The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) is preparing to launch a new psychedelic research center with a sizable endowment, sources familiar with the situation tell this news outlet. The project will reportedly be a collaboration between the school and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a group which exists to develop “medical, legal, and cultural contexts for people to benefit from the careful uses of psychedelics and marijuana.”
It’s nice to see a new psychedelic research center opening up, and even nicer that it’s just one state away from me. It might take a little while for it to come online though:
According to our sources, the new project will come online within the next eighteen months and will be spearheaded by Dr. Michael Mithoefer, who works in MUSC’s department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences.
Mithoefer has previously researched the use of MDMA (a.k.a. “ecstasy” or “molly”) in concert with psychotherapy to treat individuals suffering from chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
If you’re skeptical of the quality of research that will come out of a center that is opening up in the Bible Belt, that’s completely understandable. But Mithoefer’s involvement is a good sign.