MAPS works towards a post-prohibition world by advancing research, changing policies, and shaping culture. 

Since our founding in 1986, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) has been the leading organization building the movement to foster evidence-based approaches to psychedelics and the people who use them. When used safely and responsibly, psychedelics have the potential to promote personal growth and well-being and treat various mental health conditions. Three pillars guide our efforts: advancing research, changing policies, and shaping culture. 

[Advancing Research](https://maps.org/advancing-research/)

MAPS spent decades developing MDMA-assisted therapy for the clinical utilization of psychedelic-assisted therapies. With the road paved for the next generation of research and drug development, MAPS now stewards the research landscape we helped cultivate.

We are dedicated to fostering new research directions that prioritize public benefit, supporting international researchers and pilot programs, and ensuring the accessibility and culturally appropriate integration of psychedelics as a tool for individual and community wellness. We center research that contributes to knowledge in the public domain.

[Changing Policy](https://maps.org/changing-policy/)

The cultivation, use, and trade of psychoactive substances — including psychedelics — has been a consistent aspect of human history, but prohibition, criminalization, and militarization — and their inherent oppression — have led to drastic consequences. The ongoing, global War on Drugs has been justified by bad science, racism, and fear for too long: it has led to mass incarceration; erosion of civil liberties; ecological damage; economic waste; and the public health polycrisis of adulteration, poisoning, and overdose. Many of these harmful effects have disproportionately impacted the most historically exploited and oppressed communities. Consequently, we believe societies worldwide have an obligation to account for and repair those harms, to the extent possible. 

MAPS envisions a post-prohibition future based on Consciousness, not Criminalization.

[Shaping Culture](https://maps.org/shaping-culture/)

For psychedelics to be most safely integrated into society, we need to be honest about the implications. MAPS recognizes the importance of a comprehensive understanding of their risks and potential benefits, teaching people how to navigate altered states of consciousness and how policies impact individuals and communities. 

We create cutting-edge education for professionals and the public, provide expert support for the psychedelic and drug policy movement, and convene people who share our vision—all to lay the groundwork and create the guardrails necessary for responsible social transformation. 

As psychedelics become more mainstream and an increasing number of people seek to use them for healing and personal growth, we are more dedicated than ever to making resources available for people and communities to safely and responsibly integrate psychedelics into medical, legal, and spiritual contexts.

MAPS

Our mission is to strengthen and diversify the network of legal psychedelic service providers, beginning in Oregon.

About Alma Institute: 

Our mission is to strengthen and diversify the network of legal psychedelic service providers by offering prioritized enrollment and certification opportunities to people from marginalized communities. We seek to increase benefits and prevent harms by creating pathways to apprenticeship, employment, and ongoing peer support for facilitators in this growing field.

Launching in Oregon in 2023, our social justice-rooted training program practicum to prepare students for licensure under the nation’s first legal psilocybin services program. We seek to raise industry standards so people from all backgrounds can find belonging and thrive in psychedelic work. This requires anchoring in trauma-informed care, cultural humility, feedback, accountability, and meaningful practices of sacred reciprocity. 

We exist so psychedelic healing work can not only be available to our communities, but relevant to our ancestral and lived experiences and impactful for generations to come.

Our Approach:

We hold a strong focus on continued support and skill building for new graduates, and are weaving a culture of engagement, mentorship and accountability into our programming. We will support this by hosting in person and digital integration circles for new and experienced facilitators, supporting networks of student pods to continue learning together, and leading industry-wide conversations about ethical standards and care. 

Oregon ranks among the worst for mental health conditions and is dismal in access to therapy and psychiatric services. The numbers are even worse for people from marginalized social locations. These community members experience higher rates of the very mental health conditions that psilocybin can help address. However, psilocybin is not a cure-all. Wellbeing is systemic and depends on the harmony of a variety of factors. The success of psilocybin services will depend largely on the trust and rapport established between client and facilitator, the client's sense of safety and belonging, the environment in which services occur, and importantly, the follow-up care and support provided.

As in talk therapy, it is critical that patients have the option of working with someone who has shared identifiers and can relate to their lived experience. This is especially important when working with racial and gender-based trauma and deep healing processes. 

Additionally, the lasting benefits of psilocybin will rely on external factors, such as access to healthcare, safe and consistent housing, healthy food, community support, and gainful employment. It is essential that individuals working in this new industry understand and are engaged with the intersectional approach to wellbeing and community health; if they don't, the industry will be peddling a short-term band-aid solution, with service sites overwhelmed by high-paying experience seekers and fail to deliver on the promises of lasting change and healing promoted by the Psilocybin Services Act. 

Alma Institute seeks to bring a deeper inquiry to psychedelic therapies and help raise standards for the field at large. If we are successful, we can shift the conversation from one laser focused on mental health, to one about the historical roots of our suffering and the systemic shifts needed for collective healing.

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Founder and Executive Director of Alma Institute. Endeavoring to seed equity, access, and justice in the field of psychedelic healing.