How can I volunteer to participate in psychedelic research projects?
Only a very few research projects involve administering psychedelics to humans. Most of these are designed to study how psychedelics can help people with serious illnesses, which means that the study is limited to people diagnosed with these. For instance, one project examines how therapy with MDMA (ecstasy) can help people with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Other studies focus on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, cancer, and other illnesses. Many studies that do not actually involve administering psychedelics, such as online surveys, are open to more people. To find out about current research projects and their criteria for volunteers, go to www.maps.org/volunteer.html. There also are occasional studies in which psychedelics are administered, usually to learn about one or more of the effects of psychedelics (“basic research.”) Most of these studies require that participants have some previous experience with the drug under study (marijuana, MDMA or psychedelics). There are a slightly l
