A new drug reform has begun

Short history of MDMA Assisted Therapy

The Multi-Disciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) submitted a New Drug Application this week to the FDA requesting that the FDA consider MDMA with assisted psychotherapy to treat chronic PTSD.

This is a significant event in drug policy as it signals the likely reversal of a DEA decision in 1985 to ban MDMA. It signals the experimentation stage involved in getting it reversed is complete. It signals the start of psychedelic reform. The petitioning of the FDA will lead it to approve the application which will then lead the DEA to allow it to be used legally to treat PTSD. Something that has never happened before and which has been building for forty years will happen. Most likely, this time next year, MDMA will no longer be a Schedule I banned substance but more likely an approved Schedule III treatment for PTSD. And most likely will follow more banned substances to come off the federal registry too.

I wrote this from memory based on books and articles I read during Covid, as well as revived and repurposed a writeup of some results in a draft on my substack. I wrote it because I saw the announcement and I have insomnia because I crashed today around 4pm and napped for a long time. So I’m up and on the phone typing in bed with my cat Betty curled around one leg over the covers, Ronnie around the other leg, and my kitten Clara on the corner as the two sisters still haven’t quite accepted her as their adopted feline sister. I hope this is interesting to any all of those interested in severe mental health disorders, drug policy, and how we got here.

Early history of MDMA discovery and psychotherapy

MDMA’s real name is long, weird and hard to pronounce: 3:4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine. I’m going to just call it MDMA. But you maybe know it as ecstasy.