Rick Doblin & Natalie Ginsberg: Rescheduling MDMA - History, Present and Future

Natalie Ginsberg, MAPS Policy and Advocacy Manager will interview Rick Doblin, Ph.D., MAPS Founder and Executive Director, about his experiences when MDMA was legal, his battle against its subsequent criminalization, and his current efforts to secure MDMA’s legal access by transforming it into an FDA-approved prescription medicine. Rick will interview Natalie about her work advocating for psychedelic harm reduction, healing justice and legal access which moves beyond medicine to access for personal and spiritual growth, celebration, and other intentional use. Biography: Rick Doblin, Ph.D., is the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). He received his doctorate in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he wrote his dissertation on the regulation of the medical uses of psychedelics and marijuana and his Master's thesis on a survey of oncologists about smoked marijuana vs. the oral THC pill in nausea control for cancer patients. His undergraduate thesis at New College of Florida was a 25-year follow-up to the classic Good Friday Experiment, which evaluated the potential of psychedelic drugs to catalyze religious experiences. He also conducted a thirty-four year follow-up study to Timothy Leary’s Concord Prison Experiment. Rick studied with Dr. Stanislav Grof and was among the first to be certified as a Holotropic Breathwork practitioner. His professional goal is to help develop legal contexts for the beneficial uses of psychedelics and marijuana, primarily as prescription medicines but also for personal growth for otherwise healthy people, and eventually to become a legally licensed psychedelic therapist. He founded MAPS in 1986, and currently resides in Boston with his wife and three children. Natalie Ginsberg, MAPS Policy and Advocacy Manager will interview Rick Doblin, MAPS Founder and Executive Director, about his experiences when MDMA was legal, his battle against its subsequent criminalization, and his current efforts to secure MDMA’s legal access by transforming it into an FDA-approved prescription medicine. Rick will interview Natalie about her work advocating for psychedelic harm reduction, healing justice and legal access which moves beyond medicine to access for personal and spiritual growth, celebration, and other intentional use.