- Founded in April 1986 to advance psychedelic research and knowledge, MAPS has raised more than $150 million, supported 45 studies, and shaped the global policy and cultural landscape of psychedelics.
- As science, policy, and public awareness converge, MAPS cautions that legal access alone is not enough: equitable access and therapeutic integrity must be protected.
- Looking forward, MAPS launches its next era with a new blueprint for the movement it helped build: precedent-setting research, professional training, and a renewed commitment to criminal justice policy reform.
April 22, 2026 — Forty years ago, Rick Doblin, Ph.D., incorporated the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in direct response to a federal government decision he believed was both scientifically wrong and morally indefensible. The DEA had placed MDMA in Schedule I, overriding an administrative law judge’s recommendation that it remain available for therapeutic use under medical supervision. That decision set in motion four decades of work to build the scientific, legal, and cultural foundations for the responsible use of psychedelics.
This month, MAPS marks its 40th anniversary at a pivotal moment for the field. Psychedelic medicine is closer to mainstream integration than at any moment in modern history, and forces that once sidelined the science are now accelerating it. On April 18, 2026, a new Executive Order directing federal agencies to expand research and accelerate regulatory approval for psychedelic therapies exemplified this shift.
Forty Years of Evidence
What began with an annual budget of less than $50,000 and a single employee has become one of the most credible and established organizations in the global psychedelic field. Since 1986, MAPS has:
- Raised more than $150 million in philanthropic investment, plus additional funds to advance psychedelic research, drug policy reform, and education
- Contributed data from its sponsored trials to the first NDA submission ever filed for a psychedelic-assisted therapy
- Supported or conducted dozens of research studies of psychedelic substances such as MDMA, ketamine, LSD, cannabis, ibogaine, and ayahuasca
- Initiated and funded 18 clinical trials, including Phase 2 and Phase 3 studies of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD, which opened the door to psychedelic research at the FDA
- Published or supported more than 23 peer-reviewed publications
- Trained 500+ therapists in MDMA-assisted therapy across programs in Australia, Bosnia, Iceland, Switzerland, Ukraine, and Poland
- Founded and evolved the Psychedelic Science conference series, now the largest psychedelic conference in the world, with cumulative in-person attendance exceeding 27,000 people across six events since 2010
- Incubated organizations that are now independent leaders in the field, including Resilient Pharmaceuticals (formerly Lykos Therapeutics) and Zendo Project
- Fiscally sponsored more than 70 organizations from 2013 to 2025
- Distributed $15 million to support studies and organizations across the globe
- Published critical free educational resources, including the MAPS Policy Guidebook, the Integration Workbook, more than 1,400 articles in the MAPS Bulletin, and a range of books
The Work Is Not Done, and the Stakes are High
The progress MAPS helped build now faces a new and quieter threat. Psychedelic medicine may become legally available, while losing the therapeutic component or public infrastructure that would make it most effective. Even when approved, it may be priced out of reach for the people who need it most.
We are closer than ever to psychedelics becoming legal medicines again, but what’s emerging looks different from what I spent 40 years fighting for. My biggest concern now is no longer whether these therapies will be approved, but what they will look like when they arrive, and who will be able to access them.
Companies are increasingly minimizing or eliminating the therapeutic component entirely, treating the drug as the product and everything around it as a cost to be cut. If those models set the standard for what psychedelic therapy means, people seeking healing will receive a fraction of the long-term benefits these treatments can offer.
— Rick Doblin, Ph.D.; Founder & President
The decisions being made right now about therapeutic models, insurance coverage, training standards, and who gets to participate in the regulated system will shape the coming decades.
At the same time, MAPS continues to advocate for broader legal reform alongside medical access, including protections for Indigenous communities and an end to criminal penalties for the personal possession and use of psychedelics.
The future of drug policy should not be defined by who profits. Rather, it should be defined by who heals. Nearly 40 years after MAPS was founded to challenge the harms of prohibition, we are still confronting the same uncomfortable truth: legal access is not the same as equitable access. Building a post-prohibition future rooted in health, consent, dignity, and repair is the work still in front of us.
— Betty Aldworth; Co-Executive Director
MAPS’ Next Era
MAPS enters its fifth decade under a new shared leadership structure. Betty Aldworth and Ismail Lourido Ali, JD, now serve as Co-Executive Directors, marking a generational transition from founder-led leadership to a distributed model. Both bring years of experience in drug policy leadership, psychedelic advocacy, and movement building, carrying forward MAPS’ founding commitment to legal, equitable access to psychedelics.
MAPS will continue to pursue precedent-setting research that advances science for the whole field. Current priorities include MJP2, MAPS’ Phase 2 study of cannabis for Veterans with PTSD; publishing a publicly available Investigator’s Brochure for ibogaine, a comprehensive literature review summarizing the known clinical and non-clinical data on the compound; and couples therapy research to expand beyond diagnosable disorders into wellness and thriving.
MAPS’ policy work continues to center on the people most underserved by existing systems. The organization will work with legislators and advocates across the country on frameworks for decriminalization, regulated access, consumer protection, social equity, and Indigenous rights. Its recently published Policy Guidebook offers policy stakeholders guidance grounded in decades of engagement, focusing on how laws and regulations are structured and the real-world impacts those decisions have on access, safety, and equity.MAPS continues to invest in education at every level of the field. Professional education programs include therapist training in Europe, Latin America, Asia, and beyond, and a first responders training is scaling through partnerships with universities, governments, and public safety agencies. For broader public education, MAPS continues to publish and expand free resources like its Integration Workbook, the MAPS Bulletin, and will convene the next Psychedelic Science™ conference in May 2027.
We are at a pivotal moment where the field must shift from imagination to implementation. The importance of work that lies beyond commercial reach, including care in conflict zones, public education, and building the social safety net for this movement, is coming back into focus. If the movement wants to translate promise into practice, it will have to figure out how to bring everyone along, or risk becoming a shadow of the commitment to human potential that birthed it.
—Ismail Ali, J.D.; Co-Executive Director
A Call to the Movement
MAPS’ 40th anniversary is a moment of reflection and a call to action. The organization is inviting its community of supporters, researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and allies to mark the anniversary with a one-time gift in recognition of what the past 40 years have built and in investment in what the future demands.
After four decades, I remain genuinely optimistic that psychedelic-assisted therapies will once again become legal. But legality was never the point. Healing was. We are at risk of winning the struggle for legal access but falling short of the greater victory of equitable access and healing for all who need it.
— Rick Doblin, Ph.D.; Founder & President
Anniversary information, including a full timeline of milestones, data on MAPS’ research impact, and stories from participants, researchers, and community members, is available at maps.org/40th.
ABOUT MAPS
Founded in 1986, MAPS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research and educational organization that develops medical, legal, and cultural contexts for people to benefit from the careful use of psychedelics and marijuana. MAPS previously sponsored the most advanced psychedelic-assisted therapy research in the world and continues to support psychedelic and marijuana research with a focus on the people and places most impacted by trauma. MAPS incubated Lykos Therapeutics, a drug-development public benefit company, and The Zendo Project, a leader in psychedelic harm reduction. Since MAPS was founded, philanthropic donors and grantors have given more than $150 million to advance psychedelic research, change drug policy, and shape culture.