A Harvard University panel brought together experts and advocates, including a Department of Veterans Affairs official and a former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The discussion focused on efforts to increase veteran access to psychedelic assisted therapy. The speakers agreed that psychedelics like MDMA and psilocybin have the potential to treat PTSD in servicemen and reduce suicide rates. However, they warned against unsupervised, hasty use of psychedelics due to possible harms.
Rachel Yehuda is the director of mental healthcare at the VA medical centre in the Bronx. She is also a professor of psychiatry, neuroscience and psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “Yet I know it’s important to proceed slowly, methodically and soberly, as well as just getting the data. This is especially true for people with less than stellar outcomes.”
Yehuda said that psychedelic treatments need to be better understood before they can be recommended for everyone.
She said, “It is important to realize that about one-third of people who are treated with psychedelics during clinical trials don’t really have the promise of breakthrough healing or therapy.” This is why we are doing the research. A third of people are so ecstatic about the experience, while another third show a marked improvement. They still need some treatment, but it is clear that psychedelics have made a difference.
The panelists of the last week’s Harvard Law School Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law, Biotechnology, and Bioethics hosted event, stressed that they spoke for themselves and didn’t represent their institutions.
Rochelle Walensky who was the CDC director under President Biden in 2021-2023, and lectures now at Harvard Law School noted that rates of PTSD, and suicide, are “particularly higher in veterans compared with the U.S. Population” — a problem which has worsened over the past few years.
She said, “I think that the difference in suicide rates among our U.S. Veterans is one of the most alarming statistics.” In 2001, civilian suicide rates were 15 per 100,000, but veterans’ rates were 17 per 100,000.
Walensky stated that “these rates are now between 18 and 27 suicides per 100,000” (so, you’re witnessing a larger increase in suicide rates among our U.S. Veterans).
Veterans are also hearing from their fellow servicemen about life-changing experiences that were aided by the use of psychedelics. These drugs seem to help therapists target the underlying trauma, rather than just treating symptoms.
Today: Psychedelic law and U.S. military veterans
October 25, 12:30pm
Online
@CohenProf, @RWalensky, @netteaverill, @MarcusC236, @RachelYehuda, Juliana Mercer, @MasonMarksMDRegister here
https://t.co/fz0oRTX04H
— Petrie-Flom Center 25 October 2023 HTML0
This is what veterans tell their family members when they return home. It has helped me. ‘”
Some veterans are seeking out psychedelics in illicit markets within the U.S. Others have traveled to countries where these therapies are tolerated or legal, and then returned home to share their experience.
Marcus Capone, a Navy Seal veteran and co-founder of VETS (a nonprofit that sponsors vets to travel abroad for psychedelic therapy), said that he had been prescribed up to 10 different medications at a given time during the seven years he spent in mental health treatment. He then tried psychedelic assisted therapy.
He said, “I was able achieve what I had been trying to do for seven years in just a few days.”
Capone and other panelists called for increased federal funding to support psychedelics-related research involving veterans. He said that he and Rachel knew only a limited number of people who had a lot to donate. “We need to release federal dollars.”
Capone, when asked by Mason Marks, a senior Fellow at Harvard’s Petrie-Flom Center, who heads its Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation, why more was not being done in Congress for research or broader accessibility, pointed out conservatives using “religion and conservatism and other things to say that, you know these drugs are bad.”
He also noted that reform was supported by both parties, particularly veterans and their family members. He said that his wife, a conservative Christian who hails from the Midwest and runs a nonprofit devoted to psychedelics, is also a strong Christian. She has never needed psychedelic therapy. She is in good mental health, but she believes that this has healing powers.
Capone stated that the nonprofit had funded nearly 1,000 veterans in five years and receives 10 applications per day. He said that the more people are aware of psychedelics and their healing potential, they will seek them out.
Walensky, former CDC Director, expressed her encouragement at the discussion. She said that while the mental health burden among veterans is on the rise, treatment options and access to treatment have not kept up with the rate.
She continued: “We know that in the medical community, once a novel, new methodology or method has been reported in the literature it can take up to 17 years for the community to catch on. And we don’t really have the time.”
According to Lynnette Averill a professor of psychiatry, behavior sciences and psychedelics at Baylor College of Medicine, and the co-founder of Reason for Hope (which advocates for reform of psychedelics), it is difficult for researchers to conduct a more comprehensive study of psychedelics in today’s legal climate.
Averill explained that “doing any type of clinical trial can be burdensome in terms of paperwork and regulatory requirements.” Research on psychedelic drugs is particularly difficult at the moment, as they are Schedule I medications, which means that there are many restrictions, additional paperwork, approvals and bureaucracy.
Speakers said that VA support of research and implementation can be a game changer.
“They are the largest healthcare system of our nation and they’re foremost experts on PTSD. We think they’re best placed to be able roll out this program,” Mercer stated. “We think that the federal government should be involved in these efforts and provide financial support to help heal our veterans at home,” Mercer said.
Marks, ‘s Moderator, pointed out that states such as Oregon and Colorado had already passed laws removing barriers to psychedelics. For example, by allowing therapeutic use of psilocybin. He asked if veterans should go abroad, visit a less restrictive state or take another route.
Mercer says she recommends that veterans also work with a therapist who can guide them through the process. She said that without those conversations we are putting people at risk.
