Several years ago, an investor offered to pay $150 million for 20 percent of MAPS public benefit corporation, the for-profit drug-development subsidiary of MAPS, according to Rick Doblin, the nonprofit’s founder and president. MAPS — it stands for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies — has for nearly 40 years been working to bring psychedelic medicines to the mainstream. It is thought to be tantalizingly close to winning FDA approval for MDMA-assisted therapy to treat people with PTSD.

Doblin turned down the investor. He told Lucid News that the valuation was too low, and that MAPS would sell equity in its drug-development unit “only as a last resort.”

It’s last resort time.

This week, reporting for Lucid News, I broke the story that MAPS has hired Cowen & Co., a New York investment bank, to sell shares in MAPS PBC, as the wholly-owned drug development unit is known. MAPS PBC estimates that it will need to spend somewhere between $70 million and $250 million to commercialize MDMA-assisted therapy, assuming the treatment protocol is approved by the FDA.

So far at least, MAPS has been unable to raise that money through philanthropy. Since Doblin founded MAPS in 1986, it has raised a total of about $140 million in donations. Through the first nine months of last year, it raised less than $10 million in donations.

Can Doblin raise the money, from some combination of investors and donors? The stakes are high, not just for MAPS and for those suffering from PTSD who could benefit from the treatment, but for the entire psychedelics sector.

Although MDMA is not a classic psychedelic, it is classified as a Schedule 1 drug by the DEA, meaning that it has no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Getting FDA approval for a combination of talk therapy and MDMA mean that the medicine has been shown, through rigorous clinical trials, to provide medical benefits. Getting insurers to cover the treatment would further reinforce the idea that MDMA, which is known on the street as ecstasy, has value to patients. Finally, a successful rollout of MDMA to treat PTSD could bring enormous relief to millions of people, including combat veterans and victims of sexual assault or abuse, who suffer from PTSD. It would show that at least one psychedelic medicine can deliver on its promise.

As Daniel Goldberg, a founder of the venture capital fund Palo Santo, told me for my story: “It’s incredibly important to the entire sector and to the movement in general that MDMA gets across the finish line.”

MAPS PBC is exploring a variety of way to raise money for commercialization, an executive there told me after my story ran. Investors are definitely interested, this executive said. The question is, what will they want in return—seats on the board, influence on the speed and scope of the rollout, a focus on short-term profits?

It’s also possible that a super-rich philanthropist could pay for the rollout, on his own or with a few wealthy friends. The Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation has been one of MAPS’ most generous donors, giving the organization $3.4 million, largely to support its work with veterans. The billionaire owner of the New York Mets could write a check for 50 times that amount, and hardly miss it.

Goldberg, for one, is optimistic that Doblin will successfully finish the work to which he has devoted much of his adult life. “If anyone can do it, MAPS, and particularly Rick, will find a way to get it done,” he said. Let’s hope he’s right.

You can read my story about MAPS here.

Little-known outside the world of psychedelics and drug policy, Rick Doblin is one of the most effective nonprofit leaders in America. Doblin is the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, better known as MAPS, which for 35 years has been trying to develop psychedelic medicines and advocating for the responsible use of psychedelic drugs.

Doblin, in my view, is a brilliant strategist who has done more to change the narrative around psychedelics than anyone, with the possible exception of the writer Michael Pollan. He has built political alliances on the right and left, worked closely with medical researchers and, as best as I can tell, made few enemies along the way. MAPS is on the verge of a major breakthrough by securing FDA approval for the use of MDMA, along with talk therapy, as a prescription medicine to treat PTSD.

I tell the remarkable story of Doblin and MAPS at some length in the new issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review. The story is ordinarily paywalled but it is available for free until April 1. Here's a link.

This is a remarkable moment for psychedelics. Elite universities, including Johns Hopkins and Imperial College in London, have opened centers to research the medical benefits of such drugs as psilocybin, a hallucinogen found in mushrooms. The nonprofit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Research (MAPS) is recruiting people suffering from PTSD to participate in FDA-approved clinical trials using MDMA, better known as molly or ecstasy. CBS News’ 60 Minutes last fall reported on life-changing psychedelic journeys.

So far, the psychedelic renaissance has focused on the potential of these dugs to heal mental illness, and rightly so. A growing body of research suggests that they can alleviate suffering caused by a broad array of ailments: depression, addiction and anxiety, among others.

This story, though, is not about how psychedelics can heal the mind. It’s about how they can heal the world. There is sickness all around us. The threat of climate change. Unconscionable poverty amidst great wealth. Extreme political polarization. These are manifestations of deeper ills: People feel disconnected from one another and from nature.

Serious people — not just hippies, but neuroscientists with PhDs, and their philanthropic supporters — say psychedelics can help address these deeper problems. Drug trips, under controlled conditions, break down the barriers between people and bring users closer to nature.

“These medicines can help us wake up to new levels of caring and concern,” says David Bronner, a philanthropist and the CEO of Dr. Bronner’s, the family-owned maker of natural soaps. “It’s crucial to wake up to the miraculous world we’re part of and understand how we can serve and make it better for all of us.”

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You can read the rest of the story on Medium.