Melissa Etheridge hosts RISE Summit on Psychedelic Addiction Care

Melissa Ethridge will bring together leading experts, clinicians, advocates, and people with lived experience with addiction for the inaugural RISE Summit on November 12th at AV Irvine. The event, sponsored by the Etheridge Foundation, will take place on November 12 in Irvine, California, and will feature a hearthside conversation between the Grammy Award-winning rock singer and world-renowned addiction expert Dr. Gabor Maté, author of five books including In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction.

Additionally, the release notes that the event, which shares a title with Etheridge’s 17th studio album, released in March, will continue the collection’s themes of healing, resilience, and hope. “Based on her own personal experience, Etheridge established the Foundation to advance research, education, and advocacy around innovative approaches to addiction treatment and to help forge new paths to healing for individuals and families,” the statement reads.

In addition to Etheridge and Mate’s chat, the gathering, designed to reach a wide audience, will also feature presentations from leading researchers investigating new uses of psychedelic-assisted therapy and other innovative methods for addiction care.

“As many of you know, this work is deeply personal to me,” Etheridge said in a statement. “After losing my son Beckett, I wanted to do something to help other families find hope and new ways to heal.” Etheridge’s 21-year-old son Beckett Cypher, whom he shared with ex-partner Julie Cypher, died of an opioid overdose on May 13, 2020.

RISE (short for Research, Innovation, Science, and Education) promises to be the largest in-person event focused on psychedelic treatments for addiction, highlighting the promise and challenges of this rapidly evolving field. Some of the ongoing topics include research and models of care with drugs such as ibogaine, psilocybin mushrooms, 5-MeO-DMT, MDMA, cannabis, ketamine, and ayahuasca. The summit will also highlight indigenous-led biocultural conservation efforts aimed at preserving traditional plant medical knowledge and culture.

For summit tickets and more information, click here. After the Nov. 13 summit, the Etheridge Foundation will host an invitation-only working session bringing together researchers, clinicians, and peer experts in the field, with the goal of outlining a consensus approach to building consensus on a model for psychedelic-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder and addiction.