Reports Reveal New York Magazine, Prohibitionists Collaborated to Create Series Against MDMA Therapy

As the psychedelics industry is still reeling from the FDA’s rejection of an application by Lykos Therapeutics seeking approval of MDMA-assisted therapy as a treatment for PTSD, it has emerged that there were concerted efforts to conduct a smear campaign against the possibility of MDMA being approved as a medicine.

In a story carried by The New York Post last week, it was revealed that Psymposia, a group that is opposed to the legalization of psychedelics, conducted a protracted campaign to defeat efforts aimed at having MDMA legalized as a therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder.

The NYT story highlighted how Lily Kay Ross and David Nickles, who used to be key figures in Psymposia, stood out as vocal opponents of any attempt being made to have MDMA legalized. Their tactics included exaggerating real or purported risks of MDMA. They were also astute at fighting and tamping down any criticism directed at their group and its methods of work.

For example, in a post published in 2018 that has since been taken down, Nickles went to great lengths to enumerate several strategies for damaging psychedelics nonprofits and companies. These included persistent negative media coverage. He also suggested sabotage directed at business operations in ways that increased the firm’s operational costs.

The New York Post article shows that it is these two individuals that teamed up with New York Magazine in 2022 to create a podcast series focused on “the dangers” of MDMA therapy for individuals grappling with PTSD. During the series, Ross was extensively quoted as a source for most of the critical coverage they were directing at MDMA therapy. The kicker is that New York Magazine made Nickles and Ross co-producers of the series!

It is therefore little wonder that the podcast series contained sensational accusations or inaccuracies against MDMA therapy. One such inaccuracy pointed out in the NYT article was the claim during the podcast that a therapist involved in the MDMA clinical trial admitted to holding down a patient who had been dosed with MDMA. When challenged about this, Vox Media (which owns New York Magazine), backtracked and revealed that they had since corrected their article by clarifying that the patient in question had been given Ketamine and not MDMA.

To what extent did such a calculated smear campaign influence the decision to reject Lykos Therapeutics’ application for approval of MDMA therapy? How else is the psychedelics movement being held back by similar efforts? These and other questions could be running through the minds of executives at psychedelics firms like Seelos Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: SEEL).

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