The Man Who’s Been Fighting for Medicinal Psychedelics for 45 Years

A consensus is building that demonized drugs like LSD and MDMA have significant therapeutic value. Rick Doblin has been preparing for this moment since he was 18 years old.

Illustration by Cornelia Li

Rachel Hope’s PTSD almost killed her.

After multiple severe traumas – including an abusive childhood, abduction by a pedophile, and getting hit by a truck – Hope’s early adulthood was, perhaps unsurprisingly, plagued with night terrors and panic attacks. She was in denial that anything was wrong, determined to not let her trauma define her. This worked for a while; she managed to run a successful real estate development company and start a family.

But without treatment she just got worse. She developed bleeding ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, paranoia, and a hyper-sensitive startle reflex that kept her jumping and screaming at the slightest provocation, making it impossible to sleep. Her hair started falling out, and she couldn’t keep food down. She was in and out of hospitals, completely emaciated, bleeding from infected sores all over her body that she would compulsively pick at.

“I was dying,” she says. And there was little hope she’d ever get better. Hope…