Second Annual Clusterbusters Convention pics

Link to pictures

The Clusterbusters will hold their 2nd annual convention on October 26th, 27th and 28th 2007 at the Embassysuites in Austin Texas

Speakers: Dr Andrew Sewell, Dr John Halpern, Rick Doblin, James Joseph, and others to be announced.

Agenda: Friday: Clusterbuster Meet and Greet
               Saturday: 10 am Meetings and Speakers Presentations
               Saturday Evening: Hoe-Down & Fundraising Auction
               Sunday: 10 am Meetings and Speakers Presentations

What's up for Auction??

Speaker's Bios

John Halpern, M.D. Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Dr. Halpern is a Harvard Medical School instructor of psychiatry and as associate director of substance abuse research at Harvard University's McLean Hospital and is at the forefront of a revival of research into psychedelic medicine. He received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to give late-stage cancer patients the psychedelic drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy. As part of his active research program, he is now finalizing research protocols for testing LSD and psilocybin as clinical treatments for cluster headache and plans to review these exciting developments in great detail during the conference. He says he knows he'll be enjoying the entire time with us in Austin, TX but still anticipates getting homesick for his wife and first child who was born in June of this year!
Andrew Sewell, M.D Dr. Andrew Sewell received a BA in physics from Cornell University, a degree in medicine from the University of Connecticut Medical School in Hartford, completed a double residency in neurology and psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts in Worcester, and now works at at Yale Medical School/VA Connecticut Healthcare. He originally started studying cluster headache only in order to answer a fairly academic question about the relationship between abnormal neuroendocrine response by the hypothalamus and increased incidence of substance abuse, but quickly found it to be such and interesting yet understudied disorder that he is now trying to start a research program entirely devoted to cluster headache.
Rick Doblin, Ph.D Rick Doblin, Ph.D is the founder (in 1986) and president of MAPS. His dissertation (Public Policy, Harvard's Kennedy School of Government) was on "The Regulation of the Medical Use of Psychedelics and Marijuana," and his master's thesis (Harvard) focused on the attitudes and experiences of oncologists concerning the medical use of marijuana. His undergraduate thesis (New College of Florida) was a twenty-five year follow-up to the classic Good Friday Experiment, which evaluated the potential of psychedelic drugs to catalyze religious experiences. He has also conducted a thirty-four year follow-up study to Tim Leary's Concord Prison experiment. Doblin has also studied with Stan Grof, M.D., and was in the first group to become certified as holotropic breathwork practitioners. His professional goal is to help develop legal contexts for the beneficial uses of psychedelics and marijuana, primarily as prescription medicines but also for personal growth for otherwise "healthy" people, and to also become a legally licensed psychedelic therapist. He currently resides in Boston with his wife and three young children.
James Joseph (M.S. Indiana University) James Joseph (Boulder, CO) is an educator and author of the recently published book “Psychedelic Perceptions: Why the Most Effective Method for Gaining Insight into Our Own Psychology and Spirituality is Misunderstood.” James’s work includes the study of the psilocybin mushrooms and their use as medicine for many millennia and the current potential for treatment of cluster headaches, obsessive-compulsive and psychological disorders as well as initiating profound spiritual experiences. This thought provoking perspective includes the historical, social, and political influences that have affected the legal and research status, as well as the common misperceptions, of the hallucinogens. By means of his public presentations of this alternative view, Mr. Joseph continues to create much need discussion and consideration of these vital medicines.
Douglas Wright, DC Douglas Wright, DC. In private Chiropractic practice in British Columbia, Doug is a 32 year veteran of cluster headaches and was former President of OUCH-Canada. The management and coping strategies in the pain reduction of cluster headaches through various techniques and methods has been of interest to him for years. As a "sufferer" he brings a unique perspective to the discussions on cluster headaches.
Stuart Miller Stuart Miller is a federal lobbyist who worked with the White House Welfare Reform Working Group and the Men's Health Network. A former cluster headache sufferer, he now lives pain-free in Mexico, and is still active helping to fund cluster headache research worldwide. Mr. Miller will be dicussing anomalies of cluster relief found in different altitudes and geographic location to the equator.

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