[MAPS] MAPS News: October 2006

Tue Oct 10 14:21:36 CDT 2006

To read this in html w/hyperlink (suggested), click here:
http://www.maps.org/news/

Greetings from MAPS!

Here's the news for October:

1. Autumn MAPS Bulletin Online, On The Way
2. MDMA/PTSD Study Preparations Continue in Israel; Doblin to Speak at Joint
Arab-Israeli Conference
3. Anticipation Builds as Prof. Craker Awaits Judge's Recommendation in DEA
Lawsuit for Marijuana Production Facility
4. First Subject Enrolls in MAPS-Sponsored Swiss MDMA/PTSD Study
5. Proposed MAPS-Sponsored LSD/End-of-Life Study Makes Important Progress
6. US MDMA/PTSD Study Continues, Approaches Milestone
7. MAPS Assists Follow-up of LSD Psychotherapy Conducted Behind Iron Curtain
8. Date for Alex Grey "Hofmann" Portrait Auction: November 12-19
9. MAPS Merchandise in the MAPS Online Store; Assistance Needed
10. Job Opportunity: Clinical MDMA Research Program in San Francisco Seeks
Nurse

*** MAPS needs your generosity to empower staff, scientists, and volunteers
to carry out pioneering research and educational projects.  To donate, learn
about the benefits of MAPS membership, or purchase merchandise, click here:
http://www.maps.org/catalog/index.php?cPath=28 ***

1. Autumn MAPS Bulletin Online, On The Way

The Autumn 2006 Bulletin is now available online:
http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v16n2-html/index.html

MAPS members will receive this issue in the mail in the next week or two. If
you would like to help distribute the Bulletin in your business or
community, or give one or more copies to potential MAPS members, please
reply to this email or contact askmaps at maps.org -- the Bulletin is both our
primary educational tool and an excellent resource for attracting the
attention of new supporters.

2. MDMA/PTSD Study Preparations Continue in Israel; Doblin to Speak at Joint
Arab-Israeli Conference

Dr. Moshe Kotler's MAPS-sponsored MDMA-assisted psychotherapy study in
Israel is preparing for initiation. This study will enroll subjects with
war- and terrorism-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). MAPS
President Rick Doblin, Ph.D., Clinical Research Associate Valerie Mojeiko,
and volunteer clinical research expert Amy Emerson will visit in late
October, to help researchers prepare the study to fit the strict guidelines
necessary for the data generated to be eligible for consideration by the FDA
and the European Medicines Agency.

Dr. Kotler¹s government-approved MDMA/PTSD protocol:
http://www.maps.org/mdma/israel_protocol_3.16.05.pdf

On October 25, Doblin and Lester Grinspoon, M.D., will join Israeli and
Palestinian drug policy experts in Jerusalem to talk at the first
Arab-Israeli Joint Conference on Peace and Drug Policy, sponsored by the
Ale-Yarok ("Green-Leaf") Party. The conference will focus on issues related
to the cultural impacts of marijuana, its regulation, and its medical uses
and research. 

Read more about the Ale-Yarok Party and the upcoming Arab-Israeli conference
here: http://zope.ale-yarok.org.il/home

3. Anticipation Builds as Prof. Craker Awaits Judge's Recommendation in DEA
Lawsuit for MAPS-Sponsored Marijuana Production Facility

MAPS and medical marijuana reform advocates nationwide are eagerly awaiting
a recommendation from DEA Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Mary Ellen Bittner
any day now -- sometime in the next month or two -- in Prof. Craker's
MAPS-supported lawsuit against the DEA for refusing to license a
privately-funded medical marijuana production facility at the University of
Massachusetts-Amherst. This MAPS-funded facility would create the necessary
independence of supply to justify the time and expense for MAPS to sponsor
clinical research evaluating the risks and benefits of marijuana as a
potential FDA-approved prescription medicine.

