visit the MAPS Webstore.

October 1, 2007. American Medical News published a feature article entitled "Altered Perceptions: Good Outcomes from 'Club Drugs'"? MAPS President Rick Doblin, PhD, and researchers Michael Mithoefer, MD, John Halpern, MD, and Charles Grob, MD, are quoted. American Medical News is a weekly newspaper for physicians published by the American Medical Association that is ciculated to over 230,000 physicians and health policy regulators.

September 12, 2007. A major Swiss TV news report was broadcast earlier this month about Dr. Peter Gasser's MAPS-sponsored study evaluating LSD-assisted psychotherapy for subjects with end-of-life anxiety secondary to end-stage illness. The report includes a new interview with Albert Hofmann, who rarely speaks publicly due to his fragile health. Click here to watch the broadcast (in German) on the MAPS site. To follow the interview in English, we've posted an English-language transcript online.

  Chemistry World's monthly podcast about medical research evaluating psychedelics features interviews with MAPS President Rick Doblin, PhD, and researcher John Halpern, MD.

September 11, 2007. The 2007 Women's Visionary Congress audio recordings are now available for download and streaming audio (mp3) in the MAPS A/V Archive.

September 4, 2007. Chemistry World magazine recently published a comprehensive feature-length article about the "resurgence of medical hallucinogens." MAPS President Rick Doblin, PhD, is quoted throughout the article.

August 27, 2007. The Los Angeles Times published an article about research evaluating ketamine's effect on depression -- "Headway in developing a faster-acting antidepressant."

August 26, 2007. MAPS President Rick Doblin gave a comprensive interview about MAPS' medical marijuana efforts on Health Radio with Dr. Meg Jordan. Click here to listen to the full interview.

August 20, 2007. Foreign Policy published a cover story by Ethan Nadelmann, PhD, "Think Again: Drugs." While not directly about MAPS, the article points to the larger challenges our work faces because of prohibitionist public policy. Nadelmann is executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), the nation's leading organization working to reform the nation's drug laws. DPA awarded MAPS a grant earlier this year for $12,500 for our medical marijuana case.

August 15, 2007. Neurology Now published a strong letter to the editor from a medical marijuana patient in Colorado that urges DEA to accept Judge Bittner's recent ruling on behalf of MAPS and Professor Lyle Craker.

August 9, 2007. Orange County Register Senior Editor Alan Bock published an insightful editorial about the implementation of California's medical marijuana law. Bock connects the challenges of implementation to the federal government's obstruction of scientific research. He descibes MAPS' effort to establish the nation's first privately-funded research-grade marijuana production facility at UMass-Amherst, which would pave the way for an FDA drug development effort with marijuana.

July 30, 2007. In response to the recent sensationalistic media coverage exaggerating the link between marijuana and schizophrenia, Maia Szalavitz published an analysis on stats.org debunking the hysteria.

July 21, 2007. MAPS founder and president Rick Doblin, PhD, gave an extensive intereview on "Of Consuming Interest" on the Progressive Radio Network. Click here to listen to a streaming mp3 of the interview. The interview is primarily about MAPS' strategy to halt the federal government's obstruction of medical marijuana research aimed at developing the plant into an FDA-approved medicine.

July 17, 2007. The Huffington Post's Mary Clare Ditton published an interesting article about a new ibogaine treatment center in Barcelona. The article discusses the MAPS-sponsored long-term observational case study in Vancouver as well as the parallel ibogaine study that MAPS is developing in Mexico.

July 16, 2007. Chemistry World published an article, "Hallucinogenic Drug in the Clinic," about MAPS' research, in particular Dr. Peter Gasser's MAPS-sponsored LSD therapy study in Switzerland for subjects with end-of-life-anxiety secondary to terminal illness.

July 3, 2007. MAPS President Rick Doblin, PhD, appeared as a special guest and gave a lengthy interview on the Deborah Ray Healthy Talk Show. (The interview comes on about halfway into the show.)

June 29, 2007. Nature published an excellent article ("Scientists stir the pot for right to grow marijuana") about MAPS' campaign to break the federal government's illegal monopoly on the supply of research-grade marijuana for use in privately funded clinical studies that would determine whether marijuana meets the FDA's standards for safety and efficacy.

June 27, 2007. The Washington Post published a fascinating article ("Justice Stevens Calls On History He Lived") about Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens' dissenting opinion in the recent 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' Supreme Court case. The 87-year-old Justice Stevens, the third oldest Judge ever to sit on the Supreme Court, reflected on the failed policy of alcohol prohibition and compared it to today's marijuana policy. Stevens wrote:

"[T]he current dominant opinion supporting the war on drugs in general, and our anti-marijuana laws in particular, is reminiscent of the opinion that supported the nationwide ban on alcohol consumption when I was a student. While alcoholic beverages are now regarded as ordinary articles of commerce, their use was then condemned with the same moral fervor that now supports the war on drugs."

June 26, 2007. News coverage of a soon-to-be published research report in the journal Human Psychopharmacology vary in depth and accuracy, with some claiming "Even Low ecstasy use harms memory," or "Taking Ecstasy Once can Damage Memory", while others provide more details suggesting that this is not the case. The research in question is a meta-analysis of previous research studies. Read initial comments and reflections on the news coverage and research report.

June 25, 2007. GQ published a thorough feature about the Salvia divinorum, "Under the Spell of the Magic Mint" (available in html or pdf).

June 18, 2007. After the New York State Assembly passed a medical marijuana bill (it still needs to pass the State Senate and be signed by the Governor to become law), the New York Times Metro section published an op-ed by Henry I. Miller, "Crackpot Legislation." Unfortunately, while Miller makes the important point that marijuana should be evaluated by FDA-approved research, he fails to make any mention of the federal government's systematic obstruction of such research.

June 12, 2007. Kenneth Wolski, MD, published a strong op-ed in The Times (of Trenton, NJ) that focuses on the federal government's obstruction of medical marijuana research and the recent DEA Judge's ruling in favor of a MAPS-sponsored medical marijuana production facility that would be the prerequisite for putting marijuana through FDA clinical trials to determine whether it can be developed into a legal, precsripction medicine.

June 1, 2007. A strong op-ed by Dr. David Caldicott in South Australia's Adelaide Advertiser criticizes an Australian politician's fearmongering about MDMA, his misguided advocacy of "Americian-style Prohibition policies" and his "ignorance of drug policy and indeed illicit drugs themselves..."

May 31, 2007. The Los Angeles Times published a strongly supportive editorial in favor of MAPS and Prof. Craker in their struggle with the DEA to break the federal government's monopoly on medical marijuana research by establishing an independent research-grade marijuana production facility at University of Massachusetts.

May 30, 2007. Senior Editor Jacob Sullum wrote a couple of interesting articles related to MAPS and its agenda in the June 2007 issue of Reason. "Spiritual highs and legal blows: The power and peril of religious exemptions from drug prohibition" is a thorough discussion of the implications of last year's Supreme Court victory by the UDV, the Religous Freedom Restoration Act, and the politics of the religous use of psychedelics and marijuana. Along a similar vein, "Looking for God in All the Wrong Places" discusses more consisely the limits of the Religous Freedom Restoration Act. Both articles quote MAPS President Rick Doblin, Ph.D.

May 28, 2007. San Jose's weekly magazine Alternate 101 (circulation 27,000) published a thorough cover story about MAPS, "Mapping a New Frontier." The writer, Greg Schwartz, visited the MAPS Love Creek office and paints a relatively comprehensive picture of MAPS' current projects and overall mission.

May 25, 2007. Now that the ball is in the DEA's court to decide whether to accept or reject the DEA Administrative Law Judge's Recommended Ruling in favor of Prof. Craker and MAPS, the media is keeping the issue of MAPS' marijuana drug development initiative alive. Here's a sampling of last week's news on the case:

Associated Press (As published in the Boston Globe)
"UMass professor seeks to grow medical marijuana"

Washington Post (Also appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle)
"Researchers Press DEA to Let Them Grow Marijuana"

New York Times (online edition)
"Marijuana Researchers Make Progress in the Lab, but not in Washington"

Honolulu Star Bulletin
"Editorial: Medical Marijuana Research Should Not Be Hampered"

May 21, 2007. The Economist published a great editorial in favor of MAPS and Professor Lyle Craker's application to establish the nation's first privately funded medical marijuana production facility.

May 17, 2007. The Philadelphia Inquirer published an editorial strongly in favor of medical marijuana, entitled "Making a case for marijuana use in relieving pain".

May 15, 2007. The Walrus published a fascinating article entitled "Peaking on the Prairies" that describes Dr. Humphrey Osmond's extensive psychedelic therapy research program in the 1950's.

May 11, 2007. Washington D.C.'s Politico published an article entitled "FDA dubious over medical marijuana" that describes MAPS' efforts to establish an independent supply of research-grade marijuana as a prerequisite to MAPS-sponsored FDA clinical trials, and how this relates to Senator Coburn's recent medical marijauana legislation.

May 9, 2007. A new study from University of California-San Francisco provides strong evidence that vaporization has promising potential as a method of medical marijuana delivery. The study, published online by the journal Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, was conducted at UCSF by a team led by Donald Abrams, MD, and compared a commercially available vaporizer to smoking in 18 volunteers. The researchers found that, "vaporization of marijuana does not result in exposure to combustion gases, and therefore is expected to be much safer than smoking marijuana cigarettes." Dr. Abrams was able to obtain permission from FDA to conduct his study based in part on data on the composition of the ingredients in marijuana vapor gathered in research sponsored by MAPS and CaNORML. That line of MAPS-sponsored research is currently blocked since NIDA has refused to sell marijuana for additional studies. Click here to read Dr. Abrams' full report.

Arran Frood at Nature Medicine published "Inhaling Cannabis Without the Smoke," and Science Daily covered the story in the article "Marijuana Vaporizer Provides Same Level Of THC, Fewer Toxins, Study Shows."

May 7, 2007. Litmus magazine published a thorough article about the history of psychedelic therapy research and MAPS' current efforts. In addition, Litmus published an interview with MAPS founder and president Rick Doblin, PhD.

May 6, 2007. John Horgan at Slate magazine published "Spirit Tech - How to wire your brain for religious ecstasy," which discusses MAPS-sponsored psychedelic research.

May 5, 2007. The Washington Times published an article about the use of LSD and psilocybin to treat cluster headaches, and MAPS-initiated research at Harvard's McLean Hospital investigating the efficacy of this treatment.

April 29, 2007. MAPS Director of Communications Jag Davies gave an interview on the RU Sirius show, transcribed and published in print as "Prescription Ecstasy and Other Pipe Dreams." The interview is about 20 minutes long and covers a broad range of topics related to MAPS' research.

April 20, 2007. The Jerusalem Post published "Going to Pot" -- an article about the medical use of marijuana in Israel, for which there is growing political and medical support.

April 19, 2007. Time magazine published a relatively balanced article about MAPS' efforts to evaluate the medical and therapeutic applications of psychedelics, entitled "Was Timothy Leary Right?" The article starts by posing the question, "Are psychedelics good for you?" The writer, John Cloud, goes on to say, "today ... we have a Leary for a less naive age: Richard Doblin. Also a Harvard guy--his Ph.D. is in public policy--Doblin founded the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) in 1986 to help scientists get funding and approval to study the drugs ... Doblin has painstakingly worked with intensely skeptical federal authorities to win necessary permissions. MAPS helped launch all four of the current Ecstasy studies, a process that took two decades. It's the antithesis of Leary's approach. All drugs have benefits and risks, but in psychedelics we have been tempted to see only one or the other. Not anymore."

April 15, 2007.  This op-ed published in the Sacramento Bee is an excellent summary of the political and legal implications of MAPS' recent legal victory over the DEA in MAPS' quest to put marijuana through FDA clinical trials.

April 12, 2007. Charles Hayes, author of Tripping: An Anthology of True-Life Psychedelic Adventures (available in the MAPS store), has published a thought provoking article in Tikkun magazine (A Bimonthly Jewish Critique of Politics, Culture & Society) entitled, "Can Science Validate the Psychedelic Experience?"; Many of MAPS' psychedelic research studies are mentioned.

April 4, 2007. The Jerusalem Post published an interesting article about Pessah, the discovery of LSD, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the human psyche entitled "Significant Synchronicities." In the article, the writer, Reuven Goldfarb, highly recommends Albert Hofmann's autobiographical book LSD: My Problem Child, which was re-published by MAPS in 2006.

April 3, 2007. The TV talk show host Montel Williams published an articulate op-ed in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "Medical Use of Marijuana Should be Legalized." Williams uses medical marijuana to treat the dehabilitating neuropathic pain caused by multiple sclerosis. Williams writes that, "My doctors wrote me prescriptions for some of the strongest painkillers available. I took Percocet, Vicodin and Oxycontin on a regular basis, knowingly risking overdose just trying to make the pain bearable. But these powerful, expensive drugs brought me no relief ... When someone suggested I try marijuana, I was skeptical. But I also was desperate. To my amazement, it worked after the legal drugs had failed. Three puffs and within minutes the excruciating pain in my legs subsided. I had my first restful sleep in months."

March 31, 2007. As reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, former Republican Congressman Bob Barr has become a vocal supporter of medical marijuana and has taken a new position as a lobbyist for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). Read about this development in "Barr Shifts in Support of Medical Marijuana". Last month, MPP awarded MAPS a grant of $45,000 for lobbying efforts to pressure DEA to accept the recent Administrative Law Judge ruling in favor of Prof. Lyle Craker's proposed MAPS-sponsored marijuana production facility.

March 30, 2007. The New York Times published "Pom-Poms, Pyramids, and Peril," a feature article describing the the high rate of catastrophic injury among cheerleaders and other "recreational" athletes. This story is noteworthy in light of Jag Davies' article in the Winter 2006-07 MAPS Bulletin, "Ecstasy and Cheerleading: A Basic Risk Comparison".

