We are on the cusp of a major revolution in psychiatric medicine and neuroscience. After fifty years of prohibition, criminalisation and fear, science is finally showing us that psychedelics are not dangerous or harmful. Instead, when used according to tested, safe and ethical guidelines, they are our most powerful newest treatment of mental health conditions, from depression, PTSD, and OCD to disordered eating and even addiction and chronic pain.

Professor David Nutt, one of the world’s leading Neuropsychopharmacologists, has spent 15 years researching this field and it is his most significant body of work to date. In 2018, he co-founded the first academic psychedelic research centre – underpinned by his mission to provide evidence-based information for people everywhere.

The centre revived interest in the understanding and use of this drug in its many forms, including MDMA, ayahuasca, magic mushrooms, LSD and ketamine. The results of this have been nothing short of ground-breaking for the future categorisation of drugs, but also for what we now know about brain mechanisms and our consciousness.

At a time where there is an enormous amount of noise around the benefits of psychedelics, Professor Nutt joins us alongside moderator, Sean Mc Lintock to dispense the knowledge you need to know about a drug that is about to go mainstream, free from the hot air.

Speaker:

David Nutt is a professor of neuropsychopharmacology specialising in the research of alcohol and drugs. He set up the Psychopharmacology Unit in Bristol University before moving to Imperial College London in December 2008 where he currently leads a unit with a particular focus on brain sciences. When he was sacked from being a government advisor, David knew that he had to keep researching and talking about evidence based drugs policy. So he set up a charity, now called Drug Science, to act as an honest, impartial and evidence based expert group free from any political pressure. As chair of Drug Science, David continues to provide the public, media and politicians with analyses on drugs and drugs policy.

Sean Mc Lintock is the co-founding partner of Neo Kuma Ventures, a UK-based venture capital fund at the forefront of empowering the use of psychedelic therapies to address the root causes of mental illness. As partner, Sean is primarily focussed on identifying investment opportunities and deploying capital. Neo Kuma’s investments span biotech, digital therapeutics, and telemedicine. Prior to founding Neo Kuma Sean worked at Bi-Africa Holdings, a South African based family office where he worked on their African private equity portfolio and managed an internal fund focussed on alternative medicines and microbiome. Sean holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Stellenbosch University, a Bachelor’s degree in law (LLB) from Utrecht University, an MA in global politics from Columbia University of New York, and an EMBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.