Summary: Free Thoughts Podcast interviews MAPS Founder Rick Doblin, Ph.D., to discuss bureaucratic barriers around psychedelic and marijuana research. Doblin talks about current drug policies, drug policy reform, and the many hurdles researchers must go through with the DEA and FDA in order to conduct scientific research to explore the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics and marijuana.”The drugs are illegal, unless you can have approval from the FDA, the DEA, and Institutional Review boards to conduct scientific research. They’re only legal in research contexts,” explains Doblin. “The medicalization of these drugs is a stepping stone to, I think, broader drug policy reform. Medicalization leads to legalization. Medicalization is the only and the best way that we have to educate people honestly about the actual risks and benefits of these drugs under certain conditions, and that is what helps people try to sort through all the propaganda and exaggerated information they’ve seen about, and been given about the risks that have been put out there to justify prohibition.”
Originally appearing here.
Rick Doblin joins us to give a primer on the medical uses of psychedelics. Rick Doblin is the Founder and Executive Director for MAPS; the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. We discuss the War on Drugs, how those suffering from PTSD are benefiting from psychedelics and how the DEA could hinder the research surrounding psychedelics and marijuana.