March 25, 2007. Alan Bock, senior editorial writer for the Orange County Register published "Still Waiting to Inhale," describing several recent signs of hope for medical marijuana patients, such as the recent DEA ALJ ruling in favor of ending NIDA's monopoly on marijuana research and licensing Prof. Lyle Craker's proposed MAPS-sponsored medical marijuana production facility.

March 23, 2007. London's Guardian published "Alcohol worse than ecstasy on shock new drug list." The article describes a groundbreaking report published in the medical journal The Lancet from a group of the UK's leading scientists, including members of the government's top advisory committee on drug classification, that concluded that alcohol and tobacco should be rated as more dangerous than cannabis, LSD and ecstasy. Back in the US, the Associated Press covered the report in "Study: Alcohol, Tobacco Worse Than Drugs".

March 22, 2007. London's Guardian published a stinging indictment of the Drug War, entitled "Drugs: Stop the War".

March 20, 2007. Time Magazine's annual "What's Next" issue ran a brief story entitled "Taking a trip for your mental health," highlighting MAPS-sponsored MDMA, psilocybin, and ketamine research.

March 19, 2007. American Medical News published an article about MAPS' recent legal victory in our quest for a medical marijuana production facility.

March 16, 2007. On March 14, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously rejected (3-0) an appeal by medical marijuana patient Angel Raich, ruling that the 10th amendment does not protect her right to use medical marijuana and that there is no constitutional right to use marijuana to treat pain and suffering. MAPS and MPP submitted an amicus curiae brief for the appeal, as well as for Raich's previous cases, detailing the federal government's obstruction of medical marijuana research. Raich, a mother of two, uses marijuana to treat severe chronic pain, an inoperable brain tumor, wasting syndrome, and seizures. With Raich's appeal lost, one more potential door to federally-legal medical marijuana is firmly shut, making the route through FDA even more necessary than before.

Prof. Randy Barnett, Raich's lawyer and a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, published a thorough op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. The San Francisco Chronicle also published a candid op-ed, "The laws against marijuana are stupid".

March 6, 2007. Peter Jennings' special ABC report entitled Ecstasy Rising is available for viewing. This groundbreaking documentary discusses MDMA's cultural history, its use as a therapeutic tool, the government's criminalization and exaggeration of its risks, and MAPS' recent success with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy research. Regarding this clip we would like to give SPECIAL thanks to Nathan for ripping this footage and hosting it onsite ;-) Many gracious THANX...!

February 27, 2007. This article about LSD entitled The Trip Goes On was published in UK's The Guardian.

February 26, 2007. MAPS and medical marijuana advocates won a major victory against the federal government on February 12, as the DEA's administrative law judge ruled on behalf of Professor Lyle Craker, who is attempting to break the government's 65-year monopoly on marijuana research by establishing a MAPS-sponsored research-grade marijuana production facility at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. News of the lawsuit victory was covered by more than 100 media outlets, and most of the top media outlets across the country have repoorted on and editorialized about MAPS' historic legal triumph over the DEA.

One of the best quotes comes from an editorial in the Chicago Tribune that says, "If the government is so sure that marijuana has no medical value, it should welcome this sort of research. If it refuses to facilitate such studies, it must fear knowing the truth."

Here are some more of the articles that we have archived over the past couple weeks:

Chicago Tribune
Truth and Medical Marijuana

St. Petersburg Times:
DEA stymies science

Boston Globe:
Judge: Let prof grow medicinal marijuana

San Francisco Chronicle:
Judge sides with botanist on pot supply

McClatchey News newswire article, which was carried in The Miami Herald, San Jose Mercury-News, Seattle Post-Intelligencer and others:
Judge rules government supply of marijuana is inadequate

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal:
Ole Miss may get competition in growing marijuana

Springfield Republican:
Marijuana Research a New Field at UMass?

Bay Area Reporter:
Judge tells DEA to issue license to grow pot for research

Austin Chronicle
Reefer Madness: Judge Supports Bid to Grow Research Pot

February 20, 2007. The Prince Albert Daily Herald published an article about the pioneering psychedelic research program at the University of Saskatchewan's Weyburn Hospital in the 1950s and 60s, led by Dr. Humphrey Osmond.

February 19, 2007. Cosmos magazine published an article about medical research with LSD.

February 14, 2007. Swiss Radio International's Swissinfo published a brief original article describing Dr. Peter Oehen's ongoing MAPS-sponsored pilot study evaluating MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for subjects with treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder.

February 13, 2007. The Washington Post reported in "Research Supports Medicinal Marijuana" on Dr. Donald Abrams' double-blind study of smoked marijuana for HIV-related peripheral neuropathy that was published in the respected journal Neurology. The findings showed that marijuana can be a safe and effective medication for many people with this condition, and is evidence of marijuana's therapeutic potential. Yet, no researchers are continuing Dr. Abrams' promising research, because NIDA's monopoly and arbitrary review process deters any private sponsor from investing in a medical marijuana drug development effort. The article finished by mentioning MAPS' victory in our lawsuit against DEA/NIDA, although it unfortunately doesn't explicitly connect the two issues.

February 1, 2007. The Scientist published an article about psilocybin research that attempts to point to the risks of psychedelic research. Read Are Ritalin and psilocybin equivalent in terms of effect and safety?

January 31, 2007. Reuters reported in "Smokable Pain Drugs Promise Faster Action" on Alexza's development of smokeable drugs for migraine, pain, panic and agitation. This development could have implications for research with medical marijuana, since one of the government's main arguments has been that no legitimate medicine is smoked.

January 23, 2007. Slate published a positive description of MAPS' MDMA drug development efforts in a front page article entitled "What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been: Ecstasy, the New Prescription Drug?"

January 20, 2007. The New Scientist's Maia Szalavitz reports on promising ketamine research in "Tackling Depression with Ketamine".

January 13, 2007. UK medical journal The Lancet published a concise book review of Prof. Thomas Roberts' book Psychedelic Horizons. Thomas "...challenges swathes of current thinking by asking questions about altered states of consciousness, including those induced by psychedelics. The variety of these experiences clearly suggests our minds are multistate, and prompt further questions about the potential of these different states for healing, psychology, cognitive studies, and education."

December 28, 2006. Nature featured an article describing MAPS-sponsored efforts to initiate research with LSD and psilocybin to treat cluster headaches, a rare and painful condition that is difficult to treat.

December 14, 2006. In response to the sensationalistic and inaccurate recent news coverage of prospective Ecstasy user studies by Dutch researcher Dr. Maartje M. de Win, MAPS President Rick Doblin, Ph.D. wrote this open letter to Dr. de Win voicing his concerns, and MAPS Clinical Research Associate Ilsa Jerome, Ph.D., wrote a special report evaluating the media's claims and how they relate (or not) to the actual data.

December 11, 2006. Today's BBC News features an article describing Dr. Francisco Moreno's Heffter- and MAPS-sponsored research at the Univ. of Arizona-Tucson evaluating psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy as treatment for individuals suffering from treatment-resistant Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Dr. Moreno recently published his findings in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

December 8, 2006. While in Thailand to testify in a medical MDMA trial, MAPS President Rick Doblin took the opportunity to do an interview with The Nation, Thailand's largest English-language daily newspaper. In the interview, Doblin speculates on the possibility of conducting MDMA/PTSD research with tsunami victims and discusses MAPS' international psychedelic research agenda.

December 7, 2006. The Chronicle of Higher Education published the article "Researchers Explore New Visions for Hallucinogens." This article describes the current renaissance in psychedelic research, particularly Dr. Francisco Moreno's recently-published Heffter- and MAPS-sponsored study evaluating psilocybin as treatment for OCD. The article also discusses the recent psilocybin/mystical experience study at John Hopkins, and Dr. Charles Grob's ongoing Heffter' sponsored study at UCLA evaluating psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy as treatment for individuals with anxiety disorders secondary to advanced-stage cancer.

December 6, 2006. Prague's largest English daily, The Prague Post, reported today in "Long, Strange Trip" on MAPS-sponsored long-term follow-up research with Czechoslovak patients that were treated with LSD as part of a government-sponsored program between 1956-1974. A proposed MAPS-sponsored LSD-assisted psychotherapy study in Switzerland could soon become the first LSD research in the world in 35 years.

December 4, 2006. "Safer Deals: the Pastor" was published in Crawford, Texas' Lone Star Iconoclast this week, describing some of the unusual alliances that have been formed between religious groups and secular activists in order to help medical marijuana research gain credibility. MAPS isn't mentioned explicitly but Professor Lyle Craker's DEA lawsuit for a MAPS-sponsored marijuana production facility is mentioned.

December 2, 2006. The norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv published an interview of John Halpern and Pål Johansen about the rapidly evolving field of clinical research investigating the therapeutic use of hallucinogens and MDMA. The interview was conducted related to Dr. Halperns visit to Norway where he hold workshops and guest lectures. Dr. Halpern got excellent feedback from the workshops, to read more visit the organizers webpage www.evidence.no/en.

December 1, 2006. "This American Life" on National Public Radio features a story about a former heroin addict who has been treating people addicted to heroin with the psychedelic drug ibogaine. MAPS is currently sponsoring an IRB-approved long-term observational case study of ibogaine treatments at the Iboga Therapy House in Vancouver, Canada.

  The Chicago-based magazine Conscious Choice published a series of articles this week about MAPS, psychedelic therapy, and Entheon Village, the Burning Man theme camp that hosted MAPS' 20th anniversary gathering last summer.

~"Psychedelic Therapy: MAPS Founder Rick Doblin riffs on Burning Man, applied psychedelics, the culture of harm reduction, and America's 40-year long bad trip" is a thoughtful interview with MAPS President Rick Doblin, Ph.D.
~"Chicago's Entheon Village reinvents counterculture with art, community, and activism" discusses MAPS' 20th Anniversary celebration at this year's Burning Man Festival.
~"Strangers in the White Tent: Or, how Burning Man totally flipped my wig" is a well-written account from long-time MAPS member Dan Simborg.

November 29, 2006. Of particular applicability to MAPS' medical marijuana drug development efforts is Brian Vastag's new article, "US marijuana laws clamping the lid on pot research," published in Nature Medicine, which speaks to the difficulties faced by marijuana researchers.

November 27, 2006. Interview on NYPR: Take note that MAPS researchers John Halpern and Michael Mitthoefer were featured on a New York Public Radio show on November 27th, 2006 about Therapeutic or Psychedelic Psychotherapy. The archived show can be heard here (or download by right clicking on the preceeding link and selecting 'save target as').

November 19, 2006. The LA Times ran "Mushrooms Take a Trip Back to the Lab," on the front page of its Sunday edition. The article describes MAPS-initiated research at Harvard/Mclean Hospital evaluating psilocybin as treatment for cluster headache, Dr. Charles Grob's psilocybin/end-of-life anxiety pilot study at UCLA, and the recent Johns Hopkins study demonstrating that psilocybin induces mystical experiences. MAPS is in the early stages of protocol design for a study evaluating psyilocybin-assisted psychotherapy as a potential treatment for end-of-life anxiety. Unfortunately, although the article is mostly accurate, Times Staff writer Denise Gellene misleadingly prefaces her article by stating, "Nothing scientists have learned so far indicates that recreational use of mushrooms is safe," a far cry from the truth.

October 31, 2006. Working with Difficult Psychedelic Experiences

MAPS' first educational video, a practical introduction to the principles of psychedelic therapy, is now available for viewing online. This 20-minute educational video teaches psychedelic drug users how to minimize psychological risks and explore the therapeutic applications of psychedelics. Narrated by Donna Dryer, M.D., the video demonstrates examples of when and how to help a friend, peer, or loved one make the most out of a difficult experience with psychedelics.

October 25, 2006. MAPS President Rick Doblin, Ph.D. Presents at the First Arab-Israeli Joint Conference on Drug Policy

October 18, 2006. New research from the University of Cincinnati suggests that MDMA can increase the survival of dopamine cells in the brain during fetal development, which are critical in the regulation of voluntary movement, potentially leading to better therapies for neurological diseases like Parkinson's. The press release mentioned MAPS-sponsored research evaluating MDMA-assisted therapy as a treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Forbes Magazine also reported on this research, along with a report on new research from Ohio State University validating other findings that the active ingredients in marijuana may slow the prorgression of Alzheimer's disease.

October 16, 2006. The Globe and Mail published an editorial entitiled, "The LSD Treatment", describing a study just published in the journal Social History of Medicine about a long-term follow-up study on Dr. Humphrey Osmond's research treating alcoholics with LSD-assisted therapy.

October 2, 2006. Bestselling author Sam Harris ("Letter to a Christian Nation," "The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason") revealed in an LA Times article that his "deep-seated thinking about religion" originated from an experience while on MDMA in 1986.

September 18, 2006. Nicholas Powers' "The Ecstasy of Exile" explores the racial politics of Burning Man and describes his use of MDMA there. Not directly about MAPS, but raises some compelling issues.

September 13, 2006. The science journal Nature reported today on MAPS-initiated research at Harvard/Maclean Hospital investigating the efficacy of LSD and psilocybin to treat cluster headache. Click here to read "Dropping acid may help headaches."

September 12, 2006. The Washington Post published the article, "Marijuana Aids Therapy," describing a study just published in the European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, finding that marijuana can improve the effectiveness of drug therapy for hepatitis C, a potentially deadly viral infection that affects more than 3 million Americans. "The work adds to a growing literature supporting the notion that in some circumstances pot can offer medical benefits," wrote Post reporter Rick Weiss.

