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Bipartisan congressional lawmakers met with the head of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on Monday to discuss pathways to provide access to psychedelic medicine as an alternative treatment option for conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).<\/p>\n
After requesting the meeting with VA Secretary Doug Collins<\/a> in May, Reps. Lou Correa (D-CA) and Jack Bergman (R-MI)\u2014founding co-chairs of the Congressional Psychedelic Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus\u2014said the three had a productive conversations about advancing psychedelics therapy for the veteran community.<\/p>\n \u201cOur veterans put their lives on the line to defend our county and far too many come home with invisible wounds. Today\u2019s rate of up to 20 veteran suicides a day is unacceptable, one veteran suicide is unacceptable,\u201d Correa said in a press release.<\/p>\n \u201cVeterans deserve treatment that works, and the science shows that psychedelics have game-changing results,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was an honor to meet with Secretary Collins today to reaffirm our joint commitment to ensuring our nation\u2019s heroes have access to the care they need and deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n Met with VA Secretary Doug Collins to discuss ways we can better serve our vets. Too many of these heroes return home with invisible wounds. From psychedelic-assisted therapies to housing, they deserve access to the care they need. Let’s keep fighting to support our vets. pic.twitter.com\/RZqBOmaFEf<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Rep. Lou Correa (@RepLouCorrea) July 14, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n To that point, Collins has stood out as a VA secretary who\u2019s especially passionate about exploring the potential of substances such as ibogaine and MDMA to provide relief from serious mental health conditions, coordinating with other officials including U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who said recently that his aim is to free up plant-based medicine options within 12 months<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cVA is challenging the status quo to find new ways of helping Veterans. To that end, VA is conducting 11 clinical studies of potential psychedelic-assisted therapies,\u201d Collins said following the meeting with the lawmakers. \u201cI appreciate the leadership of Reps. Correa and Bergman on this issue, and I look forward to working with Congress as VA explores new avenues to safely and responsibly help those who have served.\u201d<\/p>\n Bergman said veterans \u201cdidn\u2019t hesitate to fight for us\u2014and now it\u2019s up to us to fight for them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPsychedelic-assisted therapies are bringing real hope to those battling PTSD and other challenges, and thanks to Secretary Collins\u2019 leadership, the VA is shifting from talk to action,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cTogether, we\u2019re advancing innovative solutions to ensure every Veteran gets the care they\u2019ve earned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n While Congress has been notably amenable to psychedelics research proposals in recent sessions, a powerful House committee on Monday blocked a bipartisan amendment to a spending bill that would have given the Department of Defense (DOD) another $10 million to support clinical trials into the therapeutic potential of substances such as ibogaine and psilocybin<\/a>.<\/p>\n Under appropriations legislation that was enacted last session, DOD is already mandated to conduct the trials, with\u00a0$10 million in previously provided funding, to investigate the medical value of psychedelics<\/a>\u00a0for active duty military members.<\/p>\n The action blocking the amendment to the spending bill from advancing comes as bipartisan lawmakers and stakeholders continue to see other advances in the debate over psychedelic medicine.<\/p>\n For example, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) recently said the\u00a0psychedelic ibogaine represents an \u201castonishing breakthrough\u201d<\/a>\u00a0in the nation\u2019s current \u201csick care system\u201d that\u2019s left people with serious mental health conditions without access to promising alternative treatment options\u2014and he intends to use his influence to advance the issue.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a Navy SEAL veteran credited with killing Osama Bin Laden said during a Fox News interview last week that psychedelic therapy has helped him process the trauma he experienced during his time in the military,\u00a0stressing that \u201cit works\u201d and should be an available treatment option<\/a>.<\/p>\n That interview came days after the U.S. House of Representatives included an amendment to a spending bill from Correa and Bergman that would encourage VA to support research into the benefits of psychedelics in treating medical conditions<\/a>\u00a0commonly affecting military veterans.<\/p>\n Collins, for his part, also disclosed in April that he had an \u201ceye-opening\u201d talk with Kennedy about the therapeutic potential of psychedelic medicine<\/a>. And he said he\u2019s open to the idea of having the government provide vouchers to cover the costs of psychedelic therapy for veterans who receive services outside of VA as Congress considers pathways for access.<\/p>\n Collins also\u00a0recently visited a facility conducting research on psychedelics<\/a>, and he reiterated that it\u2019s his \u201cpromise\u201d to advance research into the therapeutic potential of the substances\u2014even if that might take certain policy changes within the department and with congressional support.<\/p>\n The secretary\u2019s visit to the psychedelics research center came about a month after the VA secretary met with a military veteran who\u2019s become an advocate for psilocybin access to\u00a0discuss the therapeutic potential of psychedelic medicine for the veteran community<\/a>.<\/p>\n Collins also\u00a0briefly raised the issue in a Cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0in April.<\/p>\n Correa and Bergman separately introduced a bill in April to provide $30 million in funding annually\u00a0to establish psychedelics-focused \u201ccenters for excellence\u201d at VA facilities<\/a>, where veterans could receive novel treatment involving substances like psilocybin, MDMA and ibogaine.<\/p>\n \u2014 Bergman has also\u00a0expressed optimism about the prospects of advancing psychedelics reform under Trump<\/a>, arguing that the administration\u2019s efforts to cut spending and the federal workforce will give agencies \u201cspines\u201d to tackle such complex issues.<\/p>\n Kennedy, for his part, also said in April that\u00a0he had a \u201cwonderful experience\u201d with LSD at 15 years old<\/a>, which he took because he thought he\u2019d be able to see dinosaurs, as portrayed in a comic book he was a fan of.<\/p>\n Last October, Kennedy specifically criticized FDA under the prior administration over the agency\u2019s \u201csuppression of psychedelics\u201d and a laundry list of other issues that he said amounted to a \u201cwar on public health\u201d that would end under the Trump administration.<\/p>\n In December, VA separately announced that it\u2019s providing $1.5 million in funding to\u00a0study the efficacy of MDMA-assisted therapy for veterans<\/a>\u00a0with PTSD and alcohol use disorder (AUD).<\/p>\n Last year, VA\u2019s Yehuda also touted an initial study the agency funded that produced\u00a0\u201cstunning and robust results\u201d from its first-ever clinical trial into MDMA therapy<\/a>.<\/p>\n In January, former VA Under Secretary for Health Shereef Elnahal said that it was \u201cvery encouraging\u201d that Trump\u2019s pick to have Kennedy lead HHS has supported psychedelics reform. And he\u00a0hoped to work with him on the issue if he stayed on<\/a>\u00a0for the next administration, but that didn\u2019t pan out.<\/p>\n Photo elements courtesy of carlosemmaskype<\/a> and Apollo<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Bipartisan Lawmakers Talk Psychedelics With Trump\u2019s VA Head, Reaffirming Commitment To Supporting Veterans\u2019 Access To Therapy<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Bipartisan congressional lawmakers met with the head of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on Monday to discuss pathways to provide access to psychedelic medicine as an alternative treatment option for conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). After requesting the meeting with VA Secretary Doug Collins in May,Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":82269,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82268"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82270,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82268\/revisions\/82270"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
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\nRead More: Bipartisan Lawmakers Talk Psychedelics With Trump\u2019s VA Head, Reaffirming Commitment To Supporting Veterans\u2019 Access To Therapy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"