Rick Doblin

This was August of last year. And so that was heartbreaking because I thought that the data really did justify approval and it did demonstrate safety and efficacy. But there was enough doubts that were raised. One of the big problems to do research with psychedelics is how do you do a double-blind study? When you take a powerful drug, you know you've taken it.

This was August of last year. And so that was heartbreaking because I thought that the data really did justify approval and it did demonstrate safety and efficacy. But there was enough doubts that were raised. One of the big problems to do research with psychedelics is how do you do a double-blind study? When you take a powerful drug, you know you've taken it.

This was August of last year. And so that was heartbreaking because I thought that the data really did justify approval and it did demonstrate safety and efficacy. But there was enough doubts that were raised. One of the big problems to do research with psychedelics is how do you do a double-blind study? When you take a powerful drug, you know you've taken it.

And if you give an inactive placebo, people can tell the difference. A lot of my dissertation, which I did in 2001, was how to do a double-blind study with psychedelics, particularly with MDMA. And my solution, which made sense, was to do therapy with low-dose MDMA versus therapy with full-dose MDMA. So everybody knows they're getting MDMA. They all have the same expectations.

And if you give an inactive placebo, people can tell the difference. A lot of my dissertation, which I did in 2001, was how to do a double-blind study with psychedelics, particularly with MDMA. And my solution, which made sense, was to do therapy with low-dose MDMA versus therapy with full-dose MDMA. So everybody knows they're getting MDMA. They all have the same expectations.

And if you give an inactive placebo, people can tell the difference. A lot of my dissertation, which I did in 2001, was how to do a double-blind study with psychedelics, particularly with MDMA. And my solution, which made sense, was to do therapy with low-dose MDMA versus therapy with full-dose MDMA. So everybody knows they're getting MDMA. They all have the same expectations.

And they might not be aware, though, which dose. You know, is it a full dose? Is it a lower dose? So the challenge was to pick the low dose so that it's high enough to cause a certain amount of confusion, but not so high that it has so much therapeutic potential that you can't tell a difference between the groups.

And they might not be aware, though, which dose. You know, is it a full dose? Is it a lower dose? So the challenge was to pick the low dose so that it's high enough to cause a certain amount of confusion, but not so high that it has so much therapeutic potential that you can't tell a difference between the groups.

And they might not be aware, though, which dose. You know, is it a full dose? Is it a lower dose? So the challenge was to pick the low dose so that it's high enough to cause a certain amount of confusion, but not so high that it has so much therapeutic potential that you can't tell a difference between the groups.

So for 16 years, from 2000 to 2016, MAPS did a series of what are called Phase II studies to try to figure out how to do Phase III. And we looked at therapy with no MDMA, therapy with 25 milligrams, 30 milligrams, 40, 50, 75, 100, 125, and 150. So sort of like a dose response. We did all these different doses. And what we discovered...

So for 16 years, from 2000 to 2016, MAPS did a series of what are called Phase II studies to try to figure out how to do Phase III. And we looked at therapy with no MDMA, therapy with 25 milligrams, 30 milligrams, 40, 50, 75, 100, 125, and 150. So sort of like a dose response. We did all these different doses. And what we discovered...

So for 16 years, from 2000 to 2016, MAPS did a series of what are called Phase II studies to try to figure out how to do Phase III. And we looked at therapy with no MDMA, therapy with 25 milligrams, 30 milligrams, 40, 50, 75, 100, 125, and 150. So sort of like a dose response. We did all these different doses. And what we discovered...

fortunately after I got my PhD, was that my theory was partially right and partially wrong. That, you know, a microdose of anything is not going to be very good as a placebo because you'll be able to tell. So what was surprising to us was that the lower doses, 25, 30, 40, 50 milligrams, did indeed cause a certain amount of confusion in

fortunately after I got my PhD, was that my theory was partially right and partially wrong. That, you know, a microdose of anything is not going to be very good as a placebo because you'll be able to tell. So what was surprising to us was that the lower doses, 25, 30, 40, 50 milligrams, did indeed cause a certain amount of confusion in

fortunately after I got my PhD, was that my theory was partially right and partially wrong. That, you know, a microdose of anything is not going to be very good as a placebo because you'll be able to tell. So what was surprising to us was that the lower doses, 25, 30, 40, 50 milligrams, did indeed cause a certain amount of confusion in

But when you're working with PTSD patients and you get this activation from the drug but you don't have enough of the fear reduction, it made people uncomfortable. So we showed that the people that got therapy with no MDMA did better than the people that got therapy with the low doses of MDMA. They still got better, but they didn't get as much benefit.

But when you're working with PTSD patients and you get this activation from the drug but you don't have enough of the fear reduction, it made people uncomfortable. So we showed that the people that got therapy with no MDMA did better than the people that got therapy with the low doses of MDMA. They still got better, but they didn't get as much benefit.

But when you're working with PTSD patients and you get this activation from the drug but you don't have enough of the fear reduction, it made people uncomfortable. So we showed that the people that got therapy with no MDMA did better than the people that got therapy with the low doses of MDMA. They still got better, but they didn't get as much benefit.

So the analogy is you're taking off in an airplane and there's all this turbulence at the beginning and then you get above the clouds and it's smooth sailing. So it's kind of like that with MDMA. But the part that we discovered that was very surprising was we did a study with veterans, firefighters, and police officers.

So the analogy is you're taking off in an airplane and there's all this turbulence at the beginning and then you get above the clouds and it's smooth sailing. So it's kind of like that with MDMA. But the part that we discovered that was very surprising was we did a study with veterans, firefighters, and police officers.