The head of Veterans Affairs in the United States (VA) met bipartisan lawmakers from Congress on Monday. They discussed ways of providing access to psychedelic medication as an alternative option treatment for post-traumatic anxiety disorder (PTSD).
After requesting the meeting with VA Secretary Doug Collins in May, Reps. Lou Correa (D-CA) and Jack Bergman (R-MI)—founding co-chairs of the Congressional Psychedelic Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus—said the three had a productive conversations about advancing psychedelics therapy for the veteran community.
Our veterans risk their lives to protect our country and too many return home with invisible injuries. The rate of 20 veteran suicides per day today is unacceptable. One veteran suicide, Correa stated in a release.
He said: “Psychedelics are a game changer for veterans. Science has proven that they work.” The meeting with Collins was an honour. We reaffirmed our commitment to providing our country’s heroes the medical care they require and deserve.
Collins is a VA Secretary who has a passion for exploring substances like ibogaine and MDMA as he believes they can provide relief to serious mental conditions. He coordinates with officials such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, who recently stated that his goal was to make plant-based medicines available within 12 months.
VA is challenging the status-quo in order to help Veterans find better ways. Collins stated that VA was conducting 11 studies on potential psychedelic assisted therapies. Collins said, “I am grateful for the leadership shown by Reps. Correa & Bergman in this matter. I look forward working with Congress to explore new ways to help veterans safely.”
Bergman said veterans “didn’t hesitate to fight for us—and now it’s up to us to fight for them.”
“Psychedelic-assisted therapies are bringing real hope to those battling PTSD and other challenges, and thanks to Secretary Collins’ leadership, the VA is shifting from talk to action,” he said. Together, we are advancing innovative solution to make sure every Veteran receives the care they deserve.
The recent session of Congress was remarkably receptive to proposals for psychedelic research. However, on Monday a powerful House panel blocked a bipartisan addition to the spending bill which would have provided the Department of Defense with an extra $10 million in order to fund clinical trials that looked at the therapeutic benefits of substances such a psilocybin or ibogaine.
Under appropriations legislation that was enacted last session, DOD is already mandated to conduct the trials, with $10 million in previously provided funding, to investigate the medical value of psychedelics for active duty military members.
Bipartisan legislators and other stakeholders are continuing to make progress in the psychedelic debate.
For example, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) recently said the psychedelic ibogaine represents an “astonishing breakthrough” in the nation’s current “sick care system” that’s left people with serious mental health conditions without access to promising alternative treatment options—and he intends to use his influence to advance the issue.
Meanwhile, a Navy SEAL veteran credited with killing Osama Bin Laden said during a Fox News interview last week that psychedelic therapy has helped him process the trauma he experienced during his time in the military, stressing that “it works” and should be an available treatment option.
That interview came days after the U.S. House of Representatives included an amendment to a spending bill from Correa and Bergman that would encourage VA to support research into the benefits of psychedelics in treating medical conditions commonly affecting military veterans.
Collins also revealed that in April he and Kennedy had an “eye opening” conversation about the therapeutic possibilities of psychedelic medication. He said that he is open to having vouchers provided by the government to pay for psychedelic therapies for veterans receiving services from outside the VA, as Congress looks at pathways to access.
Collins also recently visited a facility conducting research on psychedelics, and he reiterated that it’s his “promise” to advance research into the therapeutic potential of the substances—even if that might take certain policy changes within the department and with congressional support.
The secretary’s visit to the psychedelics research center came about a month after the VA secretary met with a military veteran who’s become an advocate for psilocybin access to discuss the therapeutic potential of psychedelic medicine for the veteran community.
Collins also briefly raised the issue in a Cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump in April.
Correa and Bergman separately introduced a bill in April to provide $30 million in funding annually to establish psychedelics-focused “centers for excellence” at VA facilities, where veterans could receive novel treatment involving substances like psilocybin, MDMA and ibogaine.
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Bergman has also expressed optimism about the prospects of advancing psychedelics reform under Trump, arguing that the administration’s efforts to cut spending and the federal workforce will give agencies “spines” to tackle such complex issues.
Kennedy, for his part, also said in April that he had a “wonderful experience” with LSD at 15 years old, which he took because he thought he’d be able to see dinosaurs, as portrayed in a comic book he was a fan of.
Kennedy criticised the FDA in October last year for its “suppression” of psychedelics and an array of other problems that he said were akin to “a war on public health”. Kennedy claimed that the Trump Administration would put an end to this “war”.
In December, VA separately announced that it’s providing $1.5 million in funding to study the efficacy of MDMA-assisted therapy for veterans with PTSD and alcohol use disorder (AUD).
Last year, VA’s Yehuda also touted an initial study the agency funded that produced “stunning and robust results” from its first-ever clinical trial into MDMA therapy.
Shereef Enahal, the former VA under secretary for health who was appointed by Trump to lead HHS in January said it was a “very encouraging sign” that Trump had chosen Kennedy as his HHS leader and that he supported reform of psychedelics. And he hoped to work with him on the issue if he stayed on for the next administration, but that didn’t pan out.
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