The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) came into legal existence on April 8, 1986, when I filed the Articles of Incorporation with the Florida Secretary of State. MAPS’ 20th anniversary passed on April 8, 2006, during MAPS’ Fiscal Year (FY) 2005-2006, which began on June 1, 2005 and ended on May 31, 2006. FY 05-06 was MAPS’ most productive year yet, concluding with more income ($1,156,017), expenses ($1,025,475), and assets ($783,522, of which $266,621 is restricted to specific projects) than in any previous year.

Furthermore, MAPS’ income in FY 2005-2006 does not include an additional $250,000 that philanthropist Peter Lewis pledged to donate directly to Harvard Medical School’s McLean Hospital, to support the MAPS-initiated, but no longer directly MAPS-sponsored, study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in subjects with anxiety associated with advanced-stage cancer (page 16).

MAPS is also benefiting from an increasing amount of donated labor of a highly skilled nature from people for whom salaries are not a necessity. This donated time is a crucial factor in MAPS’ ability to undertake the range of projects that it does and to implement its projects in a professional manner. MAPS now has a larger staff and more volunteers than ever, along with expanded opportunities to conduct research and contribute to public education. In addition, we recently coordinated our most ambitious gathering yet, the co-creation of Entheon Village at Burning Man, where we held MAPS’ 20th anniversary celebration (page 27).

MAPS is a research and educational organization that is, most essentially, a non-profit psychedelic and medical marijuana pharmaceutical company. Before presenting the nuts and bolts of FY 2005-2006, I’d like to offer a conceptual overview of what I consider to be the three basic stages of MAPS’ development. This overview will help situate the discussion of FY 2005-2006 in a longerterm perspective.

These three stages succinctly outline the original vision for MAPS. Stage 1: Low Maintenance/High Performance; Stage 2: High Maintenance/High Performance; and Stage 3: No Maintenance/High Performance. Stage 1 has taken MAPS the last two decades to complete, Stage 2 is likely to take the next decade, and Stage 3 will last for several decades or longer.

Stage 1: Low Maintenance/High Performance
During MAPS’ first two decades, after a great deal of sustained struggle, we became positioned to conduct the necessary research to develop psychedelics, but not yet marijuana, into legal prescription medicines in the US and abroad. We’ve helped contribute to a renaissance of psychedelic research around the world that has been forty years in the making. Psychedelic research teams around the world have obtained approval to conduct studies in human subjects using MDMA, MDE, psilocybin, mescaline, ketamine, ibogaine, DMT, and ayahuasca, but not yet LSD. This renaissance will fully arrive with the approval of LSD psychotherapy research. I expect this will occur in early 2007 in Switzerland, with the approval of Dr. Peter Gasser’s MAPS-sponsored study of LSD-assisted psychotherapy in subjects with anxiety associated with end-oflife issues. When completed, this will become the first LSD-assisted psychotherapy study in 35 years.

The main reason that MAPS has been relatively low maintenance is that for the first twenty years of our existence, we’ve been almost entirely blocked in our efforts to conduct psychedelic and medical marijuana research by a seemingly endless series of political and scientific obstacles. Research intended to develop drugs into FDA-approved prescription medicines is expensive. In contrast, struggling and mostly failing to obtain permission for research is relatively inexpensive and takes only a few staff and minimal expenses for protocol development and literature reviews. There’s been extended periods of time when MAPS’ agenda has been so difficult to advance that I’d take time off during the days to paint our house, just so I could experience what it felt like to actually accomplish something.

Another factor in MAPS’ having remained low maintenance is that we’ve been able to leverage our funds to a substantial degree. Our most successful effort was helping turn $15,000 into $1.8 million, for the most methodologically well-designed study of the neurocognitive consequences of moderate to heavy Ecstasy use, reportedly the primary functional negative side effect of Ecstasy. We learned from a MAPS member about a unique population of people who had used MDMA but virtually no other drugs. We then invested $15,000 in a grant to Dr. John Halpern, Harvard Medical School’s McLean Hospital, for a pilot study with this population. Dr. Halpern used the data from the pilot study as the basis of a five-year, $1.8 million grant application to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which he was awarded. Previously, our record was leveraging $10,000 into $1 million. MAPS had invested $10,000, which we obtained from Peter Lewis, in protocol development and approval expenses incurred by Dr. Donald Abrams, UC San Francisco, for a study of marijuana in AIDS-wasting subjects. The study was approved by the FDA but NIDA refused to provide the marijuana. However, after several years, NIDA agreed to provide $1 million but for a study of marijuana’s risks in HIV+ subjects, which was the first study of the use of marijuana in a patient population in 15 years. We also worked with Dr. Abrams to leverage about $50,000 MAPS spent on vaporizer research into a $136,000 grant to Dr. Abrams from the California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research (CMCR), for an FDA-approved clinical study in which vaporizers were compared to smoked marijuana.

