Christopher Medina-Kirchner
Christopher Medina-Kirchner is not your traditional Ivy League student. At 18 years old, he received a six-year prison sentence for selling 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). Upon release from prison, he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. There, he joined Dr. Krista Lisdahl’s Brain Imaging and Neuropsychology Laboratory and began to study the behavioral and pharmacological effects of recreational drugs. After reading High Price by Dr. Carl L. Hart, Chris became interested in human drug administration studies and how they can be used as a tool to prevent the spread of drug-related misinformation. As a Ph.D. student in the Psychology Department, he has been working under the mentorship of Dr. Hart in the Neuropsychopharmacology Laboratory. Here, he is researching the acute, repeated-dose, and residual effects of recreational drug combinations in humans. He hopes to use the information gained from his studies to ensure that our drug education, treatment, and policies are based on science and not misinformation.