Introduction
People deserve better mental health treatments.
Depression, anxiety, alcohol dependence, tobacco dependence, PTSD and other conditions afflict people you care about.
Psychedelics and MDMA – currently illegal drugs – are extremely promising mental health medicines.
We see a lack of funding at the earliest stages, in psychedelic research and drug policy. So we’re filling the gap with an early-stage fund for psychedelic and drug policy non-profits (we accept for-profits, too).
If you know someone who could make massive progress in this cause but needs access to early-stage funding, please tell them about us. People you care about will be better off for it, as we accelerate modern mental health treatments. In our experience, people tend to be very appreciative of people that tell them about sources of free money!
P.S. We also want to fund things related to “how psychedelics boost innovation and problem-solving,” shifting drug policy to a health focus rather than criminalization focus, and research into whether psychedelics can help otherwise healthy people (e.g. increased well-being).
About
We’re a philanthropic fund focused on psychedelics and drug policy.
We’d like to help people live happier, healthier lives.
Images and assets
Press contact
Interested reporters can fill out this form here to talk with us.
Stats
Founded: 2018
Funding: Up to $1mm USD over the next 6 months.
Stats:
Schedule
Launching and accepting applicants in Q1 2019
Vision, Mission, Values
Vision: Bring the benefits of psychedelics to humans that want them.
Mission: Enable both healthy and “unwell” people to legally, safely and conveniently use psychedelics in a beneficial environment
Values:
Safety-first.
Focus on the biggest risks first.
Judgement is an x-factor.
Results are the only thing. Our results are more important than our actions, awareness, etc.
Seek obsolesence.
Assume anything is possible, even if experts say otherwise, unless they have strong data/rationale.
Optimize for impact. We’d like to do things that others won’t.
FAQ
TBD!
Links
Press Releases
None yet.
Quotes on psychedelics from others
- The economist and investor Eric Weinstein noted that psychedelics are the “open secret of what I call the hallucinogenic elite, whether it’s billionaires or Nobel laureates or inventors.” https://youtu.be/8LPwyy4scAc?t=1h31m7s
- Author Tim Ferriss: “The billionaires I know, almost without exception, use hallucinogens on a regular basis.” (http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/25/technology/lsd-psychedelics-silicon-valley/)
- Psychedelic therapy has been described like compressing years of therapy into a single session. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4592308/
- Author Tim Ferriss on ayahuasca “It’s mind-boggling how much it can do in one or two nights.” https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/09/12/the-ayahuasca-boom-in-the-u-s
- Medical use is totally different to recreational use — “People will take psilocybin at a rave or at Burning Man” — the art and performance desert festival — “but the effect,” he said, “evaporates like water running through their hands.” https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/01/health/hallucinogenic-mushrooms-psilocybin-cancer-anxiety-depression.html
- We agree with Michael Pollan — recreational use is over-rated, legal therapeutic use is under-rated. https://medium.com/conversations-with-tyler/michael-pollan-tyler-cowen-nature-euphoria-food-22145fd728a2
- Psychedelic drugs can positively increase people’s sense of connection - to the self, to others, and to the world in general - and this sense of connection may be what underlies the strong therapeutic potential of psychedelics for depression, anxiety, and addiction, new research published has found https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28795211 https://tripsafe.org/psychedelics-and-connectedness/
- “a single dose of psilocybin—a compound from magic mushrooms—can ease anxiety and depression for up to six months. The results have great potential for people dealing with the fear associated with a cancer diagnosis” http://time.com/4586333/psilocybin-cancer-anxiety-depression/
- “The potential therapeutic use of psilocybin has been recognized for years, but strict drug laws implemented 45 years ago stalled research.” http://time.com/4586333/psilocybin-cancer-anxiety-depression/
- ”“This drug saved my life and changed my life,” said Dinah Bazer, a Brooklyn, N.Y., woman who was administered a single dose of psilocybin at a New York treatment center in 2011.” http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-magic-mushrooms-cancer-anxiety-20161201-story.html
- After treatment with MDMA “two-thirds no longer met the criteria for having PTSD.” https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/29/us/ptsd-mdma-ecstasy.html
- “We can sometimes see this kind of remarkable improvement in traditional psychotherapy, but it can take years, if it happens at all,” — here it happened with three sessions of MDMA therapy. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/29/us/ptsd-mdma-ecstasy.html
- “Three sessions with the drug gave him the clarity, he said, to identify his problems and begin to work through them. He does not wish to take the drug again.” https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/29/us/ptsd-mdma-ecstasy.html
- “Psychedelic Therapy is a Bipartisan Issue” https://maps.org/news/bulletin/articles/429-maps-bulletin-spring-2018-vol-28-no-1⁄7262-from-the-personal-to-the-political-spring-2018
- “The F.D.A. approval is a beacon of hope for the roughly eight million Americans believed to suffer from PTSD, a group that includes victims of abuse, refugees and combat veterans.” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/opinion/ecstasy-ptsd.html