Healing From Drug Addiction Is Illegal; Too Much Money To Be Made Keeping Them Addicts!
Ibogaine Therapy for Drug Addiction
MAPS-sponsored researchers are collecting observational data for the first prospective ibogaine outcome studies in order to contribute to the growing scientific literature about ibogaine as a treatment for drug addiction.
Although first-hand accounts indicate that ibogaine is unlikely to be popular as a recreational drug, ibogaine remains classified as a Schedule I drug in the United States (it is also scheduled in Belgium and Switzerland). Yet despite its classification as a drug with a “high potential for abuse” and “no currently accepted medical use,” people who struggle with substance abuse continue to seek out international clinics or underground providers to receive ibogaine treatment.
Ayahuasca-Assisted Treatment
MAPS supports research into the safety and effectiveness of ayahuasca-assisted treatment for drug addiction and PTSD. We also support conferences, meetings, and publications about the scientific, therapeutic, sustainable, and spiritual uses of ayahuasca. We also serve as non-profit fiscal sponsor for organizations that support these uses.
We recently completed the first North American observational study of the safety and long-term effectiveness of ayahuasca treatment for addiction and dependence. The paper describing the results of the study was published in June 2013 in Current Drug Abuse Reviews.
Medical Marijuana
MAPS has been working since 1992 to sponsor FDA-approved clinical studies into the safety and efficacy of botanical marijuana as a prescription medicine for specific medical uses. We’ve obtained approval from FDA and from Institutional Review Boards for several different protocols but were unable to obtain approval to purchase federally-legal marijuana from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
On March 14, 2014, the U.S. Public Health Service approved our request to purchase NIDA marijuana for our study of smoked whole plant (botanical) marijuana for symptoms of PTSD in U.S. veterans, an historic shift in federal policy. On December 17, 2014, MAPS was awarded a $2.15 million grant from the state of Colorado to conduct the study. The study has received full approval from the FDA, DEA, and Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). We anticipate starting the study in the summer of 2016 at Johns Hopkins University and in Phoenix, Ariz.
