The UFC wants to participate in psychedelic drug research as a therapy for combatants ’brain health.
The promotion has been in contact with Johns Hopkins University about its psychedelia studies with the aim of seeing if the drugs can be useful for combatants who treat brain problems, UFC President Dana White said on Wednesday. and MMA Junkie.
“We’re immersed in that,” White said.
UFC senior vice president of health and performance Jeff Novitzky told ESPN that the interest came from a segment of HBO’s “Real Sports” last month. Novitzky said White gave him a “directive” to delve deeper into psychedelic research and that he has been in contact with Johns Hopkins for the past few weeks.
The UFC has been the key funder for a study on the brains of professional athletes conducted by the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, which contributed $ 1 million last week. Novitzky said the promotion could seem like a benefactor to a psychedelic study with the added possibility of recruiting current or former UFC fighters to be part of the research.
“Dana said,‘ Hey, find out what this is all about, ’” Novitzky said. “To see if it helps with some traumatic brain injury, addiction, mental health issues. We want to be on board and we want to be the first. “
Johns Hopkins is the national leader in research on the therapeutic effects of psychedelics such as psilocybin (mushrooms) and LSD. The Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic & Consciousness Research obtained U.S. government regulatory approval in 2000 and has produced more than 60 pieces of peer-reviewed research.
Currently, psilocybin and other psychedelics are classified by the U.S. government as Annex I illegal drugs, defined as drugs with a high potential for abuse or drugs that have no medical use.
However, opinions about psychedelics are changing. Oregon legalized psilocybin in a vote last year.
Our research has shown therapeutic effects in people suffering from various difficult conditions, such as addiction (smoking, alcohol, other drugs of abuse), existential anxiety caused by life-threatening illnesses and treatment-resistant depression, ”states the Johns Hopkins Center for the Psychedelic Research and Consciousness website.
Former UFC flyweight candidate Ian McCall has been working with psilocybin and athletes and participated in a study with Johns Hopkins, he told ESPN’s Michael Rothstein last year. McCall said he has already had discussions with the UFC.
“When you get into a cage, when you get into a ring and you fight and even football, you’re giving and receiving [post-traumatic stress syndrome] and no one wants to talk about it, but that’s what’s happening, “McCall said.” Your trauma is stored in your tissue, so you’re really giving and receiving PTSD while you’re there and it’s one of the reasons I work in psychedelics, to try to fix these exact things. We need to treat these athletes a little better, just as we need to do with veterinarians. “
Novitzky said he has spoken to athletes who have experimented with psychedelics such as ayahuasca, and those who have struggled with addiction or mental health have said the drug has been extremely helpful. The UFC executive said he’s not sure when a promotion can be made in the psychedelic field, but that the desire is there.
“We want to do it the right way,” Novitzky said. “We want to get all the government approval if we do something. We want to find out how we’re going to recruit fighters. Unfortunately, it’s not something that happens overnight. But Dana has basically instructed me, ‘Hey I want you to analyze this. Bring me some potential avenues in which we can participate. “
White said, as with the UFC’s involvement in the study of brain health, there is a desire to further study potential therapies for combatants with brain problems. UFC veteran Spencer Fisher spoke about his health problems, including brain injuries, in an interview with MMAFighting.com published Tuesday.
“It’s not the first and it definitely won’t be the last,” White said of Fisher. “This is a contact sport. Anyone has ever done it [when they were] the youngest, including myself, deals with brain problems. It’s part of the concert. “