MAPS Develops Study Protocol with Canadian Researchers

Shortly after drafting the Memorandum of Understanding with MAPS, RCMP psychologist Jeff Morley realized that it would not be possible for him to obtain permission from the RCMP for him to be the Principal Investigator on a MAPS-sponsored study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD. MAPS founder Rick Doblin, Ph.D., began searching for other researchers who could lead the study, with the possibility of some RCMP members with PTSD volunteering as subjects. “Dr. Ingrid Pacey and I had been in the same three-year training program learning Holotropic Breathwork from Stan and Christina Grof,” Rick recalls. “Andrew [Feldmar] and I met after he was blocked by US customs from coming into the U.S. since he’d written an article about his personal beneficial experiences several decades before.” Andrew Feldmar’s experience at the U.S. border was so outrageous that it was covered by both The New York Times and The Colbert Report. Rick Doblin called Andrew Feldmar offering to help, and Andrew said he would like to fight back by working on MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD research. Rick then introduced him to Ingrid Pacey and MAPS began working to bring psychedelic therapy research to Vancouver. Read the one-page protocol synopsis developed by MAPS, Dr. Ingrid Pacey, and Andrew Feldmar.