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Timeline: Amanda Feilding and the Beckley Foundation

A tripart timeline covering key moments of psychedelic change driven by Amanda Feilding and the Beckley Foundation 

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SCIENCE

Significant Scientific Research Milestones

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POLICY

Key Drug Policy Change Milestones 

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MEDIA

Significant Media Moments for Raising the Public Profile of Psychedelic Research

1998

Amanda Feilding founds the Beckley Foundation to pioneer psychedelic research and drive evidence-based drug policy reform.

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2002

Amanda Feilding founds the Beckley Foundation to pioneer psychedelic research and drive evidence-based drug policy reform.Amanda sets up ‘Society and Drugs: a Rational Perspective’, a series of ten highly influential international seminars (2002-2011) at which high level international decision-makers, politicians, and scientists participated at an invitation-only, Chatham House rules, series of events, in order to develop policy ideas and influence and educate thought leaders. These conferences were key in opening up research and in laying the ground for scientifically-based international drug policies.

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1998

Amanda Feilding founds the Beckley Foundation to pioneer psychedelic research and drive evidence-based drug policy reform.

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1998

A collaboration with Prof Franz Vollenweider begins, on a study investigating psilocybin’s effects on changes in cerebral circulation using PET (results unpublished).

2002

Amanda sets up ‘Society and Drugs: a Rational Perspective’, a series of ten highly influential international seminars (2002-2011) at which high level international decision-makers, politicians, and scientists participated at an invitation-only, Chatham House rules, series of events, in order to develop policy ideas and influence and educate thought leaders. These conferences were key in opening up research and in laying the ground for scientifically-based international drug policies.

2003

Amanda first discusses with Prof Colin Blakemore the need for a Scale of Harm for All Social Drugs which would compare controlled drugs with alcohol and tobacco. He presented papers on the subject at the 2003 & 2004 BF conferences and this was later developed by Prof David Nutt with an influential paper published in the Lancet in 2007.

2004

A long-term collaboration with Prof Yuri Moskalenko at the Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry commences, on cerebral circulation and the development of a non-invasive monitor of cranial compliance. 

Image by Milad Fakurian

2004

Amanda, working with Mike Trace, set up and launched two international organizations called the ‘International Drug Policy Consortium’ and the ‘International Society for the Study of Drug Policy’, at the BF seminar: ‘Global Drug Policy: Future Directions’. Since then, they have both become independent and highly influential organisations.

Image by Cristina Gottardi

2005

A research collaboration with Prof David Nutt at the University of Bristol initiated, with the aim of investigating the effects of LSD and psilocybin on brain function.

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2006

Amanda publishes ‘Reviving research into psychedelic drugs’ in The Lancet.

Image by D koi

2006

The BF’s seminal Global Commission on Cannabis was initiated in 2006 and launched in 2008 with the report titled ‘Cannabis Policy: Moving Beyond Stalemate’. The highly influential report was later copublished by Beckley and Oxford University Press.

Image by 2H Media

2007

First ethical approval obtained for the use of LSD in human subjects (Beckley/UC Berkeley research) since prohibition blocked all research.

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2007

The BF is granted Consultative Status by ECOSOC, becoming a UN accredited NGO.

Image by Iñaki del Olmo

2007

Amanda initiates a collaboration with Dr Paul Morrison at King’s College London to investigate the effects of CBD and its relationship to THC, and how this might affect psychotic symptoms.

2007

Amanda, working with Mike Trace, set up and launched two international organizations called the ‘International Drug Policy Consortium’ and the ‘International Society for the Study of Drug Policy’, at the BF seminar: ‘Global Drug Policy: Future Directions’. Since then, they have both become independent and highly influential organisations.

Image by Cristina Gottardi

2008

The BF cosponsors the MAPS-led trial of LSD-assisted psychotherapy for end-of-life anxiety. It was the first study to use LSD in patients since prohibition.

Image by Ýlona María Rybka

2008

Setting up of the Beckley/Imperial Psychedelic Research Programme with Prof David Nutt and Amanda as co-directors, and Dr Robin Carhart-Harris as PI.

1998

Amanda launched ‘The Global Initiative for Drug Policy Reform’ in collaboration with the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform. It consisted of bringing together high-level representatives from countries who had undertaken reform, countries interested in reform, and representatives from the Global Commission on Drug Policy Reform. Amanda commissioned two reports for the Commission: ‘Roadmaps to Reforming the UN Drug Conventions’; and ‘Towards a Cost Benefit Analysis of a Regulated and Taxed Cannabis Market in the UK & Wales’.

2010

Amanda collaborates with Dr Torsten Passie (Hanover Medical School) in a pilot study to demonstrate how 2-bromo-LSD, a non-psychoactive analogue of LSD, can stop or reduce the frequency of cluster headaches.

Image by Adrien Converse

2010

‘Lady Mindbender’ - Daily Mail 04.10

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