When I first got introduced to this whole concept,
you know, I had no idea that there were no new mechanisms of action
in psychiatric drugs since the sixties.
Right.
That was the last time
that there was actually a new mechanism of action defined.
And I'm thinking, wow, that's like the least advanced field in the world,
and yet, there’s so much going on.
But, you know, because it's a level I, Schedule I
drug, we don't get to actually study it.
But the level of fear
and the level and the lack of understanding of how important it is
to investigate is really important because what we've gotten instead
is this widespread cannabis use across the United States of America.
We have no idea what's the right THC concentration,
what's the role of adjuvant compounds,
what's the impact on all these various
receptor systems that are the largest in our body
that we don't get to study because it's a Schedule I drug
and we're flying in the dark and it's sort of like, you know,
saying, well, I like wine and wine seems to have healthful effects.
We don't separate out
its stress relieving effect versus the compounds in the wine.
And then we refine the wine until we get to everclear and we say,
why don't you drink some everclear?
Because it's probably better than just one. That's what we've done with cannabis.
It's nuts.
But, so we have an opp... and this is why I'm so excited about this. With psychedelics,
another drug, if you will, that's been around in tribal
lore and ancient history for 4000 years of both psychiatric
and mood enhancing impacts and part of a variety
of different experiences since man began recording things.
And yet we don't get to study it, right? It's kind of funny.
It's like, it can't possibly have a medicinal effect,
except it has had a medicinal effect documented for 4000 years.
It makes no sense to me, but that's okay.
We're going to make progress.
There is actually, there's progress on that front coming.
But this is an opportunity to get it right.
There's an opportunity not to repeat the cannabis experience, to do exactly
what Helen said we must do, right? Which is understand
which drug, for what indication, with what frequency, with what dosing,
with what impact, and is it a large enough impact to merit the side effect profile?
I mean,
that's it, right?
We don't have that with cannabis.
We can do it right with psychedelics and it starts with the science.
It starts with this esteemed group of people that we will hear from today
and on the screen, because David is on the screen.
And it's really exciting.
Now, all the things that psychedelics are proposed to potentially impact
are bedeviling us as a society.
Addictions, PTSD,
treatment resistant depression,
anxiety disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders.
We have no treatments, right?
We talk at people, right, for something that has some sort of biochemical nature.
And the idea of a reset button, which may be part of this or
may not be part of this, I'm waiting to hear, is really just critically important.
And it would give us such hope, not for the science, not for UC
Davis’ institute, but for all the people that we can't help right now.
That's why I'm so excited about this.
I mean, it just impacts everything from homelessness
to suicide, which is incredibly prevalent.
Right?
It's one of the, well, between addiction and suicide, right?
Those are two, they're beginning to rival cancer
and cardiovascular disease in terms of the impact on our society,
in terms of death and morbidity and mortality.
So this is more than just science.
This is really societal impact.
And it's just a really great pleasure.
And I'm going to just spend one more minute because I know I'm over.
But I started thinking about this a long time ago.
I actually was the chair of very,
very large anesthesia department, had eight different pain clinics
and a lot of people actually doing ketamine infusion stuff and it didn’t work.
But we weren't approaching it right
yet, but we thought it could work with addiction.
There was a lot of fly-by-night, kind of charlatan places
promising, you know, addiction relief with ketamine infusions.
But they never did the studies.
They never did the dose ranging studies or anything that would have gotten us
the right dose at the right time to the right people for the right indication.
We started on the wrong side of it with charlatans.
And you can see it now, too.
You know, mom and pop ketamine shops are all over Florida, right?
It's not the way to go. Right?
Although ketamine does work for a lot of things.
One of my godchildren had a terrible equestrian accident
and they had neuropathic pain and they had given up all hope.
And I flew them from North Carolina down to Miami
for a couple of weeks of treatment
with ketamine in the right dose at the right time with the right person,
and they actually recovered and they are now going to be a psychiatrist.
They were ready to drop out of high school, had so much pain,
they couldn't focus.
They couldn't concentrate and they were cured.
Actually cured.
I didn't understand it at the time. I’m beginning to understand it now.
So I know
that it works because I know that person was not crazy, okay?
And they were a stellar student and they had a traumatic accident
and they couldn't get relief anywhere else.
And they came to our infusion clinic and they actually got better.
And now they're going to add to the psychiatric part of the world.
So I have faith that this is going to work and I have faith
that you all are going to figure out how it works best.
And I will sit in rapt attention in the audience as you guys
display your wares of great scientific thought.
Thank you very much.