In 1986, Rick Doblin founded the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a non-profit membership-based research and educational organization that sponsors clinical studies designed to obtain FDA approval for the use of MDMA, psychedelics, and cannabis as prescription medicines. Doblin received his undergraduate degree from the small, idiosyncratic, and highly-respected New College in Florida. He obtained his Ph.D. in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University with a dissertation focused on the regulation of the medical use of psychedelics and cannabis. He has served on the NORML board of directors since 1996.