anythingnonidin

Really great to see MDMA research (MAPS, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) get funded by Pine. MDMA seems to be a high potential therapy.

I hope the next crypto philanthropist funds other psychedelic research, e.g. Heffter Research. https://heffter.org/ Psilocybin and classic psychedelics also seems to be very high potential - e.g. for addiction [0], problem solving/creativity [1], and for depression/anxiety [2].

[0]: https://hub.jhu.edu/2014/09/11/magic-mushrooms-smoking/

[1]: https://thethirdwave.co/psychedelics-creativity/

[2]: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/01/health/hallucinogenic-mus...

With the interest in MDMA on HN lately (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15120656, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13069813), this seems relevant. This is the organization behind all of the MDMA research.

The ideal solution is perhaps:

- uses google powered machine translation

- automatically copies the site and sets up subdomains or interfaces with my static site generator

- updates when my English site updates

- updates when the machine translations get better

- has the option to pay a fee to have humans go and improve the machine translation for my most popular languages

- maybe has some easy interface that makes it possible for volunteers to improve the machine translation, showing them the English and translation side by side or something

- charges either no fee or a fee based on number of visits to my site to price discriminate, and optional extra for human improvement

It seems like if all sites had something like this it could help make the internet equally content rich for foreign language speakers, too.

Does this exist?

Does anyone have a summary?

If you’re looking for things to support, MAPS and Heffter are great, and for a smaller project with less funding needed, the MDMA movie is may be an excellent project to support: https://donate.mdmathemovie.com/en/campaigns/TTTR4Li6j7oskQM...

As far as I'm aware, there isn't really anyone strongly against it, there just aren't enough (wealthy) people who are strongly supporting it.

The main barrier by far is funding, which my understanding is mostly comes from large (6-7 figure) funders.

So, some "opposition":

- Apathy

- Desire to not spend money / pass on majority of wealth to future generations

- Lack of knowledge

- Belief that donating to MDMA/psilocybin research isn't an effective way to donate money

I think the biggest one is just wealthy people, understandably, are hesitant to donate their money. Logically it seems many of them understand that they won't be able to spend through it all and will still have substantial resources for future generations, but emotionally I imagine it would be hard to cut a $5 million check to a non-profit.

I don't think it's a lack of billionaires aware of MDMA - there should be more than enough billionaires from the burning man crowd alone.

If anyone is wondering how they can help make sure this research happens, the single most helpful thing I'm aware of is helping MAPS find people interested in large (6 or 7 figures) donations. You could reach out to askmaps@maps.org or via another channel if that describes you or a friend

The "MDMA Therapy" subreddit has some decent info: https://www.reddit.com/r/mdmatherapy/

I'm very interested in this stuff. See my submissions for other interesting articles on the potential of MDMA and classic psychedelics (magic mushrooms, LSD) to help both unwell and healthy people be happier & healthier: https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=anythingnonidin

This site has an overview of where MDMA and classic psychedelics may be useful, and the most effective things you can do to help the science + safe access progress: http://www.rethinkpsychedelics.org/

Interesting link, and an important note on it:

> Additional commentary: Upon examining this report, human neuroscience researcher Matthew Johnson noted that the researchers did not do a convincing job at "matching" the ecstasy users and control participants on other drug use. The ecstasy users had considerably more use of other drugs, but the statistical tests of whether the groups differed in this respect lacked sufficient power to detect differences in drug use.

To add to the other comment, I highly recommend 'Acid Test' to get an overview of the history and potential of MDMA + other drugs like magic mushrooms.

https://www.audible.com/pd/History/Acid-Test-Audiobook/B00MP...

I recommend reading or listening to the book Acid Test if anyone here would like to learn more about the therapeutic potential of MDMA and classic psychedelics (e.g. psilocybin/magic mushrooms).

It is absolutely shocking to me that research into MDMA and classic psychedelics isn't swamped with funding. I'd imagine that some wealthy people must find this stuff extremely intriguing - Yuri Milner is spending $100 million on space exploration, and an MDMA phase 3 research trial needs ~$15 million and finds it really hard to raise money?

Both have extremely high therapeutic potential, classic psychedelics in particular are interesting in the same way that space exploration is interesting.

And as diogenescynic noted elsewhere, it's even more shocking that we as a society put up with it.

Paper: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/026988111773568...

First Published October 17, 2017 (Today)

On a related note:

It is absolutely shocking to me that research into psychedelics isn't swamped with funding. I'd imagine that some wealthy people must find this stuff extremely intriguing - Yuri Milner is spending $100 million on space exploration, and a psilocybin phase 3 research trial needs ~$10 million and finds it really hard to raise money?

Psychedelics have extremely high therapeutic potential, and are also just interesting in a similar same way as space exploration is interesting.

And as diogenescynic noted elsewhere, it's even more shocking that we as a society put up with it.