The evidence supporting the rather bold claim that MAPS is a high performance organization is that we have managed to obtain permission for a series of psychedelic psychotherapy research projects around the world. Most importantly, our US MDMA/PTSD pilot study, conducted by Michael Mithoefer, M.D., and Annie Mithoefer, R.N., is about 3/4 complete and is generating remarkably promising results.

MAPS has been able to achieve high performance because we’ve been persistent, strategic, and have learned from our mistakes. Importantly, we’ve found enough joy and satisfaction in the struggle itself that our sustained lack of visible progress wasn’t demoralizing. We’ve also been fortunate to collaborate with a highly diverse and skilled community of volunteers and professionals who share our mission and sense of the importance of reintegrating into our culture the states of mind and the healing, creative and inspirational experiences that psychedelics and marijuana can facilitate. MAPS was ahead of its time for twenty years; now it feels like MAPS’ time has arrived.

MAPS came into existence in 1986 as a result of my prior work, beginning in 1984, helping to coordinate a lawsuit against the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in an effort to oppose the criminalization of both the non-medical and the medical use of MDMA. As a result of the defeat of our effort to protect the therapeutic use of MDMA, I started MAPS to work toward developing MDMA, and also other psychedelics and marijuana, into FDA-approved prescription medicines. MAPS’ first stage of development is ending as we are finally initiating MDMA psychotherapy research in the US, Switzerland and Israel. Unfortunately, our medical marijuana research agenda is still fundamentally compromised by the federal monopoly on the supply of marijuana that can be used in FDA-approved research. Nevertheless, our lawsuit against the DEA has the potential to lead to the creation of our own privately-funded medical marijuana production facility at UMass Amherst, under the direction of Prof. Lyle Craker. If that potential is realized, we’ll have achieved the necessary prerequisites to justify the initiation of a major research effort aimed at developing the marijuana plant, either smoked or vaporized, into an FDAapproved prescription medicine (page 13). These two DEA lawsuits, two decades apart, form a pair of bookends to MAPS’ first stage of development.

Stage 2: High Maintenance/High Performance
We are now undertaking the delicate and thrilling task of transitioning into MAPS’ second stage of development, the high maintenance/high performance stage, and are experiencing the inevitable growing pains of expansion. Now that MAPS has obtained regulatory approval to actually start conducting scientific research with psychedelics, we have the rare opportunity to attempt to prove to the satisfaction of the FDA, regulatory agencies in Switzerland and Israel, and eventually the European Medicines Agency, that psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy can be safe and effective for some patient groups. If our lawsuit against the DEA is successful, which we will know any day now, we may also have the opportunity to develop marijuana into a prescription medicine.

For the next decade or so, give or take a few years, MAPS will need to increase its budget for research by about five to ten times, expand by about ten times the number of research teams, locations, and subjects, and probably double or triple our staff.

MAPS is now sponsoring a series of Phase 2 pilot studies into the risks and benefits of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in subjects with treatment-resistant posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with studies underway in the US (page 14), Switzerland (page 15), and Israel (page 17). In addition, MAPS is working on starting two additional MDMA/PTSD pilot studies in two other countries, Canada and Spain. (For a detailed strategic analysis of why MDMA in the treatment of PTSD is our top priority, I’ve written a Clinical Plan which can be found at www.maps.org/research/MDmaplan.html). These MDMA/PTSD pilot studies will take the next two years to complete and analyze, and will involve about 70 subjects. If the results are promising, we’ll then seek to initiate two large-scale multi-site Phase 3 studies, each with about 280 subjects, for a total of about 560 subjects. One of these Phase 3 studies will be conducted throughout the US and the other throughout Europe and Israel.

To supplement our MDMA/PTSD research, MAPS is initiating a parallel effort to study psychedelic psychotherapy as a treatment for anxiety associated with end-oflife issues. These studies build upon the pioneering research in the late 1960s and early 1970s into the use of LSD-assisted psychotherapy with cancer patients. As mentioned earlier, MAPS has initiated a study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in subjects with anxiety associated with advanced-stage cancer (page 16). We’re also working to sponsor clinical research with LSD in subjects with anxiety associated with end-of-life issues and are in the early stages of trying to develop a study of psilocybin in cancer patients with anxiety. These protocols are designed to lead to the study and practice of psychedelic psychotherapy in the dying process, in which a sequence of different psychedelics could be used, sometimes alone or even in combination, according to the clinical judgment of the therapists and the choices of the patients. These pilot studies will also be completed within about two years.

