From: [h--rr--s] at [bhc.com] (Bob Harris) Newsgroups: alt.drugs Subject: MAPS Membership info Date: Sun, 2 Jan 94 22:19:58 GMT Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) - Your Psychedelic Pharmaceutical Company by Rick Doblin, MAPS President MAPS, 1801 Tippah Avenue, Charlotte, NC. 28205 Phone (704) 3 58-9830, FAX (704) 358-1650, e-mail [R--KM--S] at [aol.com] Becoming a member of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, Inc. (MAPS) and receiving the MAPS newsletter is an excellent way to stay abreast of the latest developments in psychedelic research around the world. In addition, your membership donation will be used to support research into the medical uses of MDMA, LSD, marijuana, and a cornucopia of other fascinating compounds. MAPS is an IRS-approved non-profit corporation supported by tax-deductible contributions from a membership of about five hundred people and growing. MAPS works to develop the medical potential of MDMA and other psychedelics by assisting researchers around the world to design, obtain governmental approval for, fund, conduct and report on psychedelic research. MAPS is also involved in research exploring the medical use of marijuana. MAPS' primary goals are to help researchers conduct the studies necessary to transform MDMA and marijuana into FDA-approved prescription medicines. For MDMA, this is an estimated ten-year, $10 million project; for marijuana, a two-year, $500,000 task. MAPS offers its members a quarterly newsletter reporting on MAPS-sponsored and other psychedelic research in progress both in the US and abroad, political developments that affect psychedelic research and use, and conferences, books and articles of interest. In addition, MAPS offers for sale various unique publications (for example the protocol submitted to the FDA for the investigation of the use of MDMA in the treatment of pain and distress in terminal cancer patients), videotapes (of a MAPS benefit held in Berkeley in 1990 that featured Jerry Beck, Ram Dass, Bruce Eisner, Rick Doblin, Laura Huxley, Emerson Jackson, Mark Kleiman, Timothy Leary, Dennis McKenna, Terence McKenna, Ralph Metzner, Andrew Weil, and Robert Zanger), and audiotapes (of a MAPS seminar held in Prague in 1992 featuring Ram Dass, Ken Ring and Richard Yensen discussing working with the terminally ill with psychedelics). Since its inception in 1986, MAPS has invested about $75,000, donated by its members, into preliminary FDA-required 28-day MDMA toxicity studies in the dog and rat. These studies were submitted to the FDA in order to open MAPS' FDA Drug Master File for MDMA. These toxicity studies were a prerequisite for all FDA-approved studies involving the administration of MDMA to human volunteers. When UC Irvine psychiatrist Dr. Charles Grob applied to the FDA to conduct human research with MDMA, MAPS provided him with written permission to cross-reference its MDMA Drug Master File. This document saved Dr. Grob from having to reproduce the toxicity data, a hurdle that he would have found prohibitively expensive. MAPS has also invested an additional $125,000 on pilot studies into the effect of MDMA on the serotonin levels of humans, on MDMA neurotoxicity studies in the primate, and on protocol design for Phase 1 and Phase 2 human studies with MDMA. In addition to MAPS' preliminary toxicity research and its subsequent efforts on protocol design, MAPS successfully assisted Dr. Charles Grob in obtaining FDA permission to study the effects of MDMA on human volunteers. Dr. Grob's study is the first that the FDA has ever permitted involving the administration of MDMA to human volunteers. The study is designed to gather information for a subsequent study by Dr. Grob which will investigate the use of MDMA in the treatment of pain and distress in end-stage pancreatic cancer patients. MAPS intends to raise funds for Dr. Grob's studies and provide him with whatever scientific and professional support he may need to conduct his experiments. One function of MAPS is to conduct MDMA research as if MAPS were a pharmaceutical company interested in making MDMA into a prescription medicine. The critical difference is that MAPS makes its data available for free to responsible researchers to help advance the field of MDMA research rather than keep the data as proprietary information. In this way, duplication of expensive required studies is eliminated and researchers can focus on research rather than profit considerations. MAPS has a number of other ongoing projects and research interests. These include facilitating the first human study exploring the use of smoked marijuana in treating the wasting syndrome in AIDS patients, conducting a follow-up study to Dr. Timothy Leary's Harvard psilocybin experiments into the rehabilitation of prisoners, encouraging US researchers interested in exploring the use of LSD in the treatment of substance abuse, assisting Russian psychiatrists seeking to obtain permission from their government to investigate the use of MDMA in the treatment of alcoholism and neurotic illness, sharing data with Swiss and German psychiatrists conducting MDE and MDMA research, and communicating with researchers around the world studying a mind-expanding range of psychedelic drugs and plant mixtures. MAPS was founded as an outgrowth of an organization of people who, in 1984, challenged the Drug Enforcement Administration's initial attempts to criminalize MDMA. MAPS' founder and current president, Rick Doblin, is currently on leave of absence from a Ph.D. program in Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and is a certified Grof Holotropic Breathworrk Practitioner. MAPS' strategy is put into practice when individuals contribute to MAPS and become members, pooling resources to fund research and educational projects of common interest and mutual benefit. General Membership is $30-$100 and includes the quarterly MAPS newsletter as well as copies of the June,1992 Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease article on the self-reports of 20 psychiatrists about their personnel MDMA experiences, with critique and Dr. Grob's commentary; the December,1992 High Times interview with Rick Doblin; and Ralph Metzner's classic 1988 ReVISION article on MDMA. Supporting Membership is $100-$250 and includes all the benefits received by the General members plus the audiotape of the MAPS seminar on working with the terminally ill with psychedelics, featuring Ram Dass, Ken Ring and Richard Yensen. Patron Membership is $250 or more and includes all the benefits received by the Supporting members plus the videotape of the MAPS benefit. Name_______________________________ Membership Contribution___________ Address_____________________________________________________________ City____________________State_____________________Zip Code____________ Phone__________________FAX_____________________Country_____________ Research Preferences _____________________________________ _____________ MAPS, 1801 Tippah Avenue, Charlotte, NC, 28205 - Phone (704) 358-9830, FAX (704) 358-1650, e-mail [R--KM--S] at [aol.com] "We must free science and medicine from the grasp of politics and give all Americans access to the very latest and best medical treatments." President Clinton, January 22,1993 Bob Harris 8 :-)