Rick Doblin is an American psychedelic researcher and campaigner who founded the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) in 1986. He holds a PhD in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School and has spent decades working to make MDMA-assisted therapy a legal treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. In 2023 he moved from executive director to president of MAPS.
Brian Rose has interviewed Doblin on London Real three times between 2013 and 2018. They have covered his own experiences with LSD, the history of MAPS, the regulation of MDMA and cannabis, the clinical trials of MDMA for PTSD and the future of psychedelic medicine.
Each interview is listed below in order with a short summary.
MDMA Is Medicine (2018). Recorded during the phase 3 trials of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD, it is the clearest statement of his case. For his own story, watch Fighting the Good Fight (2013).
Doblin’s central argument is that MDMA, given alongside psychotherapy in a clinical setting, can help people with post-traumatic stress disorder. He set up MAPS in 1986 with the aim of making it a prescription medicine.
Rather than campaign only for legalisation, he argues for working with regulators and building evidence through formal clinical trials. In 2013 he explained why that route had been so slow for cannabis in the United States.
In 2018 he talked about how to persuade the public to see drugs known for recreational use as possible treatments, and argued that society is more prepared for psychedelics than it was in the 1960s.
He told Brian Rose he hopes psychedelics might one day play a part in spirituality and in resolving conflicts between groups.
Rick Doblin is an American psychedelic researcher and campaigner who founded the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, MAPS, in 1986. He holds a PhD in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School and has spent decades pushing for MDMA-assisted therapy to become a legal treatment for PTSD.
MAPS is the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a US non-profit Doblin founded in 1986 to research the medical use of MDMA and other psychedelics through clinical trials, education and policy work.
Across three interviews with Brian Rose between 2013 and 2018 he talked about his first LSD experiences, the banning of MDMA in the United States, the barriers to cannabis research, MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD and how he hopes psychedelic medicine will develop.
Start with MDMA Is Medicine from 2018, recorded while MAPS was running its phase 3 trials. For his personal story and the early history of MAPS, watch Fighting the Good Fight from 2013.
Three times: Fighting the Good Fight in 2013, MDMA Therapy in 2014 and MDMA Is Medicine in 2018.
Not in the United States. In 2024 the Food and Drug Administration declined to approve MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD and asked for a further clinical trial. MDMA remains a controlled drug in the US and the UK.
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