MAPS is diversifying its research by looking at two different patient populations and several different psychedelic substances. Before MAPS embarks on raising and spending $5 million on two large-scale Phase 3 studies, we will be able to compare results in subjects with PTSD and in subjects with anxiety associated with end-of-life issues. In this way, we can select the drug and patient combination that is most likely to result in regulatory approval for a psychedelic drug for a specific clinical indication. Of course, if the pilot studies in subjects with PTSD and in subjects with anxiety associated with end-of-life issues are all promising, we’ll try to go forward into Phase 3 studies for both indications.

In order to achieve our objectives of obtaining approval for psychedelics and marijuana as prescription medicines, MAPS needs to continue to transform into a high maintenance/high performance organization.

Stage 3: No Maintenance/High Performance
If all goes well during MAPS’ second stage of development, MAPS will have conducted sufficient research to persuade regulatory agencies to approve specific psychedelics and perhaps also marijuana as legal prescription medicines. MAPS will have emerged as a fully approved non-profit psychedelic (and hopefully marijuana) pharmaceutical company with multiple legal prescription medicines for sale. MAPS will manufacture (or contract out the manufacture) of these medicines and will sell them on a commercial basis as prescription medicines. MAPS will thus enter into a no maintenance/ high performance phase in which profits on the sale of our prescription medicines will be used to fund additional research designed to expand the number of our prescription drugs that are approved for an ever wider number of clinical indications. MAPS is thus one of the rare nonprofits that offers donors the potential of helping to create a self-sustaining organization.

MAPS’ income from the sale of its prescription medicines will be limited, however, because MAPS will not have any patent rights on either the substances or their specific uses. As a result, the prescription medicines that MAPS will sell will be offered on a generic basis subject to competition from other manufacturers who will not have to replicate our research but will merely have to show that their drugs are chemical equivalents of the drugs that MAPS has obtained permission to market. Further limiting sales is the therapeutic model itself, since psychedelics are administered under supervision as adjuncts to psychotherapy, and would be ingested only a few times during a sustained period of mostly non-drug psychotherapy. This lack of patentability, along with the therapeutic model that doesn’t involve daily administration but only occasional psychedelic sessions, combined with the substantial “controversy” factor, has dissuaded any of the existing pharmaceutical companies from attempting to develop psychedelics into prescription medicines. Therein lies the opportunity for MAPS.

The financial potential of marijuana as a prescription medicine is a somewhat different story. Marijuana is often intended to be used on a daily basis for many years, for example in people with persistent conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis, chronic pain, HIV/AIDS, not to mention many others. As a result, the profit potential for marijuana as a medicine is likely to be substantially larger than for psychedelics. Nevertheless, profits will be limited because patients with a chronic disease have a long-term predictable use pattern and will have the financial incentive to either grow their own marijuana or have someone grow for them. Since MAPS is a non-profit organization, our goals would be to facilitate such uses through the sale of seeds and cloned plants instead of trying to maximize sales. Though it’s highly debatable, I think it’s likely that marijuana will be legalized within the next twenty years or so, further limiting the profit potential of medical marijuana. Furthermore, the pharmaceutical industry is researching a large number of marijuana extracts, isolated cannabinoids, and numerous patentable modifications of various cannabinoids, some of which may be superior medicines for certain specific indications.

During this third phase of MAPS’ organizational development, MAPS will also work to establish and develop our own chain of psychedelic clinics, where psychedelic medicines will be administered to patients. This is where the greatest potential lies for income, in that the fees paid for therapeutic services will be considerably higher than the cost of the drugs themselves. For example, an LSD session that can last 8 hours with two co-therapists could cost $1000 to $2000, while the LSD itself might cost $10 or less. There will be other organizations that also establish their own clinics, with MAPS both welcoming and assisting these organizations. Some of these organizations could be affiliated with particular religious groups, or run by people with a range of therapeutic methods and models. Despite both generic competition in the sale of our products and competition from other providers of psychedelic clinics, income from both the sale of MAPS’ legal medicines and the delivery of psychedelic medicines in our own clinics will generate sufficient funds to support additional research, to expand the range of medical uses and the scientific understanding of the human psyche, and to fund our public education efforts.