Research shows that psychedelic-assisted therapies are not only effective but also therapeutic.
Yehuda explained that the idea that a psychedelic trip is a complete meal could be misleading. “We want to ensure that everyone is aware of the options available and how to help someone who may have been to Peru last year [for psychedelic treatment] but still has a lot to process and brings up many memories. This will require a reeducation for clinicians in the United States and around the world.
Capone summarized the dilemma that faces VA officials, legislators and even advocates for a broader access to psychoactive-assisted therapies: “If we are too cautious, then we will never get there and people will die,” he said. “And if you’re too aggressive people could get hurt.”
Speakers expressed their belief that lawmakers and federal agencies are finally taking note of the potential for psychedelics in treating PTSD, traumatic head injuries, and suicidal thoughts, particularly among veterans. Mercer said, for instance, that her organization met with more than 300 legislative offices and “received overwhelming support from both parties.”
She said that when we go into a legislators’ office and tell them about the efficacy of MDMA-assisted therapies based on Phase 3 clinical studies, “they start to pay attention” because they can hear something is 70 percent effective at eliminating a PTSD diagnose.
Mercer was referring recent results from trials that have put MDMA in line for FDA approval as early as next year.
Yehuda called the current situation “a time of great optimism”. She said that lawmakers are listening to her. I believe we have everyone’s attention.
The first ever committee hearing on veterans’ mental health was to be held by Congress earlier this month. However, the event had to be postponed because Republicans in the House were scrambling to find a speaker. Yehuda, a VA official, was scheduled to appear.
Carolyn Clancy, VA’s Assistant Undersecretary of Health for Discovery, Education and Affiliate Networks, stated that the VA’s primary goal was veteran safety in written testimony submitted before the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Health’s hearing, which has been postponed.
She wrote: “Based on the literature we have reviewed, there is much more to be learned and understood about the potential benefits psychedelic compounds.” Our Department is focused not only on finding innovative treatments and cures but also doing so safely.
Some of the members, especially Republicans, have expressed an interest in reforming psychedelics before. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-MI, for example, was the founding member of the Congressional Psychedelics Advancing Therapies. This bipartisan group was relaunched in March.
Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-TX, has shared publicly how treatment with 5-MeO DMT and ibogaine “changed my Life”. It was “one the greatest things that happened to me”. Earlier this, he, along with several other GOP legislators, spoke in support of a bill creating a 75 million federal grant program for research into the therapeutic potency of psychedelics among active duty service members.
Rep. Mariannette Miller Meeks (R – IA), the chair of the House Subcommittee, led a summer roundtable to discuss new therapies for PTSD.
Capone pointed out during the Harvard panel that Republicans in Congress were some of the most stubborn critics of psychedelics, as well as the most vocal advocates of expanding access to veterans.
Former Texas Governor Rick Perry made a similar point. Rick Perry (R), in a documentary by the magazine Reason, made a similar point. Perry, who said that the issue should not be political, went on to say that GOP legislators are more open-minded to reform of psychedelics than Democrats–at least those in Congress.
He said that “at the federal level this is supported more by the Republicans”.
Blue states are leading the way in psychedelics legislation. In 2020, Oregon will legalize psilocybin treatment and decriminalize possession of all drugs. has approved the state’s first psilocybin treatment center in May.
Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed a psychedelics regulation bill into law in May, setting rules for a psychedelics legalization law that voters passed last year.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democratic lawmaker from California, recently vetoed the psychedelics bill. In his veto message he stated that he wanted the legislature to send him next year, a new law establishing guidelines for therapeutic access to psychedelics. He also said they should consider a “potential” framework for future decriminalization.
California officials approved a campaign to start collecting signatures for a ballot initiative in 2024 to legalize possession, sale and therapeutic use of. This is one of three campaigns that will seek to reform psychedelics through the ballot next year.
A California campaign also filed a proposal for a ballot initiative in 2024 that would create a $5-billion state agency that would be responsible for funding psychedelics and promoting research. The campaign hopes that this will speed up federal legalization substances such as psilocybin or ibogaine.
Third campaign has filed a proposed initiative that would legalize psychedelics for spiritual and therapeutic use, with a doctor’s recommendation.
The first episode of the new VA podcast, about the future health of veterans, focused on psychedelics.
While some states have legalized the use of medical marijuana, others are moving to legalize some psychedelics.
House lawmakers approved a spending measure earlier this year that included amendments aimed at veterans who use marijuana or psychedelics. The first would allow VA doctors the ability to recommend medical cannabis to veterans, while the second would encourage the research of the therapeutic potentials of psychedelics.
Three bipartisan cochairs of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus sent a letter to VA Secretary Denis McDonough in August expressing their “deep concern” about a recent VA directive which continues to prevent its doctors from giving medical cannabis recommendations for veterans who live in states where marijuana is legal.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-OR, one of the letter’s authors sent a separate email to McDonough and Department of Defense secretary Lloyd Austin recently slamming both departments for perpetuating “a misguided denial of service” in recommending against medical marijuana use by veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder.
VA and DOD have a history of claiming to be acting in the best interests of veterans and service members, only to deny that medical marijuana is a viable treatment for those suffering from PTSD. He referred to the joint clinical practice guidelines released by the departments last July.
Trump Team says DeSantis should use marijuana edibles to deal with presidential campaign stress
Image courtesy of Beautiful Drugthings from Unsplash.
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