Ask the average person on the street, and drugs like MDMA and LSD would sooner be associated with causing mental illness than treating it.

But a new non-profit organisation is being launched tonight to turn that perception around and to help conduct Australia's first clinical trials using psychedelics to treat mental and terminal illnesses.

It's called Mind Medicine Australia - and lending his name to the launch tonight, is Professor David Nutt of Imperial College, London, a world leader in the research and application of psychedelic therapies.

Guest:

Dr David Nutt, Psychedelic Research Group, Imperial College, London