This article by Prof. David Nutt has been published by Drug Science. It begins:
“I have just come back from a 3-week lecture tour of South-Eastern Australia supporting the cause of the charity Mind Medicine Australia (MMA)
They have been raising money for psychedelic research for about 4 years with considerable success. Through their efforts, the Australian government last year put up $15million for psychedelic research and seven grants have been funded covering either psilocybin or MDMA in disorders such as treatment-resistant-depression, PTSD, anorexia, addiction and OCD, several of which I am acting as an advisor to. So, it was good to catch up with these researchers as part of my tour. MMA has organised and paid for the importation of GMP supplies of both psilocybin and MDMA. Medical-grade psilocybin has now been imported into Australia with medical-grade MDMA ready for importation, so the research is good to go once all necessary approvals have been obtained.
But the main point of my visit was to raise awareness of the current research situation for both psilocybin and MDMA, putting it into context for donors (MMA is a charity), researchers, clinicians and most importantly, regulators. I gave over 15 talks to a total of over two thousand members of the public, hundreds of academics and 130 members of the TGA and the Commonwealth Department of Health …”
You can read more from here.
Other posts about collaborative practice:
Psilocybin: British study finds ‘magic mushroom’ drug can be safely used to treat depression
We often discuss why lived experience improves research quality, but what about the ‘how’?
Contextualizing science in the aftermath of the evidence-based medicine era: on the need for person-centered healthcare