
Policy & Advocacy
Reshaping the framework of psychedelic use and combating systemic injustices through drug policy reform.

We advocate for healing and justice to eliminate all barriers to psychedelic research, education and care.

We believe that, when combined with comprehensive harm and risk reduction, all drugs should become decriminalized.

We work alongside passionate advocates to end the global War on Drugs, building bridges with our vibrant, and rapidly growing, worldwide psychedelic community.

Policy
It’s time to move on from the war on drugs and create real change through cannabis and psychedelic policy reform at the local, state, and federal level. Our Policy & Advocacy Team works to create nonpartisan policies that decriminalize and regulate substances within evidence-based, equitable, and compassionate frameworks—medical and otherwise—so everyone can benefit from the safe and intentional use of psychedelic substances.
Advocacy
Individual therapy alone cannot solve the systemic issues that often cause trauma. That’s why our Policy & Advocacy Team has had a strong, continued focus on systemic change, advocating for decriminalization of drugs in a framework of social and racial equity. Our efforts support comprehensive harm and risk reduction, including honest and culturally-relevant drug education, legal and accessible substance analysis, peer support, and accessible services for mental health and integration.
Movement Building
Our work doesn’t end within our walls. We partner with like-minded organizations around the world to develop research projects, events, campaigns, networks, and actions based in healing and justice. Highlights include:
- Co-founding Catharsis on the Mall, a free annual Burning Man-inspired event formed as a vigil for the war on drugs
- Producing the Psychedelic Medicine and Cultural Trauma workshop on the intersection of psychedelics and cultural and racial trauma in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2019
- Co-developing a study evaluating psychedelics as a tool for healing intergenerational trauma among Palestinians and Israelis.
Latest Policy & Advocacy News
Formal Comments
- Statement of Solidarity: MAPS Stands Against Systemic Racism and for Justice and Healing (June 2020)
- Public Comment Submitted to DEA: Controls to Enhance the Cultivation of Marijuana for Research in the United States (May 2020)
- Statement: MAPS Responds to Administration’s Letter About Psychedelic Research Agenda and Findings (June 2019)
- Statement: Considerations for the Regulation and Decriminalization of Psychedelic Substances (May 2019)
- MAPS’ UN Statement on MDMA (October 2018)
- Public Comment Submitted to President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis (June 2017)
- Written Testimony from Rick Doblin to US Sentencing Committee: MDMA Sentencing Guideline (April 2017)