In early 2024, Rick Doblin—the man whose work launched one of the biggest social and cultural movements of our time, “the Psychedelic Renaissance”—was expecting to see the crowning achievement of his life’s mission. The non-profit he led and founded, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), had recently published the second of its Phase 3 clinical trials of the psychedelic drug MDMA, investigating its efficacy in the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The results seemed incontestable. The MDMA-assisted therapy developed by Doblin and his team was...

One of the biggest social and cultural movements currently sweeping the civilized world is what’s being called the “Psychedelic Renaissance.” That is the name for today’s wildfire-like reemergence, in mainstream culture, science, and medicine, of psychedelic drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA, which were outlawed in in the late 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, respectively. Less than a decade ago, these substances—listed by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as Schedule I drugs—were almost completely prohibited for all recreational, research, and medical uses. Possession of them was as...