September 9, 2006. Norways largest week magazine Ny Tid, feature an article under the section "A new time; about developments that change the world" covering Dr. Halperns workshops. The article stressed the enormous therapeutic potential of almost all the MAPS sponsored research, and critically discusses the supression and schedulling history of this research. To read more about Dr. Halperns workshop visit the organizers webpage www.evidence.no/en

September 2, 2006. The San Francisco Chronicle published an article about a structure built by MAPS Patron Member Vanja Palmers that served as a meditation Zendo in Entheon Village during MAPS' 20th anniversary gathering at Burning Man. Palmers donated the structure -- made entirely from recycled materials -- to MAPS for use at future conferences and events.

August 20, 2006. VG, one of the largest Norwegian newspapers, published a very positive piece on MDMA psychotherapy research that includes interviews with Charles Grob, M.D., and Pål-Ørjan Johansen, Ph.D. (View PDF of article).

August 18, 2006. The Guardian reports on Merck's official history of MDMA, as recounted in a recently published paper in the journal Addiction.

August 16, 2006. Health Reporter Jim Ritter published in the Chicago Sun-Times today "Pain Sufferer Turns to 'Shrooms'." The article describes the use of psilocybin as a treatment for cluster headaches and MAPS-initiated research at Harvard/McLean Hospital investigating LSD and psilocybin as treatment for subjects with cluster headache, a rare and dehabilitating condition.

August 9, 2006. British Columbia's The Tyee published "Psychedelics Could Treat Addiction, Says Vancouver Official," reporting that Vancouver's top drug policy official and B.C. public health physicians believe addicts might be treated by giving them psychedelic drugs, and they hope the city will lead in exploring the controversial approach. Last month, MAPS received "conditional approval" from a Canadian IRB for a long-term observational case study examining changes in substance use in 20 consecutive people seeking ibogaine-based addiction treatment for opiate dependence at Iboga Therapy House.

August 8, 2006. As reported in the science journal Nature, National Institute of Mental Health-sponsored researchers published a study today in the Archives of General Psychiatry finding that ketamine shows breakthrough potential as a treatment for depression. In the study, 17 people suffering from major depression who had failed to respond to treatment with standard antidepressant drugs or more drastic methods were treated with ketamine. The results showed that 71% felt better the day after taking ketamine, and 35% still felt better a week later, while none improved when dosed with a placebo.

August 3, 2006. The Austin Chronicle published a brief article describing Prof. Craker's DEA lawsuit for refusing to license a MAPS-sponsored marijuana production facility. "...Marijuana-law-reform advocates are anxiously awaiting a ruling from a Drug Enforcement Administration administrative-law judge on whether the National Institute on Drug Abuse will be allowed to maintain a monopoly on growing and distributing pot for use in clinical research," the Chronicle reported.

August 2, 2006. Peter Jenning's hour-long 2004 primetime special Ecstasy Rising has been posted on YouTube. Ecstasy Rising has to be seen to be believed: the mainstream media acknowledging the government's fraudulent claims about Ecstasy and openly discussing the history of its therapeutic applications. Click here to watch.

July 11, 2006. A NIDA-funded research team from John Hopkins University published the first modern-day continuation of the Good Friday Experiment, finding that psilocybin is likely to induce spiritual experiences in most subjects. A former NIDA director and a former deputy director of ONDCP supported the results of the study, but the current NIDA director issued a statement distancing NIDA from the study. Read about this amazing psychedelic research development as reported by the Economist, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, LA Times, and ABC News, which features a salient quote from MAPS President Rick Doblin.

Later the same week, National Public Radio"s Weekend America aired two related stories: one detailing the implications of the John Hopkins study, and another desribing Dr. Charles Grob's research investigating psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy as a treatment for subjects with advanced stage cancer suffering from clinical anxiety. Click here to listen. The Boston Globe's Science section also published "Psychedelic mushrooms earn serious 2d look from science".

June 22, 2006. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, USA (PCUSA) voted on June 21 to support access to medical marijuana for people who have a doctor's recommendation. The Presbyterian Church, USA, is the seventh major denomination to take a position in support of medical marijuana. The others are the United Methodist Church, Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ, Union for Reform Judaism, Progressive National Baptist Convention and Unitarian Universalist Association. No denomination has come out officially against medical marijuana. Read more here.

May 28, 2006. The Boston Sunday Globe published "Weed Control," an article describing the proposed medical marijuana growing facility at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, the current government monopoly on marijuana grown for research and the MAPS-supported lawsuit filed against the DEA to end this monopoly. The piece describes MAPS' involvement in developing the proposed facility and features quotes from MAPS' president Rick Doblin. The article, with multiple graphics, was the lead article in the Ideas section which most everyone reads since it contains the editorials, the op-eds and other feature articles.

May 24, 2006. Click here to read "The Electric Kool-Aid Medicine Test," an interview by Terrance McNally published by AlterNet in which psychedelic researcher Dr. Charles Grob explains how psychedelic drugs have the potential to alter modern medicine.

May 21, 2006. The New York Times published a letter to the editor from Jerry Epstein of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas, in which he cites the federal governement's obstruction of Dr. Lyle Craker's proposed MAPS-sponsored medical marijuana production facility as an example of its "insane policy against the medical use of marijuana". Click here to read the full text of Epstein's letter.

May 16, 2006. Australian Democrats MP Sandra Kanck made a controversial and groundbreaking speech before the Australian Parliament last week advocating harm-reduction drug education and the therapeutic use of MDMA. Read the full text of her speech here, in which she cites MAPS-sponsored research investigating MDMA-assisted psychotherapy as a treatment for individuals with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The Advertiser also reported on MAPS President Rick Doblin's offer of support as she encountered the inevitable political backlash. As evidenced by an article published today in The Australian, however, MP Kanck is standing by her statements and receiving "widespread support."

May 15, 2006. The Boston Globe published "A Good Death", an article that discussess the resurgence of interest in studying MDMA and psychedelic drugs to help people with cancer deal with anxiety and pain. The piece describes research MAPS helped design and locate funding for that will look at the potential therapeutic benefits of MDMA in people who are anxious as a result of advanced stage cancer. The latest MAPS Bulletin contains an article about the woman described in this article who used MDMA to treat cancer-related pain and anxiety. A PDF of the this piece is now available..

May 5, 2006. The LA Times published "Puffing is the Best Medicine", an opinion piece by Lester Grinspoon supporting smoking as an effective means of taking medical marijuana in response to a recent statement on this topic from the FDA.

April 29, 2006. The New York Times reports Mexico Passes Law Making Possession of Some Drugs Legal. Mexican lawmakers defied US pressure in passing a bill that makes it legal to possess small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, heroin, and psychedelics such as LSD, MDMA/Ecstasy, peyote, and psilocybin muchrooms. President Vicente Fox had proposed the law in January 2004 in the hopes of slowing down Mexico's rapid growth in drug addiction.

April 27, 2006. Following the FDA's abrupt and poorly documented statement on April 20th, a critical backlash has ensued. The Economist published "Reefer Madness: Marijuana is medically useful, whether politicians like it or not" on the heels of editorials in the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune admonishing the FDA for its transparent politicization of science.

April 21, 2006.  The FDA issued a statement indicating that marijuana had no currently accepted medical uses. Stories in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Associated Press reported on this statement and responses to it within and outside the medical community. Prof. Lyle Craker is quoted discussing his lawsuit against the DEA for refusing to issue him a license for a marijuana production facility. NIDA's marijuana was criticized for poor quality, but not for the more comprehensive lack of an "adequate and uninterrupted" supply that is the basis of Prof. Craker's lawsuit. FDA's statement wasn't that marijuana had no medical uses. Rather, what the statement actually means is that due to a lack of research data from large Phase III studies, which won't take place until NIDA's marijuana monopoly is broken, FDA will consider marijuana to have no currently accepted medical uses. This statment points yet again to the need for large-scale, privately-funded Phase III studies with smoked and vaporized marijuana, which DEA is blocking by refusing to issue Prof. Craker his license.

April 17, 2006. The University of Pennsylvania published "Psychedelic Psychotherapy: The Ethics of Medicine for the Soul."

April 15, 2006. Sue Blackmore interviewed Torsten Passie about psychedelic healing for the NewScientist.

April 14, 2006. A recently published editorial in the Lancet supports research into the potential therapeutic benefits of psychedelic drugs and calls for a new legal structure that makes this research easier and less burdensome to conduct. The Lancet editorial was likely inspired by a commentary published in the British Journal of Psychiatry. This editorial was then covered by the British newspaper, the Guardian.

April 7, 2006. The Daily Nexus published Activists Assemble for Cannabis Conference, announcing The Fourth National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics at Santa Barbara City College, which features lectures from doctors, health care researchers and patients, as well as talk show-host and medical marijuana advocate Montel Williams.

April 5, 2006. BBC News International publishes "The Trip of a Lifetime," which describes the resurgence of interest in psychedelics in the medical community and Dr. Charles Grob's pilot study using psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy as a treatment for subjects with advanced-stage cancer suffering from clinical anxiety disorders.

April 4, 2006. UK Newspaper The Guardian published "The strange case of the man who took 40,000 ecstasy pills in nine years," reporting on what London University doctors believe is the largest amount of ecstasy consumed by a single person.

  Tribune Media Services published "Psychedelic 'cookies' are a mushrooming problem," an op-ed written by a registered pharmacist who mentions the LSD/Psilocybin Cluster Headache study at Harvard Medical School and who would rather consume her mushrooms "at a nice restaurant, smothered in Marsala sauce."

  BBC Radio 4's weekly program All in the Mind aired a program about LSD, current psychedelic research, and the possible role of these kinds of drugs in modern psychiatry.

February 21, 2006. As reported by the Associated Press, the Washington Post, and the New York Times, on Tuesday morning, February 21, 2006, the US Supreme Court unanimously approved the religious use of ayahuasca by the Uniao do Vegetal (UDV).

February 18, 2006.  The Weekend Australian published LSD faces an acid test as a pain killer, an article about proposed MAPS-sponsored cluster headache research.

February 17, 2006.  British weekly The Scientist published Growing pot for science, an article that covers Dr. Lyle Crakers DEA lawsuit for a MAPS-sponsored medical marijuana production facility.

February 4, 2006. Australian newspaper The Age published "Tripping the light fantasmic," a positive and in-depth article covering the history of LSD from the perspective of its infamous father, Albert Hofmann.

January 25, 2006. An article in the New Zealand Herald about posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in veterans mentions the use of MDMA for PTSD but makes some incorrect claims. A letter to the editor from Rick Doblin corrects the mistakes. This article demonstrates that there is a widely perceived need for more effective treatments for PTSD and that the MDMA research is increasingly accepted as a necessary and not very controversial effort.

January 16, 2006. Wired News published LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug?, an article that covers the LSD Conference in Basel, the history of LSD, and the therapeutic potential of LSD and other currently-illegal substances.

January 13, 2006.  Reuters published an article about Albert Hofmann's 100th birthday, noting that he attributes his longevity to daily egg breakfast rather than his infamous discovery, LSD.

January 12, 2006. The Times Union in Albany, New York published an article anounncing Albert Hofmann's 100th birthday and includes an interview with Roger Walsh, providing his description of what a LSD trip might be like and its potentital to benefit the user.

   The China Daily published "UK psychiatrists mull use of LSD as treatment," reviewing the current state of psychedelic and MDMA drug research around the world.

January 11, 2006. UK Newspaper The Guardian published "Psychiatrist calls for end to 30-year taboo over use of LSD as a medical treatment," reporting on Dr. Ben Sessa's assessment of LSD and its therapeutic potential.

January 7, 2006. The New York Times published a sincere portrait of Albert Hofmann as his 100th Birthday approaches, marked by an International LSD Symposium in honor of the father and his infamous problem child.

December 27, 2005. The New York Daily News Washington Bureau published a succint and informative article about the DEA Lawsuit.

  An article in the Washington Post, "A Political Debate On Stress Disorde," by Shankar Vedantam, reports that in 2004 the US Veterans Affairs Department spent $4.3 billion on PTSD benefit payments to a total of 215,871 veterans. If the results of the second half of our MDMA/PTSD study are as promising as the results of the first half, we will have data suggesting that it would be financially wise for the VA to fund the entire $5 million cost of MAPS' Phase III studies to evaluate whether MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD should become approved by the FDA as a legally-available treatment for PTSD.

December 24, 2005.  Mail & Guardian Online, Africa's first online newspaper, published Daddy Ecstasy, an positive article offering a window into the world of Sasha Shulgin, tracing his path as the forgotten father of modern ecstasy and his thoughts on current therapeutic uses of MDMA.

December 23, 2005.  An article by Reuters news service, "Medical frauds: Korean scientist hardly the first", lists several previous articles that have had to be withdrawn from major medical journals. Included in the list is the 2002 paper in /Science/ by Ricaurte/McCann claiming that MDMA damaged dopamine neurons and could cause Parkinson's, retracted since the animals had actually been administered methamphetamine and not MDMA.

December 20, 2005.  The Village Voice published Busted for Iboga, reporting on the recent arrest of a Wyoming couple who planned to import the drug for addiction treatment. It points out ibogaine's success in curing addiction and the negative images generated by such DEA busts and the presence of makeshift clinics around the country.

December 19, 2005.  The Daily Journal published Ole Miss marijuana monopoly under fire, reporting on the University of Mississippi's insistence that their marijuana is of an acceptable grade.

December 13, 2005. The Associated Press published Prof. questions gov't monopoly on marijuana, a positive article about the DEA Lawsuit.

  The West Palm Beach Florida News published Government's Medical Pot 'Just Isn't Strong Enough'.

December 12, 2005. The Washington Post published Federal Marijuana Monopoly Challenged, an article that comprehensively summarizes the MAPS/Craker DEA Lawsuit, quoting Lyle Craker, Rick Doblin, and Grover Norquist.

