DMT The Spirit Molecule - Rick Strassman-pages

Page 291 of 369

Page 291 of 369
DMT The Spirit Molecule - Rick Strassman-pages

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compete. research. WINDING DOWN «+ 281 It was at this point I felt most acutely the lack of a larger psychedelic research community at the university. While the Research Center and Department of Psychiatry were consistently and unquestionably support- ive of my studies, there were no local psychiatric colleagues familiar with psychedelic drug research. A large part of why I began our work with a strictly biomedical model related to promises by other psychedelic research scientists, especially psychotherapeutically oriented ones, to join forces with me once the New Mexico research started. I was willing to take the set and setting risks inherent in the biomedical model in anticipation of colleagues later help- ing me shift to more treatment-based activities. There's a widespread and far-flung network of scientists and clini- cians interested in psychedelic drugs throughout the United States, many of whom have close affiliations with the academic and the private sectors. I met nearly all of them at various meetings before the DMT research began. This psychedelic research network seemed more altruistic and cooperative than the larger biomedical research community. Perhaps sci- entists who believed in psychedelics' power could join forces, rather than At these meetings was a unanimous complaint that "the government won't let us study these drugs." If only somewhere someone could begin, that place would become the center of a psychedelic research renais- sance. As it became apparent that I would receive permission to give DMT and would obtain some funding for the study, it seemed that the University of New Mexico would become just that center of psychedelic I was willing to accept the short-term drawbacks associated with the animal-biology-based model as the price for initiating studies. However, I hoped that after establishing safe use of psychedelics under medical supervision, more therapeutic studies would begin with my colleagues' assistance. It would be a smooth transition from our dose-response and tolerance work to psychedelic therapy projects. Topping off this ambitious clinical research framework was the devel- opment of new psychedelic drugs with unique properties. With the full range