WASHINGTON — Congress is considering seeking mental health help for veterans from an unconventional source: Psychedelics.
A House amendment would direct the Defense Department to conduct a clinical trial on the therapeutic potential of psychedelics for treating service members with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
HR 3684 (the Douglas 'Mike' Day Psychedelic Therapy to Save Lives Act) directs the Secretary of Defense to award $75 million in grants for research on the use of covered psychedelic substances such as psilocybin found in mushrooms for the treatment of members of the Armed Forces who have conditions like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury.
The idea has won bipartisan support in the House from such diverse members as Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York).
"Everybody's on the same page because there is a realization that these therapies are working," said Crenshaw.
"If we prohibit these promising drugs from being studied, we are being led by stigma, not science, and it is our veterans who will pay the price," said Ocasio-Cortez.
The move comes at a time when veteran suicides are still too high. 6,146 vets died by suicide in 2020 according to the Veterans Affairs Department, an average of 16.8 deaths per day.
Former Navy Lieutenant Matthew "Whiz" Buckley flew 44 combat sorties over Iraq piloting an F/A-18 C Hornet.
He now serves as Founder and Chairman of the No Fallen Heroes Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group dedicated to ending veteran and first responder suicide by treating their PTSD, depression and anxiety through alternative forms of medicine.
"This medicine, these medicines are saving lives," he said. "I know lives are saved by them. I'm talking about my own. It saved and changed my life and gave me a new lease on life. These medications are incredibly therapeutic. I've never been better in my life. And they're antiaddictive."
While the amendment passed in the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act, it still must be reconciled with the Senate's version, which does not include such a provision.