December 5, 2005. A press release was issued today, "DEA to Argue Against U. Mass Growing of Medicinal Cannabis at Administrative Hearing December 12-16: Grover Norquist, Medical Groups and 35 Members of Congress Tell DEA They Support Expanded Research." We've also posted background information including transcripts of the hearing.

December 3, 2005.  Reuter's published Ecstasy 'has great potential', a short article referencing Sasha Shulgin's talk at MIT and his concerns for MDMA's fate to be known as a dangerous club drug rather than a powerful medicine.

December 2, 2005. Leading the Charge, an Australian weekly newspaper, published "Dr. Ecstasy" laments the rave drugs notoriety, quoting Sasha Shulgin from his talk at MIT about the path and fate of MDMA in our society. The article also mentions the MAPS/MDMA study with Dr. Mithoefer, although not by name.

November 29, 2005. NORML.org published NIDA's Pot Monopoly To Resume Next Month.

November 16, 2005. A Reuters news service article, "Pressure on FDA could stall advances," by Michael Conlon, discusses the political pressures on FDA regarding women's health issues. This sort of pressure isn't happening with psychedelic and marijuana research, where science still carries the day.

November 15, 2005. An excellent roundtable discussion about psychedelics and Judaism was published in Jewish Currents, published by the Association for Promotion of Jewish Secularism, Inc. The article is entitled, "Just Say Maybe- Psychedelic Drugs, Healing and Politics: An Interview with Four Jewish Researchers (Rick Doblin, Charlie Grob, Julie Holland, Howard Lotsof).

November 11, 2005. The Good Drugs Guide Radio show, out of England, broadcast a show entitled,"The State of Ecstasy." The show is described as follows, "It's ten years since the death of Leah Betts, a teenager who died after taking a single tablet of ecstasy, also known as MDMA. Her tragic death triggered a huge backlash against the drug here in the UK. Even so, 700,000 people still take E every week in this country. So what have we learnt about ecstasy in the last decade? Do the stories of terrible comedowns, brains like swiss cheese, and instant death have any credibility? Could MDMA really become a prescription drug? And has the music got any better? We find out. Guests include Dr Julie Holland, author of Ecstasy The Complete Guide, Rick Doblin, president of MAPS.org, and Mike Linnell of drug charity Lifeline. The show also uses clips from the excellent ABC documentary, Ecstasy Rising."

November 7, 2005. Harvard University's web site presents a story about Dr. John Halpern's peyote study in the upper right hand corner of the home page!!

  The Washington Post publishes an article covering John Halpern's peyote study.

  The Daily Texan, the newspaper of the University of Texas at Austin, published a letter about, "The harms of MDMA" that presented misleading information about MAPS' MDMA research projects. The letter critiqued a previous column entitled, "Debunking drug folklore," MAPS President Rick Doblin replied to correct the record. While taking time to write to a student newspaper may not at first glance represent a wise use of MAPS staff time, in the age of Google, even student letters can be read by a large number of people, especially when the topic is discussed repeatedly in the student newspaper. Indeed, the Daily Texan also published a more reasonable letter, "The harm of Ecstacy, II." While MAPS concentrates on scientific research, our educational mission is also of major importance.

November 6, 2005. Maariv, a popular daily newspaper in Israel, published "Peyote to the masses - new research conducted among native Americans shows that the drug produced from the Peyote cactus does not harm the brain - perhaps even the contrary!" In Hebrew, the article references John Halpern's Peyote study.

November 4, 2005. PBS's Religon and Ethics NewsWeekly ran a segment about the Supreme Court and Brazilian Religious Rituals, discussing the seizure of hoasca tea imported from Brazil for religious-worship purposes. The timing of Justice O'Connor's departure from the Supreme Court and the possiblity of Samuel Alito's confirmation to the Court will likely be the deciding factors in the case.

November 2, 2005. "Justices Weighing Narcotics Policy Against Needs of a Church," a NYTimes article by Linda Greenhouse discusses yesterday's U.S. Supreme Court case about whether the religious use of ayahuasca is protected by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or whether the DEA can criminalize that use, which is what DEA wants to do.

AP wire service reporter Gina Holland also wrote an article, High Court Hears Hallucinogenic Tea Case.

October 21, 2005.  An article in the UCLA Daily Bruin discusses animal rights protesters objecting to a proposed study in primates, "Making Connections: MDMA Research on the Mechanisms of Affiliation and Trust." The article mentions that this research was submitted for funding to MAPS, by Anthropology Professor Alan Page Fiske, who is quoted as saying, "The biggest problems we have in the world are people not trusting each other and not feeling a solidarity (and) feeling distant," Fiske said. "If we could understand the basis of compassion and caring, that's about the most important thing human and biological sciences could do." A MAPS Bulletin article about Prof. Fiske's research can be found here. At present, there is no funding for the study.

Briefly stated, MAPS has not funded animal research for about ten years but is not categorically opposed to doing so if the research is of sufficient importance. MAPS considers Prof. Fiske's proposed research to be sufficiently important to be worthy of being conducted but the information it would generate isn't essential for MAPS' program of research intended to develop MDMA into an FDA-approved prescription medication. MAPS' top priority is our human studies into the therapeutic use of MDMA. These studies require substantial resources so our intention is to conduct further research in animals only when required by FDA.

October 19, 2005. October 19, 2005. Mother Jones Magazine publishes, "Respectable Reefer," an excellent article about medical marijuana by Gary Greenberg that discusses GW Pharmaceuticals, MAPS and drug war politics.

October 15, 2005. The British Journal of Psychiatry publishes four letters and a reply, commenting on Ben Sessa's June 15, 2005 editorial urging the resumption of psychedelic research.

September 19, 2005. An article from Salon.com marks the The Return of Reefer Madness, as the US Drug Czar's marketing implies a connection between marijuana and insanity.

September 18, 2005. The Washington Post published "A Rare and Unusual Harvest," an article about the Native American Church's efforts to successfully maintain peyote cultivation in the United States.

  The Tampa Tribune reports about the use of ketamine-induced comas in chronic regional pain syndrome.

September 12, 2005. Mexican website ViveConDrogas.com published "Septiembre y el xtasis," an intriguing article about drug policy reform and MAPS-funded MDMA research.

September 1, 2005. A summary of recent press coverage of the MAPS/Craker/DEA hearing is available here.

  The Sarasota-Herald Tribune published Cannabis College, an article about New College of Florida's ranking in High Times Magazine's list of the nation's top cannabis colleges. The article quotes Rick Doblin, who received his undergraduate degree from New College.

August 31, 2005. Julia Thompson from McMaster University in Canada published "LSD finds new respectability." The article references the MDMA studies and protocols currently underway and points out that the term 'psychedelic' was coined in Canada.

August 27, 2005. The New York Times published op-ed column "Marijuana Pipe Dreams" by John Tierney, reporting on the current Craker-DEA lawsuit. In a subsequent letter to the editor responding to the mention of a Marinol patient choking to death on his own vomit, Michael Simmons informed the New York Times of the vomit-choking myth.

August 25, 2005. The Sacramento Bee Washington Bureau published Clash over pot research gets personal, an article about the DEA-Craker lawsuit proceedings including a quote from Rick Doblin.

August 22, 2005. The ACLU issues a press release on the MAPS DEA Lawsuit proceedings.

August 18, 2005. The Perspective Section of the New England Journal of Medicine published an article, "Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court," by Susan Oakie, MD, a contributing editor of the Journal. Click here for full text version.

August 17, 2005. Commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), by Dean Lawrence Gostin, Georgetown Law School, criticizes NIDA for blocking medical marijuana research. The article is entitled, "Medical Marijuana, American Federalism, and the Supreme Court."

August 2, 2005. London's Guardian publishes a positive article by Mark Honigsbaum, "Headache sufferers flout new drug law- Calls for clinical trials and rethink of legislation as patients claim that magic mushrooms can relieve excruciating condition." MAPS' effort to sponsor research into the use of LSD and psilocybin in treating cluster headaches is favorably mentioned.

July 26, 2005. San Francisco Chronicle publishes this op-ed about medical pot regulation and the measures San Fransciso is taking to protect its medical marijuana patients.

June 20, 2005. A new political advertisement about medical marijuana, mentioning federal obstruction of research and providing a link to the MAPS website for more information, appeared in the National Review, the New Republic, the American Prospect, The Nation, Reason Magazine, and The Progressive. The ad was placed by Common Sense for Drug Policy.

June 17, 2005. UK News site Guardian Unlimited ran this story about Alexander Shulgin, his history as a pharmacologist, and the repercussions of his 1965 synthesis of MDMA.

June 15, 2005. Dr. Ben Sessa's article from the British Journal of Psychiatry debates whether psychedelics can have a role in psychiatry again. On October 15, 2005, the Journal published four letters and a reply, commenting on the editorial and its urging for the resumption of psychedelic research. Ben also conducted an interview with Dr. Ronnie Sandison, inventor of the word "psycholytic.

June 9, 2005. Mark Miller of High Times magazine puts forth a review of the Mindstates Conference held in San Francisco this past May, including quotes from MAPS Founder and President Rick Doblin.

June 8, 2005. Sally Satel pens an Op-Ed in the New York Times today about medical marijuana, focusing on Lyle Craker, UMass Amherst and Federal obstruction of medical marijuana research.

  Wired Magazine writes Legal Pot's No Pipe Dream, discussing the recent Supreme Court decision on medical marijuana and MAPS efforts to estabish a medical marijuana pilot production facility at the University of Massachussets at Amherst with Professer Lyle Craker.

  DesMoines Register Columnist Rekha Basu delivers a compassionate and practical article on the benefits of marijuana and the "Catch-22" of the present medical marijuana struggle. She dicusses the treatment limitations that patients with serious illnesses face and urges Americans to "push their representatives for legalization of medicinal marijuana and for more unbiased research."

June 7, 2005. Ryan Grim, Salon Magazine, publishes his article A guide to Gonzales vs. Raich, What the medical marijuana ruling means for patients, the commerce clause, marital sex, Antonin Scalia's career and more. Ryan writes "But if the Supreme Court told us nothing else on Monday, it was that if this drug quagmire is ever going to end, it'll have to be stopped by the ones who started it: members of Congress. Until then, we'll gradually build our way to a society where half the population is locked in prison and the other half is guarding the prisoners."

June 2, 2005. Molly Brown of Medill News Service reports on the case between the religious group Uniao do Vegetal (UDV) and the U.S. Supreme Court on the legal status of their sacrament, the Amazonian brew ayahusaca, in this comprehensive article.

June 1, 2005. Italian publication Il Manifesto reports on MDMA research and quotes Rick Doblin.

May 25, 2005. The Church of Scientology puts out an article dismissing the therapeutic, medicinal uses of psychedelics and thus continuing the war on psychiatry.

May 23, 2005. Online Publication Nursing Spectrum puts forth an article discussing the Harvard study of MDMA psychotherapy for treatment of anxiety associated with terminal cancer. Author Lisette Hilton quotes Dr. John Halpern that "the benefits of this therapy would have greater application for nurses who tend to dying patients on a daily basis than for the physicians who prescribe the therapy."

  The CQ (Congressional Quarterly) Weekly published an excellent cover story by Tim Starks, entitled "New Prescriptions for War Trauma." The article interviews Dr. Michael Mithoefer and discusses the MAPS-sponsored study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in the treatment of PTSD.

May 19, 2005. Psychology Today offers two articles about psychedelic research constraints in the United States, one from 2005 and the other from 1994. Compare what 11 years can do!

May 18, 2005. Join Together, a drug abuse prevention organization, ran a news summary regarding the recent St. Petersburg Times article on the MDMA research MAPS sponsors.

May 16, 2005. Canadian newspaper Northern Life ran an article in the online "police beat" section by Jason Thompson in which Dr. Stephen Kish of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, among others, discuss problems and potential of MDMA use.

May 12, 2005. Rick Doblin appeared on Joe Scarborough's MSNBC segment yesterday. Here is a transcript as well as a video of the interview.

May 11, 2005.  Dr. Meg Jordan, Global Medicine Hunter, puts out a podcast about MAPS' research into the use of MDMA in the treatment of postraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Iraq War vets, and about her work with the therapeutic use of MDMA in the late 1970s!

May 9, 2005. The International edition of Newsweek published "A Psychedelic Cure", a piece similar to the a piece published last week in the domestic edition, but with greater discussion of proposed studies of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in Spain and Israel..

  The St. Petersburg Times ran a front page article,"Party pill gets tryout in therapy" written by Janet Zink, offering reporting on MAPS' mission of decriminizaling the use of MDMA for therapeutic purposes.

May 2, 2005. Newsweek Magazine runs a story on MDMA research by Eve Conant, Ecstasy: A Possible New Role for A Banned Club Drug.

April 19, 2005. Paul Malkowski conducted an excellent interview with Rick Doblin for a future issue of Recharge e-zine (http://www.rechargemag.com). Paul asked some great questions during the interview. Tragically, Paul died a few days after he completed the interview.

April 18, 2005. Fox News Online recently published "Red Tape, Big Pharm Muscle Strangling Medical Marijuana," a piece discussing the difficulties of conducting medical marijuana research with current restrictions on the supply of cannabis for research, with quotes from Lyle Craker and John Halpern.

April 11, 2005. The LA Times published, "Ecstasy's Good Side", reporting on MDMA/cancer anxiety study to be conducted by John Halpern MD, and discussed related studies (such as the study of psilocybin in people wiht cancer-related anxiety conducted by Charles Grob MD, and the ongoing study of MDMA in people with PTSD. Note that the article erroneously reports on the location of the last study, which is at the offices of Michael Mithoefer MD, and not at the Medical University of South Carolina.

March 29, 2005. The New York Times published "Medicinal Marijuana On Trial", discussing medical marijuana research and Ashcroft v. Raich.

