POD 130: BREAKING MDMA CRL with Dr. Rick Doblin
Added 2025-09-07 02:29:30 +0000 UTCIn this interview with Dr. Rick Doblin (almost one year after the last interview) we discuss the recent release of the (formerly) private letter the FDA sent to Lykos after the rejection of MDMA, which provides some additional insight into the FDA's motivations for rejecting MDMA as well as the role that Psymposia played. We also discuss the ongoing threats I'm receiving from Sarlo lawyers (attached) the very same people who funded Psymposia.
This interview is mostly video but the beginning has only sporadic images.
Read and download the FDA's CRLs: https://open.fda.gov/apis/transparency/completeresponseletters/
Comments
Is it wrong of me to have an even lower opinion of Nese after seeing a photo of her? 😬
Tom Suazo
2026-01-01 20:26:55 +0000 UTCJust continuing to listen to this. God, Psymposia are vile, aren’t they?? Those videos of members are so chilling. And Susie REALLY hates Rick, hu? She could do with some therapy, in my humble opinion. Fascinated by what Rick has behind him, including a lot of t-light holders or bottles? I wonder if his wife is a herbalist? I’ve only listened to him twice, now (both interviews here) and he seems such a lovely, balanced man, with such humility and integrity.
Sarah
2025-10-17 14:58:59 +0000 UTCIt's not totally clear to me, the website says that Ecstatic Integration is a "sister project" to The Challenging Psychedelic Experiences Project, which receives donations from Sarlo et al. The wording certainly doesn't preclude Sarlo funding for EI and even if there is some supposed division in funding it's unrealistic to assume that whatever influence might be exerted on the challenging psychedelic experience project would end at EI. Also Evans writes posts that are aligned with Sarlo interests to the point of being ridiculous. (The recent article about psychedelic psychotherapy in the elderly who might be tricked into giving away their money was a little on the nose.) I have nothing against people getting paid or having perspectives, it's when they take money without transparency and it appears to guide their work in a socially destructive manner that I take issue.
Hamilton Morris
2025-10-13 18:16:53 +0000 UTCTo what extent is Jules Evans paid by Susie Sarlo, out of interest? He says she only funded his challenging experiences project and in direct communication with me he said that she wouldn’t interfere with his Substack writing. But he does have a certain perspective that comes through in his writing. A friend pointed out that they don’t think he has fully integrated his own two challenging experiences (Just LSD aged 18 and an Ayahuascha retreat as far as I am aware). Interesting perspective. Who knows. Of course Hamilton has a certain perspective too. I have enjoyed both of their work in the past.
Sarah
2025-10-13 03:57:18 +0000 UTCIm going to be a lawyer!
Bobby Stone
2025-10-04 05:58:48 +0000 UTCFucking love you Hamilton!!! I’ve been a fan since the Vice days! Glad I found you on here! I actually heard you on Shane Smiths pod and then listened to you with channel 5! Have you ever done any work with Sam Harris? I’m huge fan of him as well and I know he has an interest in MDMA. I sure hope it gets approved! Prohibition has never worked….
Jeff Stroberg
2025-10-02 20:24:42 +0000 UTCI would be overjoyed to hear you interview Saj Razvi about psychedelic somatic interactional therapy and talk about how they train therapists. Ive found combining psychedelics with Peter Levine’s somatic techniques to be so healing for my ptsd. Steve Elfrink has been a godsend giving me advice, he would be great to have on the podcast too! PSIP seems like very promising psychedelic therapy to me and has been working personally.
Eric Daugherty
2025-09-29 13:21:17 +0000 UTCAudio only please Hamilton :)
stalorne
2025-09-28 19:59:42 +0000 UTCKeep up the good work Hambone, is the Adam Green episode still on the cards?
heather moonstone
2025-09-12 18:35:22 +0000 UTCThe legal threat letters tell you to reread the article and tells you how stupid you are for spreading something you had not source for but the article literally does say what you repeated so I don't really get why they would say that. Are they just throwing all their shit at the wall and seeing what sticks?
Meek
2025-09-10 23:07:47 +0000 UTCCalled out for falling in love with Hamilton’s baritone voice
Kelly Rienerth
2025-09-09 05:29:19 +0000 UTCPlease also say "EXCLUSIVE" before every podcast.
oliversees
2025-09-08 19:55:29 +0000 UTCBreak me off a piece 😜
Thurgood
2025-09-08 14:51:09 +0000 UTCDude they misspelled “George” TWICE and in two different ways ! Georg and Goerge lol
rottogrotto
2025-09-08 14:31:13 +0000 UTCAlso if we want to get really fussy about generalizability - one could argue that the chance of receiving placebo inflicted so much profound anxiety and/or disappointment and confusion in the participants that ALL of the trial data is skewed- and not generalizable to what this would look like if provided to the general population post approval where concern of placebo wouldn’t exist . Yet nobody seems concerned about this because double-blind is the “gold standard” of science.
rottogrotto
2025-09-08 12:08:44 +0000 UTCHamilton you always make my day. Beware you will fall in love with Hamilton. He’s infectious!
