In an op-ed published by The Guardian, MAPS Founder Rick Doblin, Ph.D., explores how advancing scientific understanding of psychedelic therapies offers hope for achieving mass mental health. Doblin illustrates the statistically significant results of the first MAPS-sponsored Phase 3 clinical trial of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD, highlights recent systematic reviews of research into treating medical conditions with psychedelic therapy, and explains how legalization and regulation are less dangerous than continuing the War on Drugs.
“MAPS recognizes that the people who are most marginalized by society are often those who are most traumatized, have least access to a diagnosis and even less access to adequate treatment,” says Doblin. “MAPS is working with researchers around the world to facilitate studies of psychedelic-assisted therapy with refugees, transgender communities, first responders exhausted by Covid, people of color subjected to racial trauma and more. We envision a day when psychedelics will be more than a last-ditch treatment: they will be a catalyst for mass mental health.”