March 25, 2005. The largest Israeli newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, published a favorable article about MAPS' Israeli conference, which took place the day before, and the use of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in treating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The article was accompanied by an incredible graphic of a drowning man holding on to a life preserver that was actually an Ecstasy pill with a smiling face.

March 20, 2005. The (Sydney, Australia) Sunday Telegraph reported on MAPS-supported research into psilocybin and LSD in people with cluster headaches to take place at McLean Hospital. The report contains a number of factual errors concerning the research and other research studies mentioned throughout the piece.

March 18, 2005. Two articles in a newspaper in Ibiza (El Mundo), "An association which supports drug research auctions off a week "of dancing" in Eivissa on the Internet", and "Eivissa's 'raves' have made this tourist destination mythic" discuss MAPS' ebay auction of, among other things, a week at a "villa in Ibiza" and report on MAPS' agenda.

March 17, 2005. Wired News published "You Need Money to Feed Your Head", a short article discussing the MAPS auction that will run from March 14 to March 21, 2005.

March 8, 2005. The NPR show, To the Point, hosted by Warren Olney, discussed Dr. Michael Mithoefer's MAPS-sponsored MDMA/PTSD study and FDA's newly approved expansion of the study to include subjects with war-related PTSD. Guests include Dr. Andrew Pomeranz (PTSD therapist), Dr. Michael Mithoefer, Rick Doblin, Ph.D. and Robert Dupont, Ph.D. (first Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse). The story runs from 23:35-50:52.

  The Scientist published "Renewed Faith in Ecstasy", a brief article on the recent history and progress of MDMA research, and featuring quotes from Rick Doblin.

March 4, 2005. BBC On-Line published an article describing recently published findings that ecstasy use was associated with increased self-reported symptoms of depression, but only in people who have a certain form of the serotonin transporter gene. You can also read a commentary on the paper.

February 28, 2005. An article in The Scientist magazine by Alison McCook discusses struggles with DEA over MAPS' psychedelic and medical marijuana research protocols.

February 26, 2005. New Scientist published a lengthy and extensive overview of current and planned research into the medical or psychiatric benefits of psychedelic substances, including MDMA, psilocybin, LSD, ketamine and ibogaine, and covernig a wide array of MAPS-supported and Heffter Institute supported studies.. The article contains a history of medical research with psychedelics.

February 23, 2005. The Boston Globe published a lengthy piece on the MDMA/cancer anxiety study that will take place at Harvard University's McLean Hospital. The piece features quotes from Halpern and from Rick Doblin.

  National Public Radio (NPR)'s "All Things Considered" aired an interview of John Halpern, who spoke about the MDMA/cancer anxiety study. You can hear a recording of the interview on the NPR website or you can read the transcripts of the interview.

  ABC World News Tonight briefly reported on the MDMA/cancer anxiety study to be conducted by John Halpern MD.

  New England Cable News airs a segment on the MAPS' sponsored study at Harvard's McLean Hospital investigating the efficacy of MDMA in reducing the anxiety experienced by terminally ill cancer patients. Click here and scroll down to the 2/23/05 item "Doctors Look To Study Ecstasy's Effects" to view the video.

February 17, 2005. The Guardian published an extensive discussion of current and planned research into the therapeutic uses of MDMA and psychedelic drugs. The article quotes John Halpern, Rick Doblin and Michael Mithoefer, and covers a surprising breadth of current and planned research in this area.

  The Guardian published another report specifically noting the recent expansion of the MDMA/PTSD study to now accept people with combat-related PTSD. The report features quotes from Michael Mithoefer, the prinicpal investigator. This is not a "new" study specifically looking at combat stress. Rather, the ongoing study is now no longer restricted to people with crime-related PTSD.

  The German newspaper Der Spiegel published a report on the recent expansion of the MDMA/PTSD study to include people with combat-related PTPSD that is even more muddled than the report from the Guardian, above. Not only does this report suggest that a new investigation is underway, but that the US military is involved in this study. As already noted, there is no new study specifically studying MDMA-assisted therapy in people with combat-related PTSD, and the military has not been involved in any step of this research so far.

February 16, 2005. The January issue of the Brazilian science magazine Galileu published "Da Balada Para o Diva,", an article in Portugese by Juliana Tiraboschi about research into the potentially therapeutic uses of MDMA.. The paper discusses the MDMA/PTSD study and quotes MAPS president Rick Doblin. You can also read a PDF version of the article.

  Dr. Michael Mithoefer and Annie Mithoefer were guests on Kathleen Brooks' radio show on World Talk Radio, Darkness to Light: Breaking the Conspiracy of Silence, for an hour-long discussion of their MAPS-sponsored MDMA/PTSD study.

February 5, 2005.  The New Scientist publishes "Cannabis: Prescribing the Miracle Weed" by Clare Wilson. The initial MAPS-sponsored medical marijuana research efforts of Dr. Donald Abrams are discussed though MAPS is not mentioned.

February 4, 2005. The UCLA newspaper the Daily Bruin featured a report on Charles Grob's research on psilocybin in people with cancer experiencing anxiety relating to their illness. The piece quoted Grob and Dr. John Halpern, the principal investigator of the MAPS-sponsored study of MDMA in people with cancer-related anxiety.

January 30, 2005. January 30, 2005. The New York Times Sunday Magazine published a profile of psychedelic chemist, Sasha Shulgin, that highlighted the approval of MDMA research at Harvard sponsored by MAPS (though MAPS was not mentioned). The article includes a quote from Dr. Steve Hyman, Harvard Provost and ex-Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, saying that he is skeptical whether MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in subjects with anxiety associated with advanced-stage cancer will actually prove beneficial but that he thinks the research should go forward. The ghost of Timothy Leary has now definitely be laid to rest at Harvard. Now it's up to us to prove what we have been saying for decades, that MDMA and other psychedelics have remarkable healing potentials. As the saying goes, "Beware what you wish for." The challenge of proving the safety and efficacy of psychedelic psychotherapy is formidable, but definitely a goal worth the decades of prior and future work.

January 21, 2005. Psychiatry News (a publication of the American Psychiatric Association) reported on the proposed MDMA/cancer anxiety study, with quotes from principal investigator John Halpern MD..

January 20, 2005. The New York Times published an article about dream machines that featured Kate Chapman, described in the article as "a former neuroscience researcher for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies." Kate worked on a rat MDMA neurotoxicity study funded by MAPS as well as on the Janiger follow-up study.

  The Drug-Free America Foundation, Inc. reports on its website on the DEA rejection of the UMass Amherst application for a license to establish a facility to produce marijuana for federally-approved research.

January 18, 2005. A Newsweek article about DEA's rejection of Prof. Craker's UMass Amherst application does a good job of explaining the issues but takes some pot shots at MAPS.

January 16, 2005. The Boston Globe published an article contrasting FDA approval of MAPS' study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in subjects with anxiety associated with advanced-stage cancer with DEA rejection of Prof. Lyle Craker's MAPS-sponsored application for a license to establish a facility to produce marijuana for federally-approved research.

  The Week in Review section of the Sunday New York Times had a thoughtful but rather snide and inaccurate article on the research into the use of MDMA and psilocybin in the treatment of anxiety associated with advanced cancer.

   Prof. Mark Kleiman criticizes a NYTimes article on the use of psychedelics in treating anxiety in subjects with advanced-stage cancer. He notes the flawed central assumption of the article which is that "all "drugs" are alike, and that "drugs" have the property of dulling perception and cognition, making people less present to what is happening to them."

January 13, 2005. The Village Voice Educational supplement published an article describing Dr. David Nichols' LSD research. The piece also mentions Dr. Franz Vollenweider's psilocybin research..

January 8, 2005. Dr. John Halpern is the guest on C-SPAN's Washington Journal for a live, half-hour national call-in show focused on Dr. Halpern's MAPS-sponsored study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in subjects with anxiety associated with advanced-stage cancer.

January 7, 2005. An editorial published by The Oregonian, "Stop Blocking Marijuana Research", supports the UMass Amherst project.

  The Boston Herald published a short piece describing the MDMA /cancer anxiety study, quoting primary investigator John Halpern and MAPS President Rick Doblin.

January 5, 2005. The Harvard Crimson reported on the MDMA/cancer anxiety study that will be taking place at McLean Hospital. Principal Investigator John Halpern MD is quoted, as well as MAPS President Rick Doblin PhD. The on-line version of this article has a link to a letter written by Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) and published in the Crimson in 1962.

  The San Diego City Beat published a discussion and analysis of a recent legal challenge to the HHS to change how marijuana is scheduled, with the legal challenge relying on a 2002 law, the Data Quality Act, originally crafted to benefit the tobacco industry and other corporate interests.

December 31, 2004. Reports about FDA approval of MAPS' MDMA/cancer anxiety study have generated articles and debates around the world, with one example being an article published in The Age, in Australia, with quotes from several Australian physicians. Here's a quote from the article, "The successful testing of these drugs could create dilemmas for governments with a prohibitionist approach to recreational drugs, Dr Caldicott said." Dr. Caldicott is a research fellow from the emergency department of the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

  An amazing editorial, Examining Ecstasy, about FDA approval of MAPS' MDMA/cancer anxiety study, was published today in the Ottawa Citizen. MAPS' Harvard study is considered restrained and Charles Grob is chastised for speaking of potential spiritual benefits!

December 30, 2004. An article in The Australian reports on the FDA approval of MAPS' MDMA/cancer anxiety study and quotes Australian Medical Association Queensland public health committee chairwoman Jeanette Tait as saying, "The medical community would look askance at this type of trial, except that it is being conducted by such a respected body," she said. "As it is such a fairly substantial body doing the trial, especially with FDA approval, I think the results will be very interesting. There's so much to be wary about illicit drugs and their use." Dr. Tait's comments reaffirm the value of MAPS' efforts to conduct MDMA psychotherapy research at Harvard, since the research is being taken more seriously as a result of where it is being conducted.

December 29, 2004. Some of the most important Spanish newspapers and journals broke the news about the MDMA/cancer anxiety study, echoing the news report from the Washington Post. These reports are apparently very favorable. These include "EE UU ensaya el uso de éxtasis en enfermos de cancer terminal" (El País, December 28, PDF), "Cientficos de EE UU investigarn el uso del 'éxtasis' en enfermos terminales" (El Correo Digital, December 29, PDF) and "EEUU aprueba un estudio sobre el uso psiquitrico del 'éxtasis'" (El Mundo, December 28, PDF).

December 27, 2004. Excellent Washington Post article by Rick Weiss about FDA approval of MDMA/cancer anxiety research and general renewal of research into the therapeutic potential of MDMA and psychedelic compounds. [ Also see scans of the article. ]

  The AP Wire Service published a report on the recent FDA approval of the MDMA/cancer anxiety study, with quotes from principal investigator John Halpern MD.

December 19, 2004. An op-ed by Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune criticizes the DEA for blocking the UMass Amherst marijuana production facility

  The Providence (RI) Journal published an excellent op-ed about the financial reasons why drug warriors don't want to see the licensing of the UMass Amherst production facility.

December 18, 2004. An expanded article by Fred Gardner appears on counterpunch.org, "DEA Upholds Grower's Marijuana Monopoly." This is the most detailed critique yet published of DEA's rationale for rejecting the UMass Amherst application.

December 16, 2004. An excellent article in the Boston Phoenix dissects the DEA's rejection of the UMass Amherst application.

December 15, 2004. An article in the Boston Globe gives background to the DEA rejection of the UMass Amherst project and explains the legal pressure that forced DEA to act, the DEA's obstruction of research, and political support for the license.

  An article in the Anderson Valley Advertiser, "DEA Upholds Grower's Monopoly," by Fred Gardner, discusses in detail the DEA's rejection of the UMass Amherst application. The Anderson Valley Advertiser has followed the details of the medical marijuana issue more closely than any other paper.

  Howie Carr of the Boston Herald writes IN AT LEAST ONE WAY, ZOOMASS ISN'T GOING TO POT.

December 14, 2004. The New York Times reports that the DEA has rejected the application from UMass Amherst for a license to grow marijuana. The article notes that there is a 30 days period within which an appeal can be filed, which we will do.

December 4, 2004. The Miami Herald published a news report of the police seizure of a clandestine laboratory allegedly producing a chemical the report describes as "euphoria," probably referring to the substance 4-methylaminorex. Rick Doblin is quoted in a brief discussion of the effects of the drug.

November 30, 2004. The UK Independent News, online edition, publishes an article by David McCandless about the medicinal benefits of some psychedelic fungi, Magical and Medicinal,

November 29, 2004. Slate has recently published an extensive commentary on how the Supreme Court is and will approach Ashcroft v. Raich. MAPS had filed an amicus curiae concerning the obstruction of efforts to conduct FDA-approved medical marijuana research.

November 28, 2004. The LA Times published an in-depth examination of ibogaine therapy for people with addictions. The piece includes a brief description of a session at the Ibogaine Association clinic in Mexico, and mentions Howard Lotsof, Deborah Mash, and Marc Emery.

November 22, 2004. The popular science magazine Scientific American published an editorial in support of making it easier to perform medical marijuana research in the US, describing current restrictions on medical marijuana research as "absurd."

November 13, 2004. The Intoxication Instinct The New Scientist Helen Phillips, Graham Lawton Helen Phillips and Graham Lawton explore The Intoxication Instinct in a fascinating and lengthy article published in The New Scientist. "From alcohol and cannabis to cocaine and LSD, it seems there are no limits to our appetite for mind-altering substances. What is it about human nature that drives us to get out of our heads?"

October 15, 2004. "Magic Medicine," an article by David McCandless in the London paper, The Independent, discusses the changing legal situation in England for mushrooms, which are currently legal, and psilocybin research, with some excellent quotes from Dr. Charles Grob and Rick Doblin.