Monica Mendez
2025-09-08 06:09:02 +0000 UTCThe slow-mo zoom into Sasha’s eyes 😂 omg .
rottogrotto
2025-09-08 02:12:19 +0000 UTCAt least several metric tons of MDMA have been consumed over the 50 years since it was rediscovered. Each metric ton is 8 billion 125 mg doses. Exactly how many billion doses do we need for the FDA to decide it's safe FFS.
Steve Follmer
2025-09-07 23:55:04 +0000 UTCThat is: the radical left is just as moralistic as a southern baptist fundamentalist.
Thomas Cook
2025-09-07 22:21:24 +0000 UTCLily Kay Ross (of Psymposia) said on a youtube somewhere that 1:1 psychotherapy for individuals, only perpetuates “systems” of oppression. In other words, happiness is bourgeoise. Psychiatry opposes the working class by promoting mental health to 1 person at a time. This is Marxist, moral lunacy. Drugs are “opiates of the masses” just as religion is. Since they’ll “keep poor people poor by making them happy.”
Thomas Cook
2025-09-07 22:17:13 +0000 UTCThis whole saga has been so fucking dumb and depressing. I hate everything. Human beings are just the worst.
Dylan
2025-09-07 20:03:34 +0000 UTCTo me it would seem that it would imply distinguishing positive effects that are NOT directly related to the healing mechanism, which feels near impossible to distinguish or so open to interpretation that it would be nearly meaningless.
rottogrotto
2025-09-07 19:22:23 +0000 UTCI've gotta say, "Positive Adverse Events" befuddles my mind. Even after researching online, seems incredibly speculative and not quantifiable. On top of the fact the phrase is a complete paradox.
Zak Bellinger
2025-09-07 16:43:58 +0000 UTCI don’t get the letter that states Hamilton is lying about Psymposia receiving $185k from the Sarlo Family as stated in the Wired article. Isn’t that exactly what the article says ?! What am i missing ?
rottogrotto
2025-09-07 16:40:31 +0000 UTCI’m certainly not opposed to rigorously studying these things, but I suppose another point that isn’t being made is what reason would anyone have to expect a difference in response? Ruling out patterns of extreme or frequent (ab)use, I’m not aware of any evidence that would suggest past use would be expected to impact patient therapeutic response. One could argue the very fact that 40% had used MDMA previously and still had a PTSD diagnosis could skew the trial population toward non-responders.
Hamilton Morris
2025-09-07 16:34:30 +0000 UTCHamilton, your cameras tripping me out man. It's definitely following your face around. Feels like I'm on a ship at sea 🫠
Zak Bellinger
2025-09-07 16:27:06 +0000 UTCI'd be so embarrassed if that's how I'm using my law degree
mia
2025-09-07 16:07:59 +0000 UTCI disagree with minimizing the sampling. your data is only as good as your sample! if it is true there's no difference between the group with prior mdma experience compared to the group with none, it's not compared in the study (and you would need a larger sample size to substantiate between groups). I'm not sure if it's typical that it influences approval or not, but it is definitely a concern any researcher would have looking at this study design and is valid.
mia
2025-09-07 15:52:17 +0000 UTClawyer to lovers pipeline!!!
mia
2025-09-07 15:47:55 +0000 UTCBREAKING: THINGS ARE BREAKING, IM WORRIED
Helmer
2025-09-07 14:11:20 +0000 UTCThese legal notices are so weirdly snotty- is this normal ?
rottogrotto
2025-09-07 13:25:33 +0000 UTCBREAKING
M
2025-09-07 13:11:49 +0000 UTCYeah
Hamilton Morris
2025-09-07 12:05:38 +0000 UTCThank you Hamilton!! Will the interview with Andrew from Channel5 ever go back up?
John Low
2025-09-07 09:44:47 +0000 UTCI haven't listened yet but lol to those legal threats. it reads like a 5 year old tattletale pointing at something he didn't like. were they supposed to be intimidating?
mia
2025-09-07 05:07:55 +0000 UTCHero work, Hamilton. Congrats on your recent projects friend.
Mason Miller
2025-09-07 04:27:00 +0000 UTCInteresting...
Aidan
2025-09-07 03:35:00 +0000 UTCArchived URL for the CRLs: https://web.archive.org/web/20250831111338/https://open.fda.gov/apis/other/approved_CRLs/
WhiskeyNeon
2025-09-07 03:04:18 +0000 UTCOmg Rayah we said the exact same thing we are in sync
Thor Correia
2025-09-07 02:43:35 +0000 UTCBeen waiting for this!
Thor Correia
2025-09-07 02:43:23 +0000 UTClemme guess someone couldn't make enough money for a long enough time making MDMA legal in that particular way
v0lume
2025-09-07 02:37:54 +0000 UTCi’ve been waiting for this!!
rayah
2025-09-07 02:31:20 +0000 UTC
