Joe Rogan Experience #2319 - Rick Doblin

Summary

In this episode, Rick Doblin discusses the advancements in psychedelic therapy, particularly focusing on MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD. As the founder of MAPS, he highlights the organization's role in promoting evidence-based treatment approaches while working towards ending the prohibition of psychedelics. The conversation underscores the upcoming Psychedelic Science 2025 conference as a pivotal moment for the field.

Key takeaways

• 1Rick Doblin, Ph.D., is the founder and president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).
• 2MAPS was established in 1986 to advance evidence-based psychedelic therapy and end prohibition.
• 3Lykos Therapeutics, formerly MAPS Public Benefit Corporation, is developing MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD.
• 4The Psychedelic Science 2025 conference is scheduled for June 16–20 in Denver, Colorado.

Glossary terms

Source

Transcript excerpt

Joe Rogan podcast. Check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day. Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. Quick. What a turning event. This is so absolutely incredible, Joe. Absolutely. A series of unexpected things have led to this day. You were supposed to do Duncan's podcast and then Duncan and I got on the phone and he was saying, you know, trying to move tickets for the psychedelic event. Yeah. And then uh Duncan said, you know, "Hey man, you can have him on your show." And I said, "Well, why don't you come on, too? It'd be really fun." Then this morning, Duncan has a root canal, like an unexpected emergency root canal. So, so it was just a crazy turn of events, and fortunately, you're here. Yeah. I just came in from Ukraine, actually. Oh, wow. Yeah. What were we doing over there? Training therapists and psychiatrists. Wow. So Ukraine has um enormous amounts of trauma and so what I'm trying to do and is to go to high trauma areas and try to talk about MDMMA assisted therapy and how that could be helpful. What is the legality of it over there? Well, right now it's illegal. They have these terrible laws left over from when Russia was in control and you cannot even do research with schedule one drugs. Wow. Not with psilocybin, not with MDMA. You can't even do research. But over the last couple years, there's been a lot of efforts by their military, by other people to change that because they're aware that they have so much enormous trauma. So, uh, couple months ago, the Ukrainian government put out draft legislation to change the law. ...

Excerpt from The Joe Rogan Experience, May 9, 2025. Rights remain with the original creators. Hear the full episode at the source.