James Rucker is a consultant psychiatrist and holds a 5 year NIHR CS award at King’s College London to investigate psilocybin assisted therapy as a treatment for difficult to treat depression. He leads a small research team with Prof Allan Young called the Psychedelics Trials Group. James also works at the tertiary referrals mood disorders unit at the Maudsley Hospital and at a private clinic called Sapphire, where he assesses people for treatment with medical cannabis. His PhD was in molecular genetics in mood disorders with Emeritus Prof Peter McGuffin at KCL, finished in 2012. James is particularly interested in treatment resistant depression, and the putative treatment effects of psychedelics, MDMA & ketamine when combined with therapy, and dovetails into a wider interest about the legal and political position towards said drugs and how clinical trials can inform an evidence base for rational policy.