Multidisciplinary Association For Psychedelic Studies

MAPS’ mission is (1) to treat conditions for which conventional medicines provide limited relief—such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), pain, drug dependence, and anxiety and depression associated with end-of-life issues—by developing psychedelics and marijuana into prescription medicines; (2) to treat many thousands of people by building a network of clinics where treatments can be provided; and (3) to educate the public honestly about the risks and benefits of psychedelics and marijuana.

MAPS' primary project is to investigate MDMA-assisted psychotherapy as a novel treatment for PTSD in clinical trials conducted under U.S. FDA regulations. Our goal is to ease the suffering of many thousands of people worldwide who have experienced psychological trauma.

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.

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.

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.

MAPS has completed two Phase 2 FDA studies using MDMA-assisted psychotherapy to treat PTSD, and is in the process of four other similar studies. MAPS also has a study looking at LSD-assisted psychotherapy for treating end-of-life anxiety, an outcome study of the benefits of ibogaine for opiate dependence, and a protocol to investigate medical marijuana to relive symptoms of PTSD.