Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Humble, discusses the use of psilocybin and other mood-altering drugs to treat PTSD and other trauma, at the U.S. Capitol on July 13, 2023. He and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. (left) worked on a provision ordering the Pentagon to begin trials. At right is another supporter of the measure, Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif. (Todd J. Gillman, The Dallas Morning News/TNS)
WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service) — The House is poised to approve mood-altering drugs to treat combat-related brain maladies, capping years of effort by an ex- Navy SEAL from Texas and a New York democratic socialist.
Magic mushrooms make strange bedfellows.
“There’s already some pretty solid studies that show just unbelievable outcomes — massive reduction in PTSD symptoms,” said Houston-area Rep. Dan Crenshaw on Thursday, making a final public plea with his partner on the issue, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The duo has fought to get Congress to direct Pentagon studies of psilocybin to treat traumatic brain injury and PTSD, which have become increasingly common in the military. The proposal is tucked into the $886 billion defense bill the House began debating Thursday.
“The stigma around these substances is very real,” said Ocasio-Cortez. But they hold “enormous therapeutic potential.”
“To knowingly refuse to enable research that could end millions of people’s suffering is simply wrong,” she said. “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.”
Conservative Republicans have demanded a number of contentious provisions in the defense bill that threatened delay. That included directives to ban abortions through the military health care system; end “diversity, equity and inclusion” training; and reverse President Joe Biden’s decision to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine.
Mood-altering drugs
Allowing research on mood-altering drugs enjoys broad support.
Veterans groups have lauded the bill as a way to stanch a suicide epidemic among those in uniform or retired from active duty.
Psilocybin and other hallucinogenics hold “incredible promise” to treat addiction and other “inner demons,” Crenshaw said. “Start with our servicemembers. Start with our veterans. The possibilities are endless from there. There’s drug addiction, there’s promise for victims of sexual trauma. What about law enforcement officers who deal with what they deal with every single day.”
Roughly 450,000 military personnel were diagnosed with traumatic brain injury from 2000 to 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many also suffer from PTSD and depression.
PTSD afflicts 15% of veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs — triple the rate among Vietnam veterans.
A survey last year found that three-fourths of veterans and active duty personnel who’ve served since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have experienced PTSD.
Psychedelics have been banned at the federal level since the Nixon era, a response to the counterculture movement of the 1960s.
But acceptance has grown.
Oregon became the first state to decriminalize possession of psilocybin and to legalize its therapeutic use in 2020. Voters in Colorado decriminalized such drugs last November. Legalization of some sort is under discussion in a dozen other states.
Potential therapies
The National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health, supports and conducts research into mind-altering drugs as potential therapies.
In 2021, the Texas Legislature ordered studies of the so-called designer drug ecstasy, psilocybin, and ketamine to treat veterans with PTSD.
Gov. Greg Abbott showed his disdain by allowing that bill to become law without his signature.
His predecessor promoted the Texas law.
Rick Perry, a fellow Republican, has been advocating research into psychedelics to treat veterans with PTSD for several years. He opposes recreational use but has enthusiastically touted the potential benefits to treat depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.
“Some of you are out there going, ‘What in the hell is that dude doing on this stage,’ ” Perry said last month at a conference in Denver, where he delivered the opening remarks to thousands of legalization advocates and scientists. “You’re literally changing the world. You’re changing minds, and, more importantly, you’re saving lives.”
Britain’s Prince Harry’s recent memoir includes an anecdote about taking “black diamond mushroom chocolates” at the home of Friends star Courtney Cox six years ago. (Cox has said she didn’t provide that to him or any other guest.)
The prince told Vanity Fair that he viewed hallucinogenics as “fundamental” in his life, providing “a sense of relaxation, relief, comfort, a lightness” that “helped me deal with the traumas and the pains of the past.”
Crenshaw’s bill — the Douglas “Mike” Day Psychedelic Therapy to Save Lives Act of 2023 — is named for a 21-year SEAL who took his own life earlier this year.
He rounded up support from other veterans in Congress, including a fellow SEAL, Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R- Magnolia, whose Houston-area district is adjacent to his.
Rep. Lou Correa, D- Calif., joining Ocasio-Cortez and Crenshaw under a blazing sun on Thursday afternoon, said he’s heard from countless veterans who sought treatment in places like Mexico and Costa Rica, and the success rate has been 80%.
It’s “shameful that the one thing that works for these veterans is not legal in the United States,” he said.
Crenshaw said Speaker Kevin McCarthy has assured him the House will fight for the provisions when the defense bill goes to negotiations with the Senate.
“I still can’t find one member of Congress who would say that they are against this,” he said.
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