APS June Meetup – Psychedelic Science Recap

The Australian Psychedelic Society (APS) are hosting an afternoon of psychedelic science at the The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne.

In 2016, a number of organisations who helped bring together the Australian Psychedelic Society hosted a fundraising dinner (click the link to hear interviews and read more about the event) at The Florey Institute, as part of the Global Psychedelic Dinner. The event helped to raise $6000 for the Multi-Disciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) which has gone toward helping MAPS purchase one kilogram of MDMA manufactured under current Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), to be used in their upcoming Phase 3 clinical trials to make MDMA-assisted psychotherapy a legal treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

You can read more about the on-going research at the MAPS website.

The struggle to get similar research happening in Australia is ongoing. Dr. Stephen Bright from Australia’s Psychedelic Research In Science and Medicine (PRISM) spoke with the ABC recently, “The key problem that we have is we’ve faced academic conservatism… Here we have treatment that has a tremendous amount of evidence that is supporting it, yet the universities are not willing to engage in it for fear of the potential consequences, such as poor media.”

The conversation around MDMA psychotherapy in the United States has largely revolved around PTSD in returning war veterans. PTSD can occur in people for a number of reasons, including war and extreme emergency situations. Front line emergency workers such as paramedics, firefighters, emergency room doctors and nurses and police officers often face potentially traumatic situations that may result in a PTSD diagnosis.

MDMA assisted psychotherapy for PTSD is just one of many psychedelics that have medicinal purposes that could help to revolutionise psychiatric care.

A small handful of APS core people attended the recent Psychedelic Science conference in Oakland, Caliufornia. To get a taste of what to expect at the upcoming event, check out this post:

Psychedelic Science 2017 – Dean and Mel chat with Dr. Ben Sessa

At our upcoming event, five speakers will be updating you on the latest research they discovered at the Psychedelic Science conference in Oakland. You will also have a chance to ask questions to the panel of speakers.

Our speakers are:

• Dr Nigel Strauss – Psychiatrist at the Millswyn Clinic and Professor at Deakin University.
• Dr Martin WIlliams – President of PRISM, Structural biologist
• Melissa Warner – Founding member of the Australian Psychedelic Society
• Dr Dean Wright – Founding member of the Australian Psychedelic Society
• Dr Giancarlo Allocca – Neuroscientist at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health

The event kicks off at 3pm on Sunday the 4th of June. After the event, we will be heading to a local pub for more discussions, drinks and food.

Entry is $10 plus booking fee at Eventbrite.

We will also have our psychedelic book store setup at the event, so bring along some extra money if there is some psychedelic literature you’d like to get your hands on.

Here are three videos from last year’s event at The Florey Institute. These are provided courtesy of Entheogenesis Australia (EGA) who are holding Australia’s premiere psychedelic conference in December. Tickets on sale now.