Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies

About me:

MAPS is a 501 (c) (3) non–profit corporation chartered in 1986 as a membership–based research and educational organization. MAPS was founded one year after the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) made MDMA a Schedule 1 drug and criminalized both its recreational and therapeutic uses. We are actively developing and funding clinical trials with human subjects in accordance with guidelines set forth by the United States’ Food and Drug Administration, the European Medicines Agency, and the International Council on Harmonization (ICH/GCP). During this process we are training therapists to administer psychedelic drugs in therapeutic settings.

We consider ourselves to be a non–profit pharmaceutical company working to develop generic drugs. We estimate that it will take $10 million dollars and 10 years to conduct the research necessary to prove to the satisfaction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency the safety and efficacy of either MDMA or marijuana for one clinical indication. MAPS President Rick Doblin, PhD used to speak and write about a $5 million dollar, 5–year plan to develop MDMA into a prescription medicine. However, based on experience, he now estimates a $10 Million, 10–year plan, “…which if were lucky, may end up as a $7 million, 7–year plan. In any case, what’s a few years and a few million dollars either way, when the goal is so tremendous?”

We believe that psychedelics and marijuana, when used in proper settings, can be beneficial for such uses as psychotherapeutic treatment, physiological research and treatment, treatment of addiction, pain relief, spiritual exploration, creativity research, shamanic healing, psychic research, brain physiology research and related scientific inquiries.

We pursue our research mission by helping and/or sponsoring scientific researchers to design, obtain governmental approval for, fund, conduct and report on psychedelic and marijuana research in human volunteers.

We pursue our educational mission through maintaining our website; engaging the media in dialogue;publishing books; publishing a Bulletin that is sent to its members as well as government policy makers and academic experts; and speaking at universities, conferences and other events. We also provide psychedelic emergency services at festivals where psychedelics are likely to be used in an effort to model harm reduction techniques in a post–prohibition world.

For more information, please visit www.maps.org

To become a member of MAPS and support psychedelic research,
please visit our membership and donation page