In the meantime, we are focusing our attention on preparing to pressure the
DEA to accept Judge Bittner's recommendation if she actually recommends that
the DEA should issue a Schedule I license to Prof. Craker. Towards this end,
MAPS is working with David Ostrow, M.D., who is funded by the Marijuana
Policy Project (MPP), to lobby the American Medical Association (AMA) to
pass a two-fold resolution at this November's annual meeting. We have been
working with certain key state medical associations over the past month with
the aim of identifying one willing to formally propose the resolution.
Although both the Texas and California State Medical Associations have
written letters to DEA in support of Prof. Craker, so far none have been
willing to take the lead in sponsoring the resolution. At this point, there
is a better chance that the resolution would pass at the June 2007 meeting,
but by then our potential window of opportunity to influence the DEA may
have passed. 

If we do receive a positive recommendation from Judge Bittner, we will need
all MAPS supporters to contact their Congressional Representatives, so look
out for an important announcement sometime in the next month or two!

For background information, see MAPS' DEA Lawsuit page:
http://www.maps.org/mmj/DEAlawsuit.html

Did you know? As an example of research demonstrating the therapeutic
applications of marijuana, the European Journal of Gastroenterology &
Hepatology published a study last month finding that marijuana can improve
the effectiveness of drug therapy for hepatitis C, a potentially deadly
viral infection that affects more than three million Americans.

The Washington Post reported this story in "Marijuana Aids Therapy":
http://www.maps.org/sys/nq.pl?id=986&fmt=page

4. First Subject Enrolls in MAPS-Sponsored Swiss MDMA/PTSD Study

Dr. Peter Oehen's MAPS-sponsored pilot study investigating MDMA-assisted
psychotherapy for subjects with treatment-resistant posttraumatic stress
disorder (PTSD) has full government approval, and is set to begin this
month. The first subject has been enrolled, and the first experimental
session is scheduled for October 19.

See Dr. Oehen's government-approved protocol:
http://www.maps.org/research/mdma/swissmdmaptsd/protocol1608.pdf

5. Proposed MAPS-Sponsored LSD/End-of-Life Study Makes Important Progress

We received a second helping of good news from Switzerland this month. Dr.
Peter Gasser's study evaluating the efficacy of LSD-assisted psychotherapy
as a treatment for individuals suffering from emotional difficulties related
to advanced-stage cancer and other illnesses has just made three important
steps toward government approval and initiation.

First, Dr. Gasser, President of the Swiss Medical Association for
Psycholytic Therapy (SAEPT), and MAPS completed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) for the study. Second, Dr. Gasser has scheduled to
submit the protocol to the Ethics Committee (Swiss IRB equivalent) on
November 16. The final piece of good news is that Dr. Gasser has already
found a chemical supplier in Switzerland approved by SwissMedic (Swiss FDA
equivalent) that will sell MAPS 10,000 mcgs. of LSD for the study and other
future studies involving LSD. SwissMedic has also given approval for the lab
that Dr. Gasser identified to conduct encapsulation of the LSD for his
proposed study. 

Read the MAPS-SAEPT Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) here:
http://www.maps.org/research/lsd/maps_saeptz_092206.pdf

6. US MDMA/PTSD Study Continues, Approaches Milestone

Dr. Michael Mithoefer's flagship MAPS-sponsored FDA Phase II MDMA/PTSD study
in Charleston, SC, just enrolled its 16th subject out of 20, and the 15th
subject is now scheduled to complete treatment in December. Following
completion by the 15th subject, Dr. Mithoefer's Data Safety Monitoring Board
(DSMB) will conduct its final review before completion. Previous reviews
after the 5th and 10th subjects both found no significant safety concerns
and recommended that the study continue enrolling subjects.

7. MAPS Assists Follow-up of LSD Psychotherapy Conducted Behind The Iron
Curtain 

At MAPS, we've come to expect that amazing things happen in unlikely places.
Between 1956 and 1974, more than 420 patients underwent at least 5,100
LSD-assisted psychotherapy sessions in communist Czechoslovakia. A
state-owned pharmaceutical company produced the LSD used in these studies.
Dr. Stanislav Grof conducted much of this pioneering work, before moving to
the U.S. in 1967.

