The ceremony for Albert's 100th birthday
was magnificent, in the beautiful Basel Museum of Culture,
with messages of congratulations sent by the President of
Switzerland and the Mayor of Basel. Albert spoke strongly
and clearly, though just for a few minutes, and had to walk
with two crutches. His wife Anita was in a wheelchair. Still,
the moment was alive with energy and enthusiasm with people
gathered from all over the world to share in the mood of joy
and gratitude at Albert's 100th birthday.
During the reception afterwards, Albert told me he greatly
appreciated MAPS' work seeking to sponsor psychedelic psychotherapy
research. It was a particular pleasure for me to tell Albert
that MAPS had completed the Chinese translation of his book,
LSD- My Problem Child. During our group phone conversation
on Albert's 99th birthday, he'd expressed an interest in having
his book translated into Chinese and Russian. To our surprise,
we'd managed to locate a Russian translation that was not
previously available on the internet or in print, and have
now posted it on the MAPS and Erowid websites. We commissioned
the Chinese translation and have just completed it prior to
Albert's birthday. Albert was delighted to learn of the Chinese
translation, knowing that this means that news of his Problem/Wonder
child is newly available to a large proportion of the world's
population. Of course, access is still restricted by both
the Chinese and Russian governments through censorship of
internet access, but we are exploring various methods of enabling
people inside China and Russia to access Albert's book.
For MAPS, Albert's 100th birthday was a day of major progress
in the Swiss MDMA/PTSD study. MAPS' Clinical Research Associate,
Valerie Mojeiko, led an initial monitoring meeting for the
study, with Dr. Peter Oehen present as well as Dr. Michael
Mithoefer and myself. We went over the time and events table
in minute detail as well as addressed all sorts of other issues
related to the practical aspects of conducting the study such
as the randomization procedures, various forms and outcome
measures, and even insurance and budget. The protocol is currently
before the Swissmedic, with approval from the ethics committee
already obtained. We'll be working on the Case Report Forms
and looking forward to hearing from Swissmedic.
Lots of networking is taking place and the conference is
off to a great start.
Rick Doblin
MAPS |