October 10, 2004. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that "Medical Marijuana Advocates Likely to Get Break Under Kerry". MAPS' UMass Amherst project is mentioned in the article

October 8, 2004. The October 8-14 Boston Phoenix features an interview with MAPS' president Rick Doblin Ph.D. that discusses, among other things, ongoing research into the therapeutic effects of MDMA, psilocybin, and marijuana.

September 30, 2004. The Salt Lake City Weekly published a piece on Ecstasy & Therapy. The piece includes interviews with two therapists practicing "underground" MDMA-assisted therapy, and an interview with Rick Doblin Ph.D., president of MAPS.

  Reuters News Service published a story stating "British, French Drug Firms Lead in Marijuana Tests", noting that US drug development is hampered by marijuana's schedule 1 status and government control over the supply of marijuana researchers must use for their studies.

September 27, 2004. Wired published a piece charting the progress of research into the therapeutic uses of psychedelic drugs, including the ongoing studies of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in people with PTSD, psilocybin in people with OCD, and psilocybin in cancer patient with anxiety, as well as planned studies into MDMA-assisted therapy in people with anxiety associated with advanced stage cancer, and psilocybin and LSD in people with cluster headaches

August 15, 2004.  Medicine Hope for Psychedelic Drugs, an article from BBC News (UK Web), by Arran Frood, discussed psychedelic psychotherapy research supported by Heffter Research Institute and MAPS. This article is mostly based on an interview with Dr. Charles Grob and leaves the impression that it's about time that research into the therapeutic uses of psychedelics has resumed.

August 8, 2004. London Publication Mail on Sunday reports on Francis Crick, the Nobel Prize-winning father of modern genetics, who was under the influence of LSD when he first deduced the double-helix structure of DNA nearly 50 years ago.

August 4, 2004. The Charleston, South Carolina Post and Courier published an article about the MDMA/PTSD study. While the article overemphasizes the supposed dangers of MDMA, it does at least give the impression that MDMA may indeed have therapeutic potential. Dr. Mithoefer has written a letter to the editor clarifying some misleading statements made in the Post and Courier article. The Post and Courier also published another article on the history of psychedelic research.

On August 8, the Post and Courier printed the following correction: "A story on Page 1A of Wednesday's editions of The Post and Courier incorrectly stated that Dr. Michael C. Mithoefer was administering Ecstasy to "patients." The story should have made it clear that the drug was being given to research subjects. The federally approved research program is unrelated to Mithoefer's private practice and patients. Dr. Mithoefer also notes that the story would have more appropriately drawn a distinction between dangerous recreational use of Ecstasy and controlled clinical studies if it had noted other studies, including three US studies approved by the FDA, that found "no serious adverse events" and "no evidence of neurotoxicity" in tests administered under medical supervision."

July 28, 2004. Scientific Journal Nature publishes an article about MAPS's lawsuit against DEA, HHS, NIH, and NIDA for obstructing Marijuana research. Dr. Stanley Watson of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, who co-authored a 1999 Institute of Medicine report agrees that political factors are obstructing medical marijuana research.

July 25, 2004. A front page article in the Sunday Baltimore Sun discussed MAPS' MDMA psychotherapy research in a favorable light, illustrated with a photo of Rick Doblin. Of special note is the conclusion, in which Dr. George Ricaurte says that MDMA may one day find a place as an accepted medication. On July 29, the Sun published a clarification to the article.

July 22, 2004. Newspapers around the country have carried an AP wire story on MAPS' lawsuits against DEA/HHS/NIH/NIDA for obstructing medical marijuana research. An original article from the Springfield Republican (in MA) is representative of the favorable treatment our suit has obtained in the media.

  The Springfield Republican publishes an article about MAPS recent medical marijuana research lawsuits.

July 21, 2004. Nature publishes an excellent editorial about the conflict between science and politics at NIDA, using as an example exaggerations of the risks of MDMA by Dr. Alan Leshner, ex-Director of NIDA.

May 13, 2004. Nature publishes a lengthy article and editorial about MDMA psychotherapy research. The articles, about which Rick Doblin has written a lengthy commentary, are supportive of MAPS' research efforts. Alex Gamma wrote a letter to the editor responding to claims of insufficient knowledge of extent of risks in human trials made in the piece and providing greater detail on a human trial of MDMA described in the article.

April 14, 2004. The Drug Policy Alliance is featuring an interview with Rick Doblin on its website.

April 14, 2004. Studies probe psychedelic benefits, by Lee Peterson, Daily Breeze, Torrance, CA. An excellent article on the renewal of psychedelic psychotherapy research which ends with a quote to keep in mind, "We just need to be very careful to address the fears of the larger culture," Doblin said.

May 7, 2003. Slate Magazine's John Horgan offers personal recounts of drug injestion in combination with the recent medical and spiritual history of these drugs. He quotes Charles Grob and mentions his FDA approval to investigate whether psilocybin can relieve anxiety in late-stage cancer patients.

December 11, 2003. The Agony of Ecstasy. LA CityBEAT by Dennis Romero. Discusses the decline of rave culture but the only models of use presented are to burn out or to leave. There's no discussion of anyone who has a sustainable relationship with MDMA that incorporates responsible use over time. It's a rather bleak portrait.

December 10, 2003. A Bad Batch, by Rebecca Alvania. Baltimore City Paper (Issue #50,12/10-12/16). This is yet another long, powerful article about the flawed MDMA neurotoxicity research of Drs. Ricaurte and McCann. The article is sprinkled with excellent quotes from Rick Doblin and Dr. Charles Grob.

December 5, 2003. Newsweek Online publishes an interview with psychiatrist Julie Holland on the psychotherapeutic use of MDMA.:

December 3, 2003. THE AGONY OF ECSTASY RESEARCH:
Science Gets Recruited in the Drug War, by Ronald Bailey. Reason Magazine Online.

December 2, 2003. Research on Ecstasy Is Clouded by Errors - The New York Times, by Donald G. McNeil Jr.

Rick Doblin, President of MAPS, published these comments on the NYT article.

The Drug Policy Alliance have issued this related press release today.

Mark Kleiman's weblog, "An Ouchie for George"

November 29, 2003. High Times in the Magic Mushroom Business and its Completely Legal, Mark Honigsbaum, The Guardian

November 28, 2003. The politics of rEsearch by Harry Shapiro, is published in the Nov/Dec issue of the British magazine, Druglink.

This article reports that Ricaurte's mislabeling error "came to light when a student attempted to replicate the study and then made an official complaint when permission to publish the new findings was denied." In order to verify if this was accurate, Rick Doblin called the Johns Hopkins press office and was informed that Dr. Ricaurte says that there is no substance whatsoever to this allegation.

November 24, 2003. The British newspaper The Guardian published a positive article today about MAPS' progress towards final approval of our MDMA/PTSD study. Later today, BBC Scotland will interview me about the MDMA/PTSD study during its drive-time rush hour show. BBC World News just called about doing an interview that it will send out tonight to stations all over the place, and BBC London called for its Five Live national show. Also, the youth station in Dublin, Ireland (Spin1038) will conduct an interview. Just the struggle to obtain permission for the study is presenting us with some good opportunities to do public education about MDMA.

The BBC published this news article today on its highly regarded website.

November 18, 2003. WBUR, the Boston NPR station, broadcast a long, positive story about medical marijuana and the UMass Amherst project, with interviews with a medical marijuana patient, Dr. Lester Grinspoon, Rick Doblin, UMass Amherst Prof. Lyle Craker, Joseph St. Laurent at Chemic Labs, and ONDCP's Dr. Andrea Barthwell. The story, "Massachusetts Considers Medical Marijuana," is by Rachel Gotbaum and begins by stating, "Governor Mitt Romney is expected to decide later this month whether he will join Senators Kennedy and Kerry and urge the federal drug enforcement administration to allow a Massachusetts professor to grow marijuana for medical research."

November 17, 2003. Envisioning uses for hallucinogens, by Faye Flam, Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer

November 10, 2003. RTI denies it made mistake that torpedoed results of a $1.3M study. Triangle Business Journal, by Leo John.

Senators support proposal to grow marijuana for research - Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly, No. 43, Vol. 15; Pg. 8.

November 2, 2003. Pot Project Wins Support, Education Section, Boston Globe.

October 28, 2003. An article "Senators back UM medical marijuana" - By Mary Carey, Staff Writer, is published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette

October 18, 2003. When to retract? - Reserve retraction for fraud and major error - Richard Smith, Editor, BMJ 2003;327:883-884

October 17, 2003. Behind closed doors - What really went on at the Office of National Drug Control Policy's Summit of New England Governors, Camille Dodero, Boston Phoenix

Snake-oil salesmen
Why does the Bush administration seem so intent on denying medical marijuana to adults in extreme discomfort?, Kristen Lombardi, Boston Phoenix
(MAPS comments on this article are here.)

October 14, 2003. Concern over research reawakens ecstasy neurotoxicity debate, Kelly Morris, Lancet: Neurology Vol 2, November 2003 (also in pdf)

October 9, 2003. Nature publishes a short news story (PDF and HTML) on the MAPS sponsored MDMA/PTSD study. Nature 425, 552 (09 October 2003)
MAPS has a few comments on the article.

Sept. 30, 2003. Rick Doblin interviewed by Dean Becker, named "BEST HOUSTON RADIO COMMENTARY" for 2003 by the Houston Press, for his show: Cultural Baggage - The Unvarnished Truth About the Drug War. The broadcast of 29:00 is now online in MP3 and RealAudio formats.

George Ricaurte retracts his paper published in Science claiming that Ecstasy causes severe dopaminergic depletion and can lead to Parkinson's disease.

See also: "The Scientific Community Responds to Ricaurte MDMA Study", detailing the overwhelming response to this study since its original publication in September 2002.

For a paper critiquing the methodology and conclusions of some of Dr. Ricaurte's other papers, read "Deconstructing Ecstasy" by Dr. Charles Grob.

September 30, 2003. False Drug Information Harms Kids Marsha Rosenbaum, Research Scientist, Seattle Post Intelligencer, Op-Ed

September 21, 2003. Magic plant remedy by Graham Phillips, The Sunday Telegraph (Sydney, Australia).
An article about therapeutic research with MDMA and peyote.

September 19, 2003. Ecstasy scandal grows as second study retracted DRC-Net Drug War Chronicle

September 18, 2003. Independent inquiry demanded into Ecstasy affair - Robert Walgate, The Scientist

MAPS letter to NIDA Director Nora Volkow
MAPS sends a letter to NIDA Director Nora Volkow noting the many unanswered questions in the Ricaurte et al. retraction and requesting the release of additional information. MAPS states that the credibility of NIDA is at stake. These sentiments are also expressed in a powerful editorial just released by the scientific journal, Nature.

"Ecstasy's After Effects" Editorial, Nature. Highly recommended reading.

MAPS correction to the Nature Editorial

September 17, 2003. Additional drug research affected by drug mix-up - Robert Walgate, The Scientist

September 16, 2003. Retracted Ecstasy paper an "outrageous scandal" - Robert Walgate, The Scientist

E-fer Madness - Larry Smith, Salon

September 15, 2003. It'll kill you -- wait, no it won't - Jon Carroll, San Francisco Chronicle

September 13, 2003. Ecstasy study is erroneous - El Mundo (pdf format)

Science forced to retract article on Ecstasy - British Medical Journal, Stephen Pincock (also available in pdf format)

September 12, 2003. "Scientists retract second drug study; Mislabeled vial used again in new Ecstasy research at Johns Hopkins lab" - Jonathan Bor, Baltimore Sun
This article was also reprinted by the LA Times on Sept. 15, 2003.

Letter to the Editor: Retraction - "Severe dopaminergic neurotoxicity in primates after a common recreational dose regimen of MDMA ('ecstasy')" - George A. Ricaurte, et al., Science (PDF version)

"Paper on Toxic Party Drug Is Pulled Over Vial Mix-Up" - Constance Holden, Science (PDF version)

Oops ! -- 'Killer Ecstasy' study retracted, NIDA credibility on the line, RAVE Act Still Law - DRC-NET

September 11, 2003. "Agony for researchers as mix-up forces retraction of ecstasy study" - Jonathan Knight, Nature (also in PDF format)

"Your Brain on Bad Science: Leading Ecstasy researcher retracts critical study" - Judith Lewis, L.A. Weekly

A controversial paper on the effects of ecstasy is retracted, fueling debate - Feature article, The Economist

Study of ecstasy dangers used wrong drug El Correo (pdf format)

September 9, 2003. "Researchers Retract Study on Ecstasy Brain Damage" - NPR's "All Things Considered"

Listen to it | Read the transcript

"Congress Passed Ecstasy Law on Flawed Science/Johns Hopkins Researchers Admit Dramatic Error in Study" - Drug Policy Alliance Press Release

"MDMA Toxicity and Scientific Integrity" - Mark Kleiman, Ph.D., http://markarkleiman.blogspot.com

September 8, 2003. "'Killer' Ecstasy claim was false" - BBC News Online

Transcript: "World News Tonight with Peter Jennings" (6:30 pm ET) - ABC

Alex Gamma confronts Ricaurte in Basel at his public retraction - Alex Gamma

Controversial Ecstasy research used wrong drug - News Service, New Scientist

September 7, 2003. DrugSense FOCUS Alert: Bad Science Drives Drug War Hysteria

"Scientists admit: we were wrong about 'E'" - Jo Rivell, The Observer also published in the Guardian on Sept 6th

September 6, 2003. "Results Retracted On Ecstasy Study" - Rick Weiss, Washington Post

"Report of Ecstasy Drug's Great Risks Is Retracted" - Donald G. McNeil, Jr., New York Times

"Ecstasy Study Botched, Retracted" - Kristen Philipkoski, WiredNews.com

"Researchers retract study tying Ecstasy to Parkinson's" - Frank D. Roylance and Dennis O'Brien, Baltimore Sun

"Drug Labeling Error Forces Scientific Journal to Publish Retraction" - Randolph E. Schmid, AP Wire Service *

"Scientists Retract Story on Ecstasy Brain Damage" - Reuters News Service *

(* - these articles were written without any input from MAPS)

September 5, 2003. George Ricaurte, Ph.D.'s September 5, 2003 retraction - published in Science - of "Severe dopaminergic neurotoxicity in primates after a common recreational dose regimen of methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)"

Here is a comprehensive list of newspapers that have covered the Ricaurte retraction story

September 29, 2003. MAPS Sponsors two talks by Dr. Russo at UMass Amherst.
The first talk was titled "Cultivation of Marijuana for Pharmaceutical Application" and "Medical Marijuana: A Doctor's Perspective." The later talk is the subject of a September 30 article in the campus paper, The Massachusetts Daily Collegian. Following the article is a short letter to the editor by Dr. Russo clarifying a few comments.