MAPS has provided a $2,000 grant to R.M. Crockford, a Canadian journalist
who is currently in Prague working to locate and interview Czech LSD
patients and report on the long-term benefits of this therapy. Crockford is
a former staff writer for The Prague Post, and has published articles in
several Canadian magazines about the history of LSD therapy in Saskatchewan
and in Vancouver¹s Hollywood Hospital.

8. Date for Alex Grey "Hofmann" Portrait Auction: November 12-19

Now that 49 out of 50 of Alex Grey's limited edition signed portraits of
Albert Hofmann have been sold, MAPS and the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (COSM)
will hold an Ebay auction from Nov. 12 -19 to sell the last remaining print,
numbered 1/50. Profits from the sales of the portraits are divided between
MAPS, with funds restricted for LSD/psilocybin research and Albert's
writings, and COSM. MAPS and COSM have already raised over $42,000 each from
sales of these portraits.

Click here to view the portrait:
http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v16n2-html/ibc.html

We're also working to prepare a new signed and limited edition series of
Roberto Venosa's portrait of Albert Hofmann. These portraits will be
available starting in November, once the prints have been made and shipped
to Albert to be signed. Here¹s a preview image:
http://www.maps.org/images/Hofmann-Venosa.jpg

And, to raise funds for research, we're still selling signed and numbered
limited edition Dean Chamberlain portraits of psychedelic pioneers Ram Dass,
Ann & Sasha Shulgin, Laura Huxley, and Albert Hofmann. Learn more and
purchase here: http://www.maps.org/catalog/index.php?cPath=24_29

9. MAPS Merchandise in the MAPS Online Store; Assistance Needed

~Dr. Stanislav Grof's latest book, The Ultimate Journey: Consciousness and
the Mystery of Death:
http://www.maps.org/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=22_27&products_id=109

Dr. Grof, author of LSD Psychotherapy and originator of Holotropic
Breathwork, offers a wealth of perspectives on how we can enrich and
transform the experience of dying in our culture. This 356 page book
features 40 pages of images, 24 in color, and a foreword by Huston Smith.
This book is especially pertinent considering that MAPS has been working on
protocols for studies investigating MDMA- and LSD-assisted therapy as
treatment for end-of-life anxiety.

~2007 MAPS wall calendar: http://www.maps.org/calendar

A new array of dazzling psychedelic-inspired artwork from Roberto Venosa,
Martina Hoffmann, Alex & Allyson Grey, Dean Chamberlain, and others, plus
expanded notable dates in psychedelic and drug history. Wholesale discount
rates are available for distributors.

Help Needed! Are you an experienced osCommerce and .php user? We are making
some tricky renovations to our online store, and looking for an expert!
Please reply to this email or contact jag at maps.org if you can help.

10. Job Opportunity: Clinical MDMA Research Program in San Francisco Seeks
Nurse

>From Matthew Baggott, Ph.D. ( matt at baggott.net ):

The Addiction Pharmacology Research Lab (APRL), part of California Pacific
Medical Center in San Francisco, is seeking to hire a licensed vocational
nurse (LVN). APRL's NIH-funded research (1) investigates the pharmacology of
MDMA and other psychoactives, and (2) seeks to develop innovative treatments
for addiction, principally to methamphetamine.

The job includes administering MDMA (and other psychoactives) to volunteers
and 'sitting' with and collecting biosamples and other data from them. Other
studies involve working with methamphetamine-dependent people. Interpersonal
skills and ability to work with diverse populations is accordingly
important. Duties would include working with research subjects, maintaining
study records and computerized databases, data analysis, and administrative
duties including aiding in grant proposals, communicating with regulators,
and ensuring IRB/HIPAA compliance.

It's a good group of researchers; the work is unique and exciting; and
there's wonderful opportunity for professional growth. Interested parties
should send a resume to Michelle Salinardi at: SalinaMM at cpmcri.org

That's all, folks!

Have an ontologically awe-inspiring October,
Jag Davies, MAPS Director of Communications

--
Jag Davies
Director of Communications
MAPS
10424 Love Creek Rd.
Ben Lomond, CA 95005
jag at maps.org 
831.336.HEAL

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