Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the Secretary of Health and Human Services at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. His agency, along with the FDA head, is committed to expanding research regarding the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics. They also aim to make such substances available to veterans legally “within the next year.”
Doug Collins, Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs in the United States (VA), is also a frequent contact for him.
At a hearing before the House Energy & Commerce Committee on Tuesday, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) asked Kennedy about plans at HHS to advance psychedelics studies, stressing the need to make the novel therapies available to people with serious mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
“We are launching clinical trials now on that at FDA,” Kennedy said, adding that there are currently “11 clinical trials at the VA going on at this point—particularly for our service members and retired service members.”
He said that FDA Commissioner Marty Makary told him that “we didn’t want two years before we got this done.”
These people are in desperate need of some sort of therapy. Kennedy explained that “nothing else works for them.” Kennedy said that the therapeutics have a great advantage if they are given in a clinic setting.
Crenshaw mentioned that Congress had passed legislation that required the Department of Defense to conduct clinical trials on psychedelics in active-duty military veterans. The health secretary noted that “he brought personnel directly into VA” and spoke with Collins “always” about the issue.
It’s something both of us deeply enjoy,” said he.
Collins revealed in April, that he and Kennedy had an “eye opening” discussion about the potential therapeutic benefits of psychedelic medicines. 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.
A month before, the VA Secretary met with an army veteran who has become a proponent of accessing psilocybin to talk about the potential therapeutic benefits psychedelic medicines can offer to veterans.
Collins also briefly raised the issue in a Cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump in April.
Meanwhile last month, bipartisan congressional lawmakers asked the VA head to meet with them to discuss ways to provide access to psychedelic medicine for military veterans.
In a letter sent to Collins, Reps. Lou Correa (D-CA) and Jack Bergman (R-MI)—co-chairs of the Congressional Psychedelic Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus—said they were “encouraged by your recent remarks about the importance of pursuing research into psychedelic treatments and other alternative treatments to improve Veterans’ care.”
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.
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 also stated in April, that at the age of 15, he experienced a “wonderful” experience with LSD. He took it because he wanted to be able to view dinosaurs like in an old comic book.
Kennedy criticized the FDA’s prior administration for “suppressing psychedelics”, and other matters that, he claimed, amounted a “war against public health”. He said that this would be ended under Trump.
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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, a former VA Assistant Secretary of Health who left the VA in 2011, said “it was very encouraging” to hear that Trump chose Kennedy to head HHS and that he supported 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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