Canadian Study of MDMA Under Review Over Alleged Misconduct
One of the therapists involved in the trials has been accused of sexual assault constituting battery by a participant in trials testing the medicinal qualities of the psychoactive drug MDMA
Landwebs
Canadian regulators are reviewing all clinical trials into the medicinal qualities of the psychoactive drug MDMA after complaints about abuse of study participants by the California-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (Maps), reports The Guardian. Several former trial participants complained about their treatment sessions with MDMA and psychotherapy.
In one 2015 incident, a video obtained and shared by Meaghan Buisson, a patient suffering from PTSD, shows two therapists guiding her through an MDMA session in Vancouver in a professed attempt to help her relive her sexual assaults as a way to heal. One of the therapists involved in the trials, Richard Yensen, whose psychology license had lapsed years earlier, said he had consensual sex with Buisson after the experimental therapy sessions had ended. But she was still part of the trial. Buisson accused him of sexual assault, constituting battery. Canadian police passed the file to prosecutors, who chose not to take the case forward.
