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North Carolina has the opportunity to \u201clead the nation\u201d in expanding access to psychedelic medicine for military veterans suffering from major mental health conditions, a Republican state senator says.<\/p>\n
At an event organized by Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions (VETS) and the North Carolina Psychedelic Policy Coalition, Sen. Bob Brinson (R) and Rep. Eric Ager (D) discussed psychedelics reform following a screening of a documentary, In Waves and War<\/em>, that followed three Navy SEALs who had life-changing experiences with plant medicine after serving missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n In North Carolina, with its significant veteran population, \u201cwe have the people that are here and the retirees that are here that\u2014if we can figure out how to establish it\u2014we can lead the nation in this concept,\u201d Brinson said. \u201cIt\u2019s a matter of figuring out how.\u201d<\/p>\n The senator said that he was educated on the issue after hearing directly from veterans who visited him and shared their own experiences with psychedelic therapy.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can delete an email, you can delete a voicemail\u2014but if you\u2019re in in front of my face, telling me your story, I can\u2019t deny that,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so you didn\u2019t have to convince me as a veteran, you didn\u2019t have to convince me of the problem. I knew what the problem was.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m tired of treating symptoms and taking all of these drugs, and that\u2019s another story. Then we\u2019re kind of hinting around here, but for them to come to my office and say, \u2018This helped me. This cured me\u2019\u2014and I understand it\u2019s a light cure, but this is something we need to explore and do,\u201d the senator said. \u201cThat was what hooked me.\u201d<\/p>\n Ager, for his part, said that he first learned about the issue about six months after joining the legislature in 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was clear that people were coming and talking about it, and it was working,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd there was a huge amount of research going on\u2026 You spend a long time in the military, and you know lots of people from all sorts of parts of the military, and have lots of friends from even childhood and beyond that are struggling with a lot of these things. And it\u2019s like, you know, why?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy are we making it so hard to do here\u2014something that clearly works, and it clearly ought to be studied and understood?\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it dawns on you frequently that it\u2019s really just the fact that we have all these very old biases from growing up in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s\u2014and I think we have a big task to do to just really provide information to legislators, many of whom haven\u2019t gotten out and served or been around the world and who have lived in their small communities for most of their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTo me, it\u2019s one of those things that we just have to do a lot of education with our with our peers. This is what this is all about,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the stories. It\u2019s folks like you all, and those in the movie, and any way you can find to tell that story.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCertainly, I think we can help get people in the door as legislators and certainly willing to do that,\u201d Ager added. \u201cBut in the end, the stories that you all tell are the ones that are really going to turn the tide.\u201d<\/p>\n SSDP said<\/a> in a press release that, at the screening, the \u201cemotion and energy in the room was undeniable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAttendees walked away both moved and motivated reminded of the urgency of expanding access to safe, effective psychedelic treatments for veterans and others in need,\u201d the organization said. \u201cThis event highlighted not only the dedication of our community but also the bipartisan support this effort has garnered from both chambers of the North Carolina legislature.\u201d<\/p>\n Gina Giorgio, director of strategy and development at SSDP, told Marijuana Moment that the screening of In Waves and War <\/em>\u201cwas a powerful reflection of how far North Carolina has come\u2014and how much potential we have to lead.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe response from veterans, community members, and policymakers was incredibly moving. There\u2019s widespread interest in our Republican-led legislature and across state agencies to move a Psychedelic Medicine Task Force forward, along with a strong grassroots presence that\u2019s been building for years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn North Carolina, there\u2019s real momentum building\u2014not just in the legislature, but among people who\u2019ve lived this trauma. The emotion in that room made it clear we can\u2019t afford to wait. Veterans are dying by suicide every day,\u201d Giorgio said. \u201cFamilies are holding on, hoping for something that works when nothing else has. We have the research, we have bipartisan will, and we have a community ready to do the work. The question now is whether our legislature will move fast enough to meet the demand.\u201d<\/p>\n SSDP said it hoped the conversation builds on momentum for legislative reform, including a bipartisan bill filed in March that would authorize the creation of a new state psychedelics task force<\/a> to study and issue recommendations on providing access to the alternative therapies to address serious mental health conditions.<\/p>\n The legislation from Sens. Sophia Chitlik (D) and Bobby Hanig (R) would enable the state Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to create the body. Among its responsibilities, the North Carolina Mental Health and Psychedelic Medicine Task Force would need to evaluate that \u201cpotential use of psychedelic medicine in addressing the State\u2019s ongoing mental health crisis\u201d and \u201cbarriers to implementation and equitable access.\u201d<\/p>\n The bill filing came about two years after a North Carolina House committee approved a separate bill to create a $5 million grant program to\u00a0support research into the therapeutic potential of psilocybin and MDMA<\/a>\u00a0and to create a Breakthrough Therapies Research Advisory Board to oversee the effort. The measure was not ultimately enacted, however.<\/p>\n \u2014 Meanwhile in North Carolina, the governor in June reiterated his support for legalizing marijuana<\/a>, stressing the need to create a regulated cannabis program to mitigate the risks associated with products in the intoxicating hemp market.<\/p>\n \u201cOur state\u2019s unregulated cannabis market is the Wild West, and it is crying out for order,\u201d the governor said, adding that\u2019s the reason he\u00a0signed an executive order this summer creating a bipartisan commission to study cannabis legalization<\/a>\u00a0in hopes of moving the GOP-controlled legislature to act on reform.<\/p>\n In recent sessions,\u00a0multiple limited medical marijuana legalization bills advanced through the Senate<\/a>, only to stall out in the House.<\/p>\n Photo elements courtesy of carlosemmaskype<\/a> and Apollo<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post North Carolina Could \u2018Lead The Nation\u2019 In Expanding Psychedelic Access For Veterans, GOP Senator Says<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
North Carolina has the opportunity to \u201clead the nation\u201d in expanding access to psychedelic medicine for military veterans suffering from major mental health conditions, a Republican state senator says. At an event organized by Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions (VETS) and the North Carolina PsychedelicContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":83820,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83819"}],"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=83819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83821,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83819\/revisions\/83821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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