Great article, covers a lot of ground.

The rescheduling benefits may apply to the UK, but aren't particularly important to work on for the US.

In the US, access to research funding is a far larger issue than scheduling. The main benefit of rescheduling would likely be through its indirect benefits on access to funding, possibly from government agencies like the NIMH.

Also, both psilocybin and MDMA are in or beginning FDA Phase 3 trials, for likely approval ~2023 and 2021 respectively, after which they will be automatically rescheduled. So if you're in the US and you want to contribute to rescheduling, the way to do it is to fund the Phase 3 research via Heffter and MAPS. (It's possible that psilocybin and MDMA will be rescheduled, but that magic mushrooms and ecstasy will remain schedule I, but I don't think that's particularly worse based on my understanding.)

Source: I’ve talked with multiple researchers who are studying psychedelics.

Also, I recommend reading or listening to the book Acid Test if anyone here would like to learn more.

> “What is unique about this latest study is that positive changes were found in several traits. In contrast to ‘states’, ‘traits’ are relatively stable and very resistant to change,” explained Griffiths. “Importantly, the trait changes were measured using scientifically validated scales, and positive change was corroborated by ratings from friends and colleagues who had established relationships with study participants,” he added.

From one of the authors

New research published online Oct 12.

Including ‘very large’ increases in altruism.

> The hardest part has actually been my family. They don't recognize me because, for the first time in their lives, I am not completely, utterly miserable.

Congratulations on your improvement, that's great to hear.

I hope you're able to update your families view of you to one that is healthier.

Agreed. You may also enjoy this psilocybin study that was released last week: http://www.newswise.com/articles/johns-hopkins-study-probes-...

> Altruism: Comparing LD-SS to HD-SS, the effect size was 1.36, which statisticians consider “very large.” Comparing LD-SS to HD-HS, the effect size was 1.95, considered “very large,” almost “huge.”

Psilocybin seemed to cause 'very large' increases in altruism.

> I would argue we are treating symptoms and not figuring out the causes behind these illnesses such that a single drug treats all of them.

It's funny that you say that, because it seems that psychedelics may work for a variety of things because they address some lower-level factor, rather than just treating higher-level symptoms.

"In 6-month follow-up interviews, participants were asked: ‘Did this treatment work for you, and if so how?’ and responses were analysed for consistent themes (Watts et al. 2017). Of the 17 patients who endorsed the treatment’s effectiveness, all made reference to one particular mediating factor: a renewed sense of connection or connectedness. This factor was found to have three distinguishable aspects: connection to (1) self, (2) others and (3) the world in general (Watts et al. 2017)."

"In brief, we have proposed that brain serotonin 2A receptor signalling mediates a state of rapid plasticity that is conducive to major change (e.g. in outlook and/or behaviour)—when such change feels necessary (e.g. to aid mental or physical survival). Such a function may be related to humans’ unique capacity for adaptability."

Source/further reading: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28795211

Good question. My guess at first pass is that {P,T}IHKAL has explored the easy search space? But, I'm not very certain here.

Also, the Usona Institute had a job posting for a psychedelic chemist doing just that earlier this year. They are the group supporting the psilocybin phase 3 trials.

> I find it more shocking that we as a society put up with it.

Great point.

It is absolutely shocking to me that research into psychedelics isn't swamped with funding. I'd imagine that some wealthy people must find this stuff extremely intriguing - Yuri Milner is spending $100 million on space exploration, and a psilocybin phase 3 research trial needs ~$10 million and finds it really hard to raise money?

Psychedelics have extremely high therapeutic potential, and are also just interesting in a similar same way as space exploration is interesting.

Yep, this. See my reply to the poster for more info.

Can you share any more details?

Somewhat interestingly/surprisingly, heroin is in the same ballpark of addictiveness as alcohol, as measured by the percent of people who use it 1+ times outside of a medical setting who end up becoming dependent.

Alcohol: 15-23%

Heroin: 23%

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21145178

See also: https://psychedelicsociety.org.uk/experience-weekends (Magic truffle experience retreat in Amsterdam)

> It is our understanding that magic truffles are legal in the Netherlands, and in Jamaica magic mushrooms are either outright legal or the laws don’t seem to be enforced.

Magic truffles contain psilocybin, the same as magic mushrooms - they are the part that grows below ground.

https://tripsafe.org/shrooms/#12-psilocybin-is-legal-in-some...

The best seeming retreats are:

https://psychedelicsociety.org.uk/experience-weekends

and

https://www.mycomeditations.com/

Absolutely not a dumb question to ask, thanks for noting that. In fact, a really good question to ask, as like some other commenters noted that would actually be nice and convenient if it was the case. I just wanted to make sure the information was available on what we know, as I think research has already found the answer, to anyone who viewed the thread.