The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is a 501 (c) (3) corporation chartered in 1986 as a membership-based research and educational organization. MAPS was founded one year after the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) made MDMA a Schedule 1 drug and criminalized both its recreational and therapeutic uses. MAPS focuses on the development of beneficial, socially-sanctioned uses of psychedelic drugs and marijuana. Such uses may include psychotherapeutic and physiological research and treatment, treatment of addiction, pain relief, spiritual exploration, creativity research, shamanic healing, psychic research, brain physiology research and related scientific inquiries.

MAPS pursues its research mission by helping and/or sponsoring scientific researchers to design, obtain governmental approval for, fund, conduct and report on psychedelic and marijuana research in human volunteers. MAPS pursues its educational mission through its website, a willingness to engage the media in dialogue, the publication of books and a quarterly Bulletin that is sent to its members as well as government policy makers and academic experts.

In essence, MAPS is a non-profit pharmaceutical company. MAPS' top priority projects involve researching the potential of 3,4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, Ecstasy) and marijuana to become FDA-approved prescription medicines. MAPS has estimated that it would take $5 million dollars and 5 years to conduct the research necessary to prove to the satisfaction of the FDA the safety and efficacy of either MDMA or marijuana for one clinical indication.