MAPS President Rick Doblin, PhD, spoke at the second annual Clusterbusters conference in Austin, Texas, held from October 26-28. At a Clusterbusters business meeting after the conference, MAPS donated $26,000 to Clusterbusters for the protocol development and approval process for LSD/psilocybin cluster headache research. Clusterbusters and McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, have entered into an agreement calling for Clusterbusters to cover expenses related to protocol development and FDA, IRB and DEA approval for studies at McLean into the use of LSD and psilocybin in the treatment of cluster headaches. MAPS’ donation will further Clusterbusters’ funding of its contract with McLean Hospital. Dr. John Halpern is leading the LSD/psilocybin cluster headache research effort at McLean Hospital.
MAPS raised these funds in 2005 from the sale of Dean Chamberlain’s signed and numbered prints (1 -50) of his portrait of Albert Hofmann, at which time our only active project intending to study LSD and psilocybin was the cluster headache research. MAPS currently has for sale a larger and more limited edition (1-25) set of prints of Dean’s portrait of Albert, also signed by Albert, with funds from those sales going to support MAPS-sponsored LSD and psilocybin psychotherapy research in people with anxiety associated with end-of-life issues.
