Who is MAPS?

Take a Trip Down Memory Lane.

After decades of fundamental research, there was a cultural struggle over psychedelics in the United States. Just as psychiatrists, psychologists, and other researchers were making incredible headway on their studies of compounds like LSD and psilocybin (among others), the U.S. government criminalized these substances, blocking research across the globe.

tHE POTENTIAL FOR

MDMA Therapy

Enter MAPS founder, Rick Doblin, Ph.D.. Knowing the DEA would move onto criminalizing MDMA, Rick (along with Alise Agar and Debby Harlow) started a nonprofit in 1984, the Earth Metabolic Design Lab. They filed a lawsuit to prevent the DEA’s effort to classify MDMA as a Schedule I substance. Unfortunately, the DEA rejected the recommendation of the judge to keep the therapeutic use of MDMA legal. But hope was not lost.

By creating MAPS in 1986, Rick was able to continue researching the healing potential of MDMA and other psychedelics. Over the course of the past 35 years, MAPS has raised over $130 million for psychedelic research and education.

  • 1972 - The Awakening

    MAPS founder, Rick Doblin, Ph.D., has his first experience with LSD,
    giving him a glimpse of the profound connection between heart and mind
    made possible by psychedelics. From that moment on, Rick dedicated his
    life to becoming a legal psychedelic therapist, envisioning a healthier,
    more sustainable and loving world.

  • 1986 - MAPS is Born

    One year after MDMA is deemed illegal by the FDA, Rick founded MAPS as a research and educational organization with the goal of proving to the world (and the US government) that when coupled with therapy,
    psychedelics were an effective PTSD treatment

  • 1990 - Change in the Wind

    The FDA introduces a new group to oversee psychedelic research protocols, opening the doors to modern psychedelic science. This year also marks the first major psychedelic conference hosted by MAPS, “Regulation or Prohibition: Psychedelics in the 1990s.

  • 2004 - Let the trials begin

    Under the leadership of drug development expert, Amy Emerson, MAPS begins focusing on clinical trials to study the effect of MDMA-assisted therapy on PTSD.

  • 2014 - MAPS PBC is Born

    MAPS Public Benefit Corporation (MAPS PBS) was founded in anticipation of FDA approval of MDMA-Assisted Therapy for PTSD. This year is also when MAPS published results from the first study of LSD
    therapy in over 40 years.

  • 2017 - Psychedelic Science is Born

    In this historic six-day global gathering, the international scientific community came together to share and discuss research for psychedelic-assisted therapy. With over 3,000 attendees, Psychedelic
    Science 2017 featured simultaneous tracks of presentations by leading and up-and-coming international researchers in the multidisciplinary field of psychedelic science and medicine.

  • 2019 - TED meets MAPS

    MAPS founder Rick Doblin, Ph.D., presented the first official TED Talk about psychedelics. MAPS published results from the combined analysis of six Phase 2 studies of MDMA assisted therapy for PTSD

  • 2021 and Beyond

    With Nature Medicine’s publication of our first FDA Phase 3 trial of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD, MAPS continues to be the leader of psychedelic research.