What lies behind the recent revival of therapeutic research on psychedelic drugs?

Professor Wayne Hall from the UQ National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research will look into the revival of research on the therapeutic use of LSD, psilocybin and MDMA in the USA since the late 1990's, more than 25 years after their non-medical use was banned under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.

Wayne will explore many emerging questions, including what factors have contributed to the renewed research interest? How is it related to research on their therapeutic use in the 1950's and 1960's? Who is funding the research? What disorders are these drugs being used to treat? What has the research shown to date? What are the researchers’ and funders’ goals? What do the research findings suggest about how we should regulate the use of psychedelic drugs for medical and non-medical use?

Professor Wayne Wall is a Professorial Fellow at the National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research at the University of Queensland and the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences. He was: a Professor at the National Addiction Centre, Kings College London (2014-2019); Director of Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research (2014-2016), NHMRC Australia Fellow, the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research (2009-2014), Professor of Public Health Policy, School of Population Health (2005-2009), Director of the Office of Public Policy and Ethics, Institute for Molecular Bioscience (2001-2005) and Executive Director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (1994-2001). He has advised the World Health Organization on the health effects of cannabis use; the effectiveness of drug substitution treatment; the contribution of illicit drug use to the global burden of disease; and the ethical implications of genetic and neuroscience research on addiction.