By Robert Johnson
The year 2023 brought good news about psychedelic therapy in America. Just before the end of the year, Joe Biden signed a defense spending bill earmarking $10 million for clinical trials of psychedelic drugs to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injuries. The legislation requires the Department of Defense to establish a system that allows active-duty service members to participate in these trials within 180 days.
This legislation is historic: It’s the first-ever federal legislation signed into law that mandates psychedelic clinical trials. Unfortunately, it also illustrates the glacial pace of federal legislation around Schedule 1 drugs, which is deeply frustrating for veterans and others with life-threatening mental health challenges. Given the growing body of evidence that psychedelics can be effective treatments for PTSD, depression, anxiety and other serious illnesses, many feel they don’t have years to wait for trials and findings.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, as of 2021, nearly one in five U.S. adults were living with a mental illness. Sadly, veterans’ mental health statistics almost invariably trend worse than the general population. Results from a 2017 survey showed that “23 percent of the veterans screened positive for PTSD, 16 percent screened positive for major depression, and 13 percent screened positive for general psychological distress.” Suicide risk is an urgent problem: veterans comprise nearly a quarter of suicide deaths in the U.S. It’s estimated that at least 16 veterans take their own lives in the U.S. every day. (If you or someone you know is dealing with suicidal thoughts, help is available 24/7. Call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255, or text 838255 to talk online with a crisis counselor.)
There’s a fundamental disconnect between the slow, methodical nature of federal legalization and clinical trials, and the immediate need that veterans with PTSD and others suffering from serious mental health problems have for relief.
This new defense bill earmark reminds me of the laws passed in Oregon legalizing psychedelic therapy: Both are exciting legislative accomplishments — but they’re also frustratingly small steps forward. We need to credit the lawmakers and citizen activists who have fought long and hard to change the status quo. It’s always easier to criticize the pace of change than it is to actually change laws. At the same time, access to legal psychedelic therapy still remains extremely limited. Millions of people see daily headlines proclaiming the potential healing properties of these substances. Who can blame Americans for seeking out extralegal means of trying them?
CBS reported in November 2023 that veterans “desperate for healing…are turning to psychedelic-assisted treatment in Mexico—using substances the government they fought for says are illegal.” A nonprofit organization called VETS (Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions) funds grants for veterans to go to Mexico for treatment that isn’t legal in the United States. VETS was founded in 2019 by former Navy SEAL Marcus Capone and his wife, Amber. Capone was inspired by his own experience with psychedelics, which he credits with helping him find relief from PTSD and a traumatic brain injury following multiple combat deployments.
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Green Beret Herb Daniels, who spent nearly four years in active combat, credits these treatments with saving his life. “It’s disappointing that some veterans can’t get the healing they need in the country they fought for….it seems that in return for that sacrifice, you know, our country would be willing to do whatever it takes…to prevent those suicides.”
Stories like this abound. Veterans, like their civilian counterparts, aren’t waiting for the laws to change. A recent Business Insider piece about a Vietnam veteran with PTSD claims that “Psychedelic therapy seems to have swung from fringe experimental treatment to mainstream acceptance overnight.” Cultural acceptance is one thing, but legal access is another. Veterans who can’t get to Mexico and don’t want to break the law could travel to Oregon for psychedelic-assisted therapy—you don’t have to be an Oregon resident to apply for psilocybin services. But even the one state where psychedelic therapy is technically legal is filled with barriers to entry. The Seattle Times reported that, as of December 27, more than 700 people had accessed psychedelic mushrooms through the new program in 2023. Again, this is a good thing! But the disparity between the number of providers and the numbers of aspiring participants is staggering. PBS reported that the Oregon Psilocybin Services Section, which regulates this new industry, has received hundreds of thousands of inquiries. Massive wait lists are common (as of September, Oregon’s first licensed psilocybin service center still had a wait list of more than 3,000. Though client information is kept confidential, most practitioners estimate that the vast majority of clients are traveling from out of state.
Adding to the bottleneck of travel and waitlists are the costs of legal psychedelic therapy. Licenses for manufacturers and service centers cost at least $10,000, and they must be renewed annually. Costs to clients are typically in the thousands as well, ranging from $1,500 to $3,500 — and obviously, neither health insurance companies nor the VA will help cover the expense.
Oregonians, to their credit, are trying to address the problem. Organizations like the Healing Advocacy Fund are trying to make psilocybin therapy more affordable. The state offers half-price licenses to veterans, and many psychedelic therapy practitioners will work with them on a sliding scale. But we have more than 16 million veterans in America. The estimated 23% of them with PTSD alone equals 3.6 million people. If we’re serious about veterans’ rights to try these therapies, we can’t expect individual nonprofits or practitioners to close that supply gap.
The problem facing veterans in crisis mirrors the larger issue of psychedelic therapy access for civilians: Hundreds of stories are published daily trumpeting studies that show mushrooms, LSD, MDMA and other psychedelic substances may help treat mental illness. Yet our current laws have not kept pace with the research. Congress has made laudable efforts to pass “Right to Try” legislation — but I predict both veteran and civilian populations will turn to underground markets rather than waiting for the laws to change.
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