
A refugee funding America's psychedelic renaissance - pmcpinto
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/j5x748/the-refugee-funding-americas-psychedelic-renaissance
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arikr
I've written similar things before, and it applies here too:

To the extent that anyone on HN knows an active philanthropist looking for
potentially highly impactful but severely underfunded causes - send them this
article.

I believe there's a case that funding MDMA research has very high
dollar/impact returns - or at least that it's likely enough that it's worth a
thorough exploration.

It sounds like they still need to raise about $10-15 million, which is
shockingly small compared to the ~$1.5bn/yr NIMH budget - and all of it will
come from private philanthropists, as governments aren't yet willing to fund
the work and for-profit companies don't see much profit yet due to the lack of
patentability.

If you're on HN and this is the first you're hearing about this research, some
resources:

\- A short video excerpt from a documentary on MDMA therapy -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9iKx2MKS70](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9iKx2MKS70)

\- NY Times article - [https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/29/us/ptsd-mdma-
ecstasy.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/29/us/ptsd-mdma-ecstasy.html)

~~~
mistermann
I've always thought this experiment would be interesting: take two groups of
partisan voters, a group from the left and right.

Ask them a series of multiple choice questions as well as some long answer
questions. Then, give them MDMA and repeat the previous testing.

~~~
arikr
Not MDMA, but correlational data exists for classic psychedelics:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28443703](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28443703)

~~~
mistermann
This seems to be based on prior usage, so causation vs correlation comes into
question. And I'm not saying this at it is used on reddit, conservatives most
definitely would be highly less likely to take psychedelics.

Not to say that this study is uninteresting or useless though, I think there
is a lot to be learned in this area, and I would argue that it would be very
much in the best interests of Democrats (if that's truly what they are, I'm
not so sure) to decriminalize these sorts of studies. Personally, I happen to
believe that most Democrats and Republicans are essentially the same people
wearing different costumes.

~~~
arikr
Yep

> correlational data exists

~~~
mistermann
Oops!!

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notadoc
> a YouGov poll this month found that nearly two thirds of American adults
> would personally be willing to try MDMA, Ketamine, or Psilocybin if it was
> proven safe to treat a condition they have.

This seems very dubious. I find it hard to believe 3/4 of the population has
an interest in any intoxicating substance let alone that trio. Do 3/4 of
American adults know what these substances are and how they work, let alone
what they do?

Now try to imagine 3/4 of the general population on a high dose of psilocybin
experiencing ego loss and the related 6 hour mental colonic of tossing every
possible skeleton out of their brains closet.

~~~
King-Aaron
Replace "MDMA" with "alcohol" and it's not that hard to imagine... Most normal
people, when presented with the question "would you try X drug", wouldn't have
the experience to know about ego death and things, so it's probably not a
concern for them.

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ne9xt
www.fundamental.nyc and www.maps.org are highly related