Stage 4 of MAPS’ development, if there is to be one, is for others to envision and implement. This Stage will be funded in part by the arrival, probably in 30 or 40 years, of $1 million (in today’s dollars) from the sale of a home in which MAPS currently has a remainder interest, left to MAPS in 1995 in a bequest by Eric Bass. Now, on to the nuts and bolts of MAPS FY 2005- 2006. For detailed information, MAPS’ IRS Form 990 is posted at www.maps.org/fiscal/990/2006.pdf

MAPS Income
MAPS’ income in FY 2005-2006 was $1,156,017, which can be divided into three different categories: 1) Donations and income for MAPS’ direct operational expenses and projects; 2) Sales of books, merchandise and art; and 3) Donations for projects conducted by other organizations, for which MAPS acts as fiscal sponsor. In FY 2005-2006, MAPS received donations of $824,574 for our operational expenses and projects and $166,160 from the sale of the MAPS Bulletin, books, and art (mostly portraits of Albert Hofmann by Dean Chamberlain and Alex Grey, signed by Albert). Of our remaining income, MAPS received donations of $165,266 for projects conducted by other people or organizations ($75,175 for SAFER’s educational projects, $62,004 for the Erowid web site, $18,409 for Alan Shoemaker’s Amazonian Shamanism Conference, $5,393 for a film about Stan Grof, and $4,285 for the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana).

In terms of our total income, MAPS received $536,103 from individuals who donated $1000 or more, with the largest donations from John Gilmore ($245,000), Shawn Hailey ($60,000), a bequest by Lyn Ehrnstein ($35,524), Anonymous ($20,000), Rene Ruiz ($19,000), Michael Honack ($12,000), Mark Anderson ($11,282), Ami Shinitzky ($10,000), Joby Pritzker ($10,000), Susan Pritzker ($10,000), Robert Field ($10,000), Vanja Palmers ($10,000) and others. MAPS also received $277,465 from foundations that donated $1000 or more, with the largest donations from the Marijuana Policy Project ($135,475), Anonymous ($50,000), Anonymous ($40,000), the Audrey and Martin Gruss Foundation ($25,000), the Libra Foundation ($10,000), and others.

MAPS also received a total of $125,067 in unrestricted donations under $1000, from a total of about 1500 members. In 2007, we’re going to implement a direct mail campaign, with the goal of doubling our membership within two years.

MAPS Assets
Total assets at the end of FY 2005-2006 were $782,522. Of these assets, restricted funds amounted to $266,621 and unrestricted funds amounted to $516,901. Of the unrestricted funds, $40,000 is not liquid and is from the value of a remainder interest that MAPS was given in a $1 million home that will probably come to MAPS in 30 or 40 years. Since MAPS’ fiscal year runs from June 1–May 31, and since MAPS receives most of its unrestricted operational funds in December, these unrestricted assets include funds for operational costs that need to be spent through the remainder of 2006. A major value to MAPS of having unrestricted funds is that I can pledge to support certain research projects when they are still early in the protocol development and approval stage, encouraging research teams to work hard to obtain approval knowing that some funding will definitely be available if the study is fully approved. Then, once approved, I can try to raise funds specifically restricted to that research project, freeing up unrestricted funds for me to make pledges of support to new research teams. Of the restricted funds, $70,277 is for LSD/psilocybin research (raised mostly from the sale of Albert Hofmannsigned art by Dean Chamberlain and Alex Grey, to fund part of Dr. Gasser’s Swiss LSD/end-of-life anxiety study); $68,053 is for the Project Start-Up Fund: UMass Amherst (John Gilmore donated $100,000 to enable MAPS to fund initial costs of projects in early stages before other donors are likely to feel the projects are solid enough to justify support, ideally with the fund replenished if projects start); $64,692 is for the overall MDMA psychotherapy research effort; $44,498 is for the Harvard LSD/Psilocybin cluster headache study; $13,000 is for the marijuana vaporizer study (which we have been unable to conduct since NIDA refused to sell 10 grams for this study); $5,100 is for the Women’s Entheogen Fund; and $1000 is for a study examining creativity and psychedelics.

MAPS Expenses
MAPS’ cash expenses were $1,029,457, and expenses after depreciation according to IRS accounting rules amounted to $1,025,475. These expenditures are detailed in the expense summary chart on page 7. A fuller discussion of each line item is presented below.

In summary, MAPS spent $247,156 on research projects, $310,183 on educational projects, $65,271 on our Bulletin and website, and $196,826, for project-related staff and office expenses. MAPS also spent $84,134 in royalties and expenses for art and product sales, $116,593 on management and general expenses, and $5,311 on fundraising. Our largest research expense was the US MDMA/PTSD research project, on which we spent $161,448 for direct expenses.

As with most non-profit organizations, MAPS’ salaries are lower than those for jobs in the private-sector with comparable skills and responsibilities. However, as we grow, my goal is for MAPS to become able to afford competitive salaries. For a list of MAPS’ staff and the current salaries they earn, see the text below providing details about the salary category.

Conclusion
That’s the overview for FY 2005-2006; each of the expense categories are described below. Questions or comments are welcome. It’s a privilege to be able to do this work. I am profoundly grateful to all MAPS members, who pay the bills that empower your MAPS staff to engage in our truly worthy struggles.