The war on drugs is back. Will psychedelic drug research survive?
“It’s just so scary… Jeff Sessions and the drug war, and that we would go backwards after all this work and money,” says Ann Mithoefer, co-therapist on the ongoing MDMA-assisted psychotherapy and PTSD studies funded by MAPS, alongside her husband Michael.
Though the FDA is more friendly to psychedelics than ever before, getting the approval to test compounds is a long and complicated process. Doblin hopes that Trump’s FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb will simplify it, thanks to a key… administration talking point: deregulation. Gottlieb’s public statements endorse cutting regulatory processes in favor of quickened drug approvals — though he hasn’t specifically addressed psychedelic research. Mithoefer and Doblin continue to place their trust in the FDA, even though the DOJ is becoming more hostile. A May 11th meeting with the FDA about the Mithoefers’ MAPS-funded MDMA Phase 3 protocol was “beyond positive,” Doblin says. “We came to an agreement on all the elements of the study’s design.”
Original Article (The Verge):
The war on drugs is back. Will psychedelic drug research survive?
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