Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy is less about the drugs themselves (though they all have different ways of affecting our brains which is fascinating but beyond the scope of this article) but rather the experience and how the person undergoing therapy integrates the experience into a series of sessions with a therapist team.9,11 Protocols can vary from study to study but the general trend is first the therapy participant meets with the therapy team for several sessions to build a report, explore the cause of the PTSD, any emotional triggers, and what to expect on the psychedelic experience. Then the therapy participant goes in for an extra long session in which the drug is given by the therapy team. The participant usually lies on a couch or in a bed and is encouraged to “surrender to the experience.” The therapist team supports and helps guide participants through any potential difficult moments throughout the session, as well as general wellbeing things like getting the participant water or walking to the restroom. After the experience the participant will meet again with the therapy team to discuss the experience, the lessons to be drawn, and process an ineffable experience.
This method of therapy is proving very effective at treating PTSD, as well as helping people quit smoking cigarettes and overcome opioid addiction, treatment resistant depression, and end of life anxiety associated with a terminal diagnosis.9,11 Participants describe being able to see their lives or trauma with some distance, which gives the memory a new perspective or less powerful in the moment. Or so powerful that the surrender and subsequent rebuilding up of the self, the trauma releases its hold on the psyche. Psychedelics disrupt the story we tell ourselves by disrupting our neurochemistry and specifically a neural network called the Default Mode Network.13,14 Having this treatment legally available would certainly save lives or dramatically improve the quality of life in a terminal diagnosis.
Amazon & Amazon Smiles Foundation
Research however, and particularly medical research at the scale of t he current MAPS MDMA-assisted Psychotherapy phase 3 clinical trial, is expensive and this is where Amazon Smile enters the picture. As a non-profit organization, MAPS takes donations from a variety of sources, what is the wrong with taking money from Amazon to further the cause? Amazon Smiles Foundation donates 0.5% of the sales from certain items you purchase on the Amazon website to the charity of your choosing, MAPS being one choice of many.15 This donation occurs without any extra cost to the Amazon customer, so they can feel good how their purchase new belt sander (not all items apply) also helps fund research into psychedelics. The Amazon Corporations operates the Amazon Smiles Foundation and covers all administrative expenses.
The Amazon Smiles Foundation (ASF) since its inception in 2013 has contributed $183.12 million ($183,120,221) to thousands of Charities.15 In 2018, the most current data we have about ASF, Amazon gave the ASF $48.84 million ($44,840,018) while bringing in $232.89 billion ($232,890,000,000) in sales, or 0.0002% of the sales income.16,17 During this same time ASF disbursed $37.481 million ($37,481,047) or 83% of the total donation from Amazon, to the various participating charities and put $7.4 million ($7,398,986) into the foundation coffers bringing that total to $19,238,484 from $11,882,127 at the start of the year.16 A trend that has continued from previous years and revenue that avoids being taxed as it is a donation to a charity, which in this case is completely controlled and paid for by Amazon.18 As we can see, a relatively small amount of the money brought in to amazon goes out to the community through Amazon Smiles. Part of this discrepancy comes from the fact that a significant portion of the revenue Amazon generates doesn’t come from online sale. It comes from other sources like the Amazon Web Services and physical store locations such as Whole Foods.
MAPS, Amazon, & Charitable Giving
Now, let’s return to the MAPS post announcing the amount they have received in the first quarter from Amazon $4,125.2 The first financial Quarter of 2020 includes the COVID-19 global pandemic, which is ravaging the United State particularly hard. As people physically distance and all but completely shift their consumer purchases to online retailers, Amazon has seen a boost in their retail sales, as well as increased TV show and movie rentals through their streaming services due to the closure of movie theaters.19,20 Retail location such as Amazon owned Whole Foods have also received increased sales as people purchase more of the essentials that they used to consume at the workplaces which they now consume, such as toilet paper and cooking more because restaurants are closed.21,22 While the Net income for Amazon was technically down from $3.5 billion in the same quarter last year, they raked in a staggering $2.5 billion, even after donating $4,125 to MAPS. The company is spending $4 billion globally to protect workers which is cutting into profits some.20 However, before we shed a tear for the corporation valued at $1 Trillion, Amazon expect the trends of growth to continue and have even secured cheap loans backstopped by the federal government.20,23
