Is Crowdfunding the Solution to Growing Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy?
Crowdfunding Psychedelic Research
The medical benefits of psychedelic drugs have been proven repeatedly, so why hasn’t there been more funding funneled into its research and development? The short answer is that big pharmaceutical companies can’t patent and reap profit from them.
Of course, there is also the stigma behind illegal drugs and their scheduling, but according to scientists leading the charge in research behind drugs like MDMA, LSD and Psilocybin, funding is the biggest hindrance.
This has led research groups like the Beckley Foundation and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS, to look to crowdfunding campaigns for money. These groups have found clinical success in the past and haven’t had a lot of trouble getting government permission to test scheduled drugs, they just need resources.
That’s why there’s Fund a mental (health revolution). It’s a crowdsourcing campaign designed to garner money to donate to these organizations that have had success with treating mental health issues like PTSD, addiction and end-of-life anxiety, by using psychedelic drugs paired with intensive psychotherapy. The campaign was started by Rodrigo Niño, a man who, after taking the DMT-containing Ayahuasca, rid himself of severe anxiety upon discovering he had cancer.
MAPS
The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies researches psychedelic drugs ranging from LSD, to Ibogaine and Ayahuasca. But their successful research treating PTSD with MDMA has gained them the most attention in scientific communities and the media. Repeated successful studies by MAPS has led them to try to expedite FDA approval by applying for breakthrough therapy status, potentially making MDMA available with a prescription by 2021.
Their success was described in a New York Times article saying, “patients reported a 56 percent decrease of severity of symptoms on average, one study found. By the end of the study, two-thirds no longer met the criteria for having PTSD.”
MAPS wants you to know that MDMA is not the same as “Ecstasy” or “molly,” and that their trials are carefully monitored in a controlled environment, while paired with intense psychotherapy.
There is clearly a cohesive community in this realm as MAPS works together often with The Beckley Foundation as well as NYU’s School of Medicine and other notable researchers like David Nutt. They have even started a week of talks and workshops called the Psychedelic Science Conference held in Oakland, joining members of the community from all over the world.
The Beckley Foundation
When Amanda Fielding discovered LSD in the 60s, she instantly understood the potential that the drug had for consciousness expansion, especially when it came to the creative process. Since then, the drug has been scheduled and vilified in the mainstream, but she knew that the best way to change that perception was to prove its utility through science.
One of the things that her foundation focuses on that is gaining in popularity and intrigue is micro-dosing. With the rise of nootropics and “biohacking,” many people, notably in the tech world, are looking for ways to increase cognitive function and mental performance, by way of psychotropic drugs and supplements. Micro-dosing involves taking a significantly diluted or small amount of a hallucinogenic drug, like LSD or Psilocybin, that does not make you trip. The effects can lead to higher levels of creativity, positive mood and an alert, awakened state. There is no scientific evidence of this, yet. Fielding hopes to change that.
We know that psychedelics can lead to awakened states of consciousness and have the power to heal. With the stigma slowly starting to lift in the mainstream, it seems that a push from the public could be what is needed to clear the final hurdles. Since the failure of the war on drugs, medical marijuana is rapidly being legalized or decriminalized in many states with numerous benefits clinically and fiscally. We could be on the verge of a revolution in decriminalization and sweeping changes in drug policy.
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Strongest Psychedelic Known to Man Now Being Used in Clinical Trials
The world’s first regulated clinical trial of DMT clears the way for Earth’s most powerful psychoactive drug to join the psychedelic therapy revolution.
DMT, or N, N-Dimethyltryptamine, is a highly potent hallucinogen that naturally occurs in many plant species, including in one of the plant ingredients of ayahuasca. It can also be synthetically produced in a laboratory.
DMT is known for inducing intense metaphysical trips, which are reportedly similar to near-death experiences. Having been used underground in the west for decades, it is now attracting the interest of pharmaceutical companies and scientists looking to investigate its potential mental health benefits.
Jay Waxenberg is the director of the DMTx program at the Center for Medicinal Mindfulness. Based in Boulder, CO, it was one of the first centers to offer legal psychedelic therapy in the U.S.
“DMT is actually the most powerful psychedelic on Earth that we’re aware of, and what makes it special and different from other psychedelics is that it’s endogenous, which means it’s produced within our own bodies. It’s also produced in nearly every ecosystem on Earth — it’s everywhere, it’s all around us – which is also kind of leading to what is really unique about it, the extent of a DMT experience, it’s at most 20 minutes,” Waxenberg said.
While there is a wide range of phenomena experienced during a DMT trip, there are some fascinating common hallmarks.
“This alternate reality experience, or this experience that people will call ‘realer than real.’ It’s a reality similar to our own, but completely different,” Waxenberg said. “Some of the elements within that would be the entity encounters, which is very common for people; intense geometric, hyperbolic shapes; and out-of-body, traveling to the center of the universe; ego-dissolution, ego death; these are really common experiences under it.”
While advocates have been reporting profound healing benefits for decades, there have not been any clinical studies on DMT due to its status as a Schedule 1 controlled substance, until now.