August 29, 2003. "UMass professor seeks OK to grow marijuana legally" - Marcella Bombardieri, Boston Globe Note: several news stations have reported this story, including NBC San Diego, FOX-Texas, ABC and NBC-Boston, and a TV station in Jacksonville, FL.

August 28, 2003. "Umass Professor Requests Permission to Grow Marijuana for Research" - AP Wire Service

August 28, 2003. "UMass prof seeks pot permit" - Mary Carey, GazetteNet.com

August 22, 2003. "Turn on, meet god, get straight" - Daniel Pinchbeck, LA Weekly
This article was subsequently reprinted on September 18, 2003 in the London Guardian

August 9, 2003. "Why not just say yes?" - Kurt Kleiner, New Scientist. Excellent article about MAPS' indefatigable pursuit for MDMA/PTSD research IRB approval.

August 2003. "The X Files: Experts answer your top questions about ecstasy" (also available in PDF format) - Larry Smith, Teen People

July 30, 2003. "X'ed Out" (Part 1 of 2)

"Monkey Gone to Heaven" (Part 2 of 2) - Larry Smith, Salon

July 11, 2003. "Privatizing Pot - Can the marijuana monopoly be broken?" - Jacob Sullum, Reason

June 22, 2003. "Teens, and now DEA, are on trail of hallucinogenic herb" - Donna Leinwand, USA Today

May 19, 2003. "Ecstasy Trials" - Michael Mithoefer discusses the MDMA/PTSD study on Canadian radio show "The Current". Listen to it in RealPlayer format.

May 8, 2003. "Hallucinogenic plants might be treatment for alcoholism" - Lee Billings, University of Minnesota Daily

May 7, 2003. "Are psychedelic drugs good for you?" - John Horgan, Slate

April 28, 2003. A lengthy article in the prominent Spanish magazine, Interviu, reported on the controversy surrounding the MDMA/PTSD study and brought to light the fact that the Madrid Anti-Drug Authority actively pressured the Hospital to shut down the study. That article can be seen in the original format in Spanish, and has also been translated into English.

April 16, 2003. "The LSD Colours: Mostly Shades of Grey" - Rob Faulkner, The Hamilton Spectator

April 16, 2003. "LSD Takes Trip Down Memory Lane at Age 60" - Michael Shields, Reuters

April 16, 2003. "Discoverer of LSD Urges Medical Use of the Drug" - Nigel Glass, Reuters Health

Site Street, Spring 2003 Issue:

"Creativity and Psychedelics" - Rick J. Strassman, M.D.

"Psychointegration: The Physiological Effects of Entheogens" - Michael Winkleman

May 2003. "The Biology of...Addiction" - Michael Abrams, Discover Magazine
  
March 28, 2003. "Mystic herb catches fire" - Sarah Shiner, The Washington Times
  
March 23, 2003. Letter to the Editor - "Funding Ecstasy Research", LA Times Magazine
  
March 3, 2003. "The Heretical Dr. X" - Mark Ehrman, Los Angeles Times
  
February 26, 2003. The Infinite Mind radio show, "Psychedelics." Guests include Dr. Mark Geyer, professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego; Dr. Debra Mash, professor of neurology, University of Miami School of Medicine; Dr. Charles Schuster, director of the substance abuse clinical research division at Wayne State School of Medicine in Detroit and former director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse; Jeffrey Bronfman, the North American representative of the UDV (Uniao do Vegetal) religion; Nick Bromell, author of "Tomorrow Never Knows: Rock and Psychedelics in the 1960s." The program concludes with commentary from John Hockenberry.
  
February 2003. "Peyote on the Brain" - John Horgan, Discover Magazine
  
January 27, 2003. CBS News "Eye on America" report on Erowid, featuring an interview with Rick Doblin, Ph.D.

January 24, 2003. "Doctors want better marijuana for study" - Jean Whitney, San Mateo County Times

January 20, 2003. "A new opposition front in the drug war" - Salim Muwakkil, Chicago Tribune

January 2, 2003. "Ancient Amazon Brew Comes to Colombia's Cities" - Jason Webb, Reuters News Service

• December 30, 2002. "Critics take issue with antidrug campaign" - Benjamin Wallace-Wells, The Philadelphia Inquirer
    
• December 25, 2002. "Addiction Treatment Strives for Legitimacy" - Brian Vestag, Journal of the American Medical Association
    
• November 15, 2002. "Ecstasy is Good for People That Suffer From Trauma" - Dan Even, Maariv
    
• November 6, 2002. "Ecstasy has dramatic effect on Parkinson's symptoms" - David Concar, New Scientist
    
• October 27, 2002. "Is Pot Good For You?" - John Cloud, Time.com
    
• October 27, 2002. "The New Politics of Pot" - Joel Stein, Time.com
    
• October 8, 2002. MAPS' reply to the paper published in Science by George Ricaurte, et. al ["Severe Dopaminergic Neurotoxicity in Primates After a Common Recreational Dose Regimen of MDMA ('Ecstasy')"]   [see Washington Post, New York Times and New Scientist articles discussing the Ricaurte paper]
    
• September 30, 2002. "On Ecstasy, Consensus Is Elusive" - Rick Weiss, Washington Post
    
• September 27, 2002. "Study in Primates Shows Brain Damage From Doses of Ecstasy" - Donald G. McNeil, Jr., New York Times
    
• September 26, 2002. MAPS' Press Release About Science Paper
    
• September 26, 2002. "Ecstasy users 'risk Parkinson's disease'" - David Concar, New Scientist
    
• September 26, 2002. "Psychedelic Philanthropist and Shareware Leader Dies" - D. Parvaz, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    
• September 24, 2002. "Software Pioneer Bob Wallace Dies" - Brier Dudley, Seattle Times
    
• September 22, 2002. "Altered States - 'Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey Into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism' by Daniel Pinchbeck" - Reviewed by Brian Doherty, Washington Post
    
• September 21, 2002. Editorial: "Friends of meth? Medical pot raids help drug traffickers", Sacramento Bee
  
  "Faces at rally reveal tragic truth of medical marijuana patients" - Diana Griego Erwin, Sacramento Bee
    
• September 15, 2002. "Thousands Gather for Marijuana Rally" - Jessica Van Sack, Boston Globe
    
• September 12, 2002. "Ecstasy Begets Empathy" - Sheerly Avni, Salon
    
• September 5, 2002. "The Agony and the Ecstasy". A scientific row has broken out over the effects of Ecstasy - The Economist
    
• September 4, 2002. "Self Medication and Psychotherapy" - Interview with Alexander and Ann Shulgin, NPR's The Connection (  RealPlayer Audio  |  Download RealPlayer )
    
• September 2, 2002.
  Commentary from Harry Sumnall
   
  Commentary from John Cole (September 3)
   
  "Sorted - Jon Cole, Harry Sumnall And Charles Grob argue that the long-term effects of Ecstasy use are far from clear, and that psychologists are muddying the waters" - The Psychologist (PDF format)  
   
  Cole JC, Sumnall HR, Grob CS. "Where are the Ecstasy casualties?" (Response to critique of article) (PDF format)  
   
  "Scientists Say Long-Term Effects of Ecstasy Unclear" - Patricia Reaney, Reuters News Service
  "Ecstasy not dangerous, say scientists" - Sarah Boseley, The Guardian
  "Row erupts over ecstasy dangers" - BBC News
    
• September 2002. "Professor X" - Ethan Brown, Wired Magazine. Feature on Sasha Shulgin.
    
• July 26, 2002. "High Anxiety: Irrational Fear of Ecstasy, Not Real Danger, Inspires Measure" - Kevin B. Zeese, President, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Los Angeles Daily Journal
    
• July 18, 2002. "Date-Rape Drug OKd to Treat Sleep Disorder" - Aaron Zitner, Los Angeles Times
    
• June 24, 2002. "Ecstasy for Agony?" - Christie Aschwanden, Health magazine
    
• June 8, 2002. Letter to the Editor from Rick Doblin and Mark A.R. Kleiman regarding the May 25th editorial "Medical Marijuana in Court" - New York Times
    
• June 6, 2002. "Dr. Ethan Russo: Pot Pioneer" - Cannabis Culture [Note: MAPS has supported Dr. Russo's medical marijuana efforts]
    
• June 1, 2002. Letter to the Editor from Reed Irvine (Chairman, Accuracy in Media) regarding the May 25th editorial "Medical Marijuana in Court" - New York Times
    
• May 25, 2002. "Medical Marijuana in Court" - New York Times Editorial
    
• May 10, 2002. "Teen's death raises awareness that Ecstasy can be a killer" - Sam Skolnik, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    
• May 10, 2002. "A Coalition Rallies for Electronica Culture" - Winda Benedetti, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    
• May 9, 2002. "Ecstasy Supporters Hope FDA-approved Study Will Vindicate Drug" - Winda Benedetti, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    
• May 9, 2002. "Ecstasy Grows More Popular as Many Decide Joy Is Worth the Risk" - Winda Benedetti, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    
• May 8, 2002. "The Place for Trips of the Mind-Bending Kind" - Tim Weiner, The New York Times. To learn more, read Ian Souter's account of the 3rd World Conference on Salvia divinorum at Breitenbush Hot Springs in Oregon, Dec. 7-10, 2000.
    
• May 6, 2002. "Sanidad autoriza un ensayo con 'éxtasis' para terapias de violadas" - Rafael Méndez, El País (En español) [Webmaster's very questionable translation: "Health [Ministry] approves study of ecstasy in therapy with rape victims"]
    
• May 1, 2002. "2-C-T-7's Bad Trip" - Kara Platoni, East Bay Express. Features interview with Sasha & Ann Shulgin.
    
• April 18, 2002. "Ecstasy Link to Damage of the Brain 'Misleading' the Public" - Charles Arthur, The Independent
    
• April 20, 2002. "Ecstasy on the Brain" - David Concar and Claire Ainsworth, New Scientist
    
• April 20, 2002. "E is for Evidence" - Editorial, New Scientist
    
• April 18, 2002. "Studies Damning Ecstasy 'Flawed'" - The Guardian
    
• April 10, 2002. "Teaching Kids Safe X" - Julie Holland, M.D., LA Times
    
• April 7, 2002. "Smoking Out Pot's Medical Potential" - Edie Lau, Sacramento Bee
    
• April 2, 2002. "Why Weil Raves About Ecstasy" - MyPrimeTime
    
• April 1, 2002. "A New LSD? Mexican Herb for Sale Online Comes With Divine Claims, Warnings" - Dean Schabner, ABCNews.com
    
• March 25, 2002. "Move over Prozac, It's Ecstasy's Turn" - Brandon Spun, Insight
    
• March 19, 2002. "High Dudgeon" - Jacob Sullum, Reason. An interesting article about the drug war and censorship.
    
• March 10, 2002. "Putting the E in Health" - Jane Feinmann, The Observer (UK).
    
• March 2, 2002. "Is Taking a Psychedelic an Act of Sedition?" - Charles Hayes, Tikkun
    
• January 15, 2002. "Prescription: Euphoria" - Carla Spartos, The Village Voice
    
• January 8, 2002. "A Quiet Revolution for Those Prone to Nodding Off" - David Tuller, The New York Times

• December 15, 2001. "After Two-Decade Halt, Marijuana Research Is Set" — Philip J. Hilts, The New York Times
   
• December 10, 2001. "Getting the FDA Hooked on Ecstasy" — Kristen Philipkoski, Wired News
   
  • One small correction to this article by Rick Doblin: "While Dr. George Ricaurte is exceedingly cautious about the risks of MDMA, I don't think he really believes that MDMA is too dangerous to give to humans under any circumstances. I'm not exactly sure what his position is on the MDMA/PTSD protocol."
      
• December 8, 2001. "B.C.'s Acid Flashback" — R.C., Vancouver Sun
    
• November 30, 2001. "Criminalizing Ecstasy Drug Increases Use and Danger" — By Kevin B. Zeese, President of Common Sense for Drug Policy, as published in the Los Angeles Daily Journal.
       
• November 30, 2001. "Party drug could harm women more than men, study says" — Emma Ross, AP Wire Service.
   
• November 29, 2001. "Heavy Ecstasy Use Affects Serotonin Neurons in Women More Than in Men" — Reuters Health
   
  • Reneman, L; Booij, K; de Bruin, K; Reitsma, JB; de Wolff, FA; Gunning, WB; den Heeten, GJ; van den Brink, W (2001) "Effects of dose, sex, and long-term abstention from use on toxic effects of MDMA (ecstasy) on brain serotonin neurons". Lancet, 358: 1864-1869.
     
  • Comments on the Reneman/Lancet Paper by Ilsa Jerome, Rick Doblin, George Ricaurte, Una McCann and Alex Gamma
      
• November 27, 2001. "Author Says 'Use Your Head' When Experimenting with It" — Kevin Smith, Arizona Daily Wildcat. Interview with Charles Hayes, discussing responsible use of psychedelics as well as MAPS' recently approved MDMA/PTSD study.
    
