We are the first filmmakers to be granted access to filming participants in FDA-approved trials with psychedelics before, during and after the therapy sessions. Until now, requests from filmmakers were denied on the grounds that camera presence may interfere with the scientific integrity of the study.
But Dr. Michael Mithoefer, the leading psychotherapist in the country in treating PTSD victims with MDMA (Ecstasy), has agreed to allow us to film participants in his 2017 pilot study which treats both the PTSD patients and their significant others. The IRB regulating the study has also approved our filming.
Most PTSD patients do not fully recover using any existing medications and therapies. In early trials, the MDMA treatment has shown remarkable results with chronic patients who have already exhausted all available options. Promising trials are also undergoing with psilocybin (Magic Mushrooms) in treating depression and addiction. While psychedelics remain illegal, the FDA is expected to grant in early 2017 approval for launching Phase 3 trials, which is the last stage before an experimental drug is approved for medical use. The film will follow the progress of Phase 3, which will test psychedelics on hundreds of patients throughout the country.
Forbidden Knowledge: The Return of Psychedelics (working title) is expected to be released around the time Phase 3 trials will be completed and the Federal government will be faced with a difficult decision: whether to allow psychedelic substances back into American medicine.
