Excitement around psychedelics continues to grow with thousands set to attend the Psychedelic Science conference in Denver this week. Proponents in the psychedelic space have promoted a strategy to focus on the “medicalization” to gain wider societal acceptance. But this could lead psychedelics to come under greater control, ensuring that they serve as profitable tools to maintain the status quo.
Writer and filmmaker John Potash joined me to discuss his latest documentary Drugs As Weapons Against Us. We talked about the main thesis behind the film and the original book. We discussed about the CIA’s involvement in the LSD movement in the 1960’s with groups like The Brotherhood of Eternal Love and the Mellon Hitchcock family. John talked about how this connects to the CIA’s MK Ultra program. We touched on how the CIA and their connected groups used LSD to derail and destroy leftist and revolutionary organizations throughout the 60’s and 70’s.
The Food and Drug Administration recently announced a change of status of the psychedelic compound MDMA for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a move that some researchers see as the first step towards a psychedelic cultural renaissance.
This week, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) announced the FDA’s August 16 decision to designate MDMA as a breakthrough therapy. Along with this designation, the FDA has approved Phase 3 trials to test the effectiveness of the drug in treating PTSD.
The FDA gave permission on November 29 for large-scale, Phase 3 clinical trials of Ecstasy for people suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Many people swear the currently-illicit street drug has saved their lives, and if the trial is successful, it would establish Ecstasy as a legitimate prescription drug. [1]
Preliminary trials of Ecstasy, also called MDMA, for PTSD have been successful, but a large-scale trial is necessary before the FDA can approve it. [2]