• November 18, 2001. "Psychedelia's Middle-Aged Head Trip" — New York Times article discussing the FDA's recent approval of the MAPS-sponsored MDMA/PTSD study as well as the repercussions of the 60's psychedelic movement on later efforts to conduct psychedelic research.
  All text version of article
   
  • Comments on this article by Rick Doblin, Ph.D.
      
• November 17, 2001. "FDA Reported to Approve Ecstasy for PTSD Clinical Trial" — Alcohol & Drug Abuse Weekly
    
• November 16, 2001. "It's Only Prozac-Plus" — Ha'Aretz (Israel's newspaper)
    
• November 11, 2001. "Ecstasy in the Lab, Legally" — New York Times Week in Review
    
• November 9, 2001. "Ecstasy 'may fight traumatic stress'" — BBC News Online
    
• November 8, 2001. "Reconsidering MDMA" — Denver Post editorial applauding the FDA for approving MDMA/PTSD protocol.
    
• November 7, 2001. "Regulators Approve Study of Ecstasy for Post-Traumatic Stress" — Reuters Health
    
• November 7, 2001. "FDA Approves Clinical Test of Ecstasy" — AP Wire Service
    
• November 7, 2001. "Group Says FDA Clears Study of Ecstasy" — Lisa Richwine, Reuters Wire Service.
    
• November 6, 2001. "FDA Permits First Test of Ecstasy As Treatment for Stress Disorder" — Rachel Zimmerman, The Wall Street Journal.
   
  • Letter to the Editor of The Wall Street Journal from Julie Holland, M.D. 
      
• November 5, 2001. "The Other Side of Ecstasy" — Lisa Marshall, The Daily Camera. Discusses the therapeutic potential of MDMA, featuring Marcela Ot'alora and Rick Doblin, Ph.D.
    
• September 25, 2001. "For Partygoers Who Can't Say No, Experts Try to Reduce the Risks" — Jeff Stryker, New York Times. Discusses Ecstasy harm reduction and Dancesafe.
    
• September 9, 2001. "Psychedelic Studies" — Thomas Becnel, Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Superb article featuring MAPS and its involvement in the Hookahville Festival near Columbus, Ohio.
    
• September 4, 2001. "The People's Prozac" — Carla Spartos, Village Voice. Good article which questions the MDMA neurotoxicity scare, mentions the MAPS MDMA/PTSD project and — of course — quotes Rick Doblin.
    
• August 14, 2001. "A Legal Hallucinogen, at Least for Now" — Anne-Marie O'Connor, LA Times. Article about Salvia Divinorum; features an interview with Daniel Siebert (and mentions MAPS).
    
• August 2001. "The FDA Trip — Or How Psychedelic Research Was Revived in the 90's" — This article is from the first issue of Thresher, a biannual magazine published by David Latimer, Executive Editor R.U. Sirius. The first issue came out August 2001 and had a series of articles on the theme of Drug Peace.
    
• July 16, 2001. "The Highs and Lows of Ecstasy" — Linda Marsa, LA Times. Features Rick Doblin, Ph.D., Sue Stevens and MAPS.
    
• July 14, 2001. "Confessions of a Middle-Aged Ecstasy Eater" — The Guardian, London. An account of a father who was introduced to MDMA by his teenage son. While MAPS does not support the wholesale endorsement of recreational use found in this account, it's a powerful account of intergenerational bonding.
    
• July 11, 2001. "Doctor Ecstasy" — Creative Loafing, Charlotte, NC. Exclusive interview with Rick Doblin, Ph.D. (and his face on the cover, too!)
    
• July 2, 2001. "Why All the Agony Over Ecstasy?" CNN Talkback Live. Features discussion with Rick Doblin, Ph.D.
    
• June 17, 2001. "Tracing the Synapses of Our Spirituality — Researchers Examine Relationship Between Brain and Religion." Shankar Vedantam, Washington Post. Discusses psychedelic research.
    
• May 11, 2001. Radio interview with Charles Hayes, author of Tripping, on The Big Show with Adam Paul @ eyada; mentions MAPS. (Scroll down to May 11)
    
• May 3, 2001. Radio interview with Rick Doblin on The Big Show with Adam Paul @ eyada. (Scroll to the bottom under 'May 3'; Doblin interview starts at 1:12:57 into the show)
    
• April 28, 2001. "Group Push Ecstasy Safety" — from the AP Wire Service. Includes a mention of the talk Rick Doblin gave at Amherst College, tips from DanceSafe and some good quotes from Charlie Grob.
    
• April 26, 2001. "Doctor X" — superlative Rolling Stone piece about Ecstasy, MAPS and Rick Doblin by Gary Greenberg.
    
• April 15, 2002. These are two excellent articles from the journal Cerebrum: The Dana Forum on Brain Science, (Volume 3, Number 2: Spring 2001) both about MDMA with discussion of MAPS' research agenda. The article by Braun is a wonderful history while the article by Kuhn is a critique.
   
  • "Ecstasy on Trial: Seeking Insight by Prescription" - Stephen Braun (PDF only )
  • "Our Dangerous Love Affair with Ecstasy" - Cynthia M. Kuhn and Wilkie A. Wilson (PDF only )
      
• April 10, 2001. "Polêmica no divã do autoconhecimento" (Webmaster's seriously questionable translation: "Controversy encouched in self-knowledge"). By Tatiana Pronin, Valor Econômico (Brazil). Read the interview with Rick Doblin in English.
    
• April 5, 2001. "Long, Strange Trip" — an interview with Rick Doblin by Mike Miliard, Boston Phoenix.
    
• March 13, 2001. "Scientists Test Hallucinogens for Mental Ills," and "This Is the Brain on Hallucinogens," New York Times Science Section. By Sandra Blakeslee.
    
• March 7, 2001. Excerpts from an interview with NIDA Director Alan Leshner, Ph.D. From the Journal of American Medical Association. Leshner discusses Ecstasy and the "hype" about the supposed therapeutic potential of MDMA.
    
• March 6, 2001. "Ecstasy's Dividend" — discusses the effect of MDMA on the symptoms of Parkinson's Disease. Johnathan Margolis, The New York Times.
    
• February 25, 2001. A series of articles which featured in the Denver Post that mention MDMA and MAPS. These articles are evidence of a more balanced treatment of MDMA in the media and suggest that there is growing popular support for research into MDMA's therapeutic potential.
  Ecstasy: Just Say 'Know
  Healing Through MDMA
  Heed Warnings, Know Dangers
  A History of MDMA
  Editorial: DARE to Change
    
• February 12, 2001. "The Bitter Pill: Is ecstasy neurotoxic? Mmmmmaybe, maybe not..." Steve Robles, San Francisco Bay Guardian. A different perspective of "The State of Ecstasy" conference held in San Francisco on February 2.
    
• February 10, 2001. "High Time We Cleaned Up on Drugs." By Kelly Morris, The Lancet. Review of two books about psychdelics ensconced in a frank discussion of the need for more open-minded scientific exploration into the realm of non-pharmaceutical, "recreational" drugs. Examines and expounds upon Rick Doblin's Ph.D. dissertation in the greater context of the psychedelic movement.
    
• February 9, 2001. "San Francisco Ecstasy Conference Generates Heat But Also Light." DRCNet Editorial.
   
  • Comments on this article from Rick Doblin.
      
• February 7, 2001. "Who Owns Ecstasy?" Richard Elovich & Daniel Wolfe, The Village Voice.
   
  • A short critique of mistakes in the article from Rick Doblin.
      
• February 5, 2001. "Legal Ecstasy in Five Years?" Kristen Philipkoski, Wired.
    
• February 5, 2001. "The Disunited States of Ecstasy." By Janelle Brown, Salon Magazine. Coverage of The State of Ecstasy Conference held in San Francisco on February 2, 2001.
    
• February 2, 2001. "Illegal Drug Ecstasy Seen as Potential Prozac Alternative." By Ulysses Torassa, San Francisco Chronicle.
    
• January 21, 2001. "Experiencing Ecstasy." By Matthew Klam, New York Times. MAPS isn't specifically mentioned, but two MAPS-supported projects are mentioned (Spain MDMA/PTSD study and the UCLA MDMA/cancer patient study).
    
• January 15, 2001. "Recreational Pharmaceuticals: Finding new party drugs like K and ecstasy won't be easy." By John Cloud, Time Magazine. Features an interview with Rick Doblin.
    
• January 4, 2001. "Adventures Through Inner Space" — 'Psychonauts' are experimenting with strange new drugs to expand our ideas about human consciousness. By Erik Davis, Monday Magazine.
    
• January 2, 2001. "Not everyone sees ecstasy as a danger — Drug's advocates call for look at its benefits" By David Abel, January 2, 2001, E1, front page weekly Health Section, Boston Globe.
   
  • This article is remarkable in that it mentions potential benefits of MDMA and does a fairly good job of striving for balance. Some factual errors, debatable issues and loaded terminology are discussed by Rick Doblin, Ph.D., MAPS President.
     
  • A letter to the Editor of The Boston Globe from Rick Doblin.

• December 4, 2000 : A&E 10:00 pm EST. This show is mostly about the smuggling of Ecstasy and the rave movement. A very short interview with Rick Doblin will at least raise the issue of MDMA's therapeutic potential. A longer segment with Rick in which he talked about a woman who used MDMA with her father to help them cope with his terminal illness (cancer) was initially included by the directors but was edited out by network editors which feared that comment might promote the use of MDMA.
   
• November 30, 2000
  • 48 Hours, CBS 8:00 PM EST. The major TV network news show, 48 Hours, filmed an underground MDMA therapy session organized by MAPS as part of an hour-long documentary on MDMA. The patient was Sue Stevens. Her personal accounts of her prior MDMA sessions with her fiancé, Shane, as they faced his terminal illness, are posted on the MAPS website at http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v07n4/07405sue.html. The session that was filmed was focused on grief, and took place close to the year anniversary of Shane's death.
    Watch it in Quicktime format: 28K (5.3 MB) / 56K (10.5 MB)
      
  • MTV 10:00 PM EST. MTV special on Ecstasy (MDMA). This special also features portions of Sue's underground MDMA therapy session.
    Watch it in Quicktime format: 28K (1.9 MB) / 56K (3.7 MB)
     
  • For clarification of some blatantly misleading information from the MTV show about MDMA causing "holes in the brain" of a heavy MDMA user, see the commentary by Rick Doblin.
     
  • Review: "Experiencing a double dose of ecstasy," Boston Globe
      
• November 29, 2000. "Teen-Age Drug Use Down; Ecstasy Popularity Grows" — "All Things Considered," National Public Radio. A new report finds that teen-age drug use is down in America for the third straight year. The survey of 12 to 18-year-olds shows more teens are being turned off on marijuana. Fifty-four percent say they feel smoking pot would make them behave foolishly, while fewer believe most people will try marijuana. "This study confirms the trends we've seen over the last three years — a steady decline in the number of teen using drugs," said Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. "This is very good news." But the sponsor of the study, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, says there's an increase in one particular narcotic. The use of Ecstasy, a favorite at dance clubs and all-night raves, has doubled among teens since 1995. Steve Dnistrian of the Partnership says teens are experimenting because they think the drug is cool. He says an anti-Ecstasy advertising campaign might turn this perception around. The nonprofit group's 13th survey questioned 7,290 students in seventh through 12th grades nationwide. The margin of error is plus or minus 1.5 percentage points.
• Listen as NPR's Margot Adler reports on All Things Considered.
• Read the Transcript
    
• November 13, 2000. "The Lure of Ecstasy." By John Cloud and Nijid Hajari, Time Asia.
  Note: In this article, Rick Doblin is incorrectly identified as a Boston psychotherapist; as most of you already know, he is instead a Public Policy Ph.D. from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University who has studied extensively the therapeutic use of psychedelics and has been certified by Stan and Christina Grof as a holotropic breathwork practitioner.
    
• November 9, 2000. "Lucy in the Sky with Therapists." Wired Magazine takes a look at the underground psychedelic therapy movement.
    
• November 8, 2000. "The War on the War on Drugs." Features an interview with Rick Doblin, discussing America's failed drug war; part of Feed Magazine's "The Future of Drugs" issue.
     
• October 10, 2000. "The Drug War's Tweedledee" Salon Magazine's article discussing NIDA's chief Alan Leshner and his coordination with drug czar Barry McCaffrey in fighting their drug war. Features discussion about MDMA, MAPS and comments about NIDA bias by Rick Doblin.
    
• October 2, 2000. "DanceSafe or Sorry," an ABC 20/20 Downtown segment about DanceSafe.
  DanceSafe's response to ABC's questions about their adulterant screening program.
  • Part 1 (Real Player format)
  • Part 2 (Real Player format)
     
• August 10, 2000. Court TV's Crier Today feature on MDMA featuring Rick Doblin, Ph.D., Dr. David McDowell, Sue Stevens and Ethan Brown.
  • Part 1 (Real Player format)
  • Part 2 (Real Player format)
  • Transcript of Crier Today in text format
     
• August 4, 2000. "Can Legalizing Drugs Bring Us Closer to God?" Salon Magazine piece on renowned religious scholar Huston Smith and his increasing involvement in the drug war; includes interview with Rick Doblin.
   
• July 24, 2000. Rivera Live show about Ecstasy aired on CNBC, featuring discussion between Rick Doblin, Ph.D., Sue Stevens, criminal defense attorney Michael Nasatir, Nancy Grace of Court TV and Ethan Brown of New York Magazine.
  • Part 1 (Real Player format)
  • Parts 2 & 3 (Real Player format)
  • Transcript of Rivera Live
     
• June 5, 2000. MAPS responds to the TIME magazine article about MDMA
   
• December 2, 1996. MAPS on C-SPAN. Courtesy of Senator Orrin Hatch.