Blowing The Mind of MAPS Founder And Famed Psychedelic Industry Leader Rick Doblin

I had the pleasure recently of doing something I had never been able to do before: blow the mind of Rick Doblin, “the godfather of the psychedelic industry,” with a new technology that is being developed to forever alter how mental issues are treated. Most people in the psychedelic industry would assume that there’s almost nothing about psychedelics that Rick Doblin, the Founder of MAPS, hasn’t been exposed to in his more than 50 years of personal and professional experience.

The Missing Link in Psychedelics?

Rick has long been an advocate of using psychedelics, and fighting for them to become legally available as medicine to the masses. Rick founded MAPS in 1986 and has been fighting for the last 35 years to get MDMA therapy legalized for the treatment of PTSD.

The nonstop hard work of Rick and MAPS is paying off as well. Many experts anticipate that MDMA will have FDA approval early next year.

As the Chief Visionary Officer of Psycheceutical Bioscience, I knew we had something incredible. Psycheceutical has licensed patents for the psychedelic industry that already work in the pharmaceutical space, and they are (in my humble opinion), the missing link to psychedelic medicine being safe, effective, and available to the masses.

In a nutshell, these technologies are being developed to, among other things, allow for safer and more effective delivery of psychedelic compounds.

A Topical Psychedelic Cream for PTSD, Total Gamechanger

For example, preclinical studies have indicated that our NeuroDirect™ patent allows for delivery of a psychedelic compound using a topical cream applied at the back of the neck at the base of the hairline. In that spot, unlike anywhere else on the body, the psychedelic compound has the potential to go through the skin, into the nerves just below the surface that lead directly to the brain, bypassing the stomach and liver, which could eliminate the psychedelic effect and other negative side effects like dizziness and nausea. Preclinical studies have us excited about moving forward into clinical studies to prove out this developmental focus.

Psycheceutical’s first drug is going into Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials this year in support of our seeking FDA approval is NeuroDirect™ ketamine for PTSD. This new delivery technique for ketamine is expected to be a game changer as it’s being developed to allow people to get the benefits of psychedelics, relief from symptoms of PTSD, and the neurogenesis that occurs in the brain when ketamine metabolizes.

Psycheceutical is excited to test its process in combination with Ketamine, and eager to generate clinical results that both support its delivery technique as being effective and confirm the possibility of the benefits of ketamine being accessed by even children and the elderly, as well as people who do not have the time or financial resources to go to a clinic and be monitored by a doctor.

This breakthrough process is being developed to allow people to get the benefits of a ketamine treatment, for example, while still being active, driving, working, and playing with their loved ones.

Spreading The Word

Rick and I were both speakers at the Cannadelic Psychedelic Conference in Miami a couple of months ago.

After his keynote address, I pulled Rick aside and told him about this amazing new way to deliver psychedelics that is currently being developed. I’ll never forget the look Rick gave me of sheer disbelief.

He said, “Zappy, while it makes some scientific sense to me why this would be possible, I need to see it with my own eyes.” As we discussed it further, Rick started to get excited about the possibilities for delivering any psychedelic this way, including MDMA which is very close to his heart. I went on to explain to him that we had received a recent call from a Yale chemist, who had contacted us to let us know that he had already done his own preclinical observational study using LSD administered at the back of the neck, base of the hairline, for migraines, and reported it to be extremely effective. He asked if he could be involved with us on the development of NeuroDirect™ LSD for migraine relief.

Rick was so intrigued, he offered to visit our lab in Florida to meet with some of the team members who had helped to develop the NeuroDirect™ ketamine topical cream that is about to enter human trials in Australia.

Two weeks later, Rick showed up at our lab in Florida eager to review the research and ask questions of the team. It was at this point that I saw Rick go from reserved curiosity to an excited cheerleader. Rick remarked that “Sometimes the biggest breakthroughs are right under our noses.” He was stunned to realize that he had just learned something new about the potential for delivery of psychedelics as medicine.

“I’ve been working in psychedelics for more than 40 years, and it’s rare for me to come across something unique like Psycheceutical’s NeuroDirect™ topical cream that’s being developed to deliver a psychedelic compound without a psychedelic experience or negative side effects,” he said.

Hopeful Future Ahead

Rick told us that he is eager to review the research that comes from Psycheceutical’s clinical trials in Australia. Since ketamine is already known to be a safe and effective form of therapy, we are now moving forward with clinical trials to test and confirm that our delivery system provides a quicker, cheaper and more effective treatment process that is more easily administered and minimizes side effects.

As mentioned above, Rick told us that he is excited about the possibilities of delivering other psychedelics in this way, and the huge implications for how our process could impact the delivery of psychedelic compounds generally.

A recent study published in Drug Development and Delivery Journal indicated that based on preclinical studies NeuroDirect™ ketamine topical cream has the potential to be more cost-effective and lead to better patient outcomes than current treatments for PTSD. Incredibly, 80% of 100 patients in the preclinical study expressed that they experienced significant relief from PTSD symptoms within minutes of application, and that they experienced no psychoactive effects.

I told Rick that Psycheceutical currently intends to aggressively pursue the clinical processes for NeuroDirect™ ketamine, with the goal of achieving FDA approval and then immediately making it commercially available. Our team at Psycheceutical is excited to continue its development efforts towards providing its technology as a game changer in how mental health/addiction issues are treated.