Dr. Matthew W. John­son, Ph.D., is Pro­fes­sor of Psych­ia­try and Beha­vi­oral Sci­en­ces at Johns Hop­kins. He is one of the world’s most published sci­en­tists on the human effects of psy­che­de­lics, and has con­duc­ted semi­nal rese­arch in the beha­vi­oral eco­no­mics of drug use, addic­tion, and risk beha­vi­or. Dr. John­son ear­ned his Ph.D. in expe­ri­men­tal psy­cho­lo­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ver­mont in 2004.
Working with psy­che­de­lics sin­ce 2004, Dr. John­son published psy­che­de­lic safe­ty gui­de­lines in 2008, hel­ping to resur­rect psy­che­de­lic rese­arch. As Prin­ci­ple Inves­ti­ga­tor he deve­lo­ped and published the first rese­arch on psy­che­de­lic tre­at­ment of tob­ac­co addic­tion in 2014. Dr. John­son and col­le­agues published the lar­gest stu­dy of psi­lo­cy­bin in trea­ting can­cer distress in 2016. His 2018 psi­lo­cy­bin abu­se lia­bi­li­ty review recom­men­ded pla­ce­ment in Sche­du­le-IV upon poten­ti­al medi­cal appr­oval. He is Prin­ci­ple Inves­ti­ga­tor on fun­ded stu­dies inves­ti­ga­ting psi­lo­cy­bin in the tre­at­ment of opio­id depen­dence and PTSD. Bey­ond psi­lo­cy­bin, in 2011 Dr. John­son published the first-ever blin­ded human rese­arch show­ing psy­choac­ti­ve effects of sal­vi­no­rin A, the acti­ve con­sti­tu­ent in Sal­via divinorum.

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