President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that will ease access to research into psychedelic drugs, which the administration notes may have significant benefits for veterans when it comes to curbing the veteran suicide epidemic.
“It is the policy of my Administration to accelerate innovative research models and appropriate drug approvals to increase access to psychedelic drugs that could save lives and reverse the crisis of serious mental illness in America,” Trump stated.
At the direction of our founder and president Daniel Elkins, the Special Operations Association of America has been advocating for increased research into psychedelic-assisted treatments since 2021. In addition to working with Congress and state-level legislatures, SOAA members have supported groups who have pioneered access to care for veterans, ultimately funding multiple veterans’ psychedelic experiences and issuing hundreds of referrals for veterans to seek out care through qualified nonprofits.
Scheduling Changes Enable Research
As a Schedule I drug, psychedelics shared a category with heroin and cannabis as drugs “with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” Because of its current schedule, research is difficult to arrange and treatments are difficult to coordinate as veterans are forced to seek psychedelics outside the U.S.
SOAA Director of Strategic Partnerships Dr. Ryan Ziegler says that the executive order will change lives in a community he says is in “desperate” need. He explained that he knows “at least 15 individuals from the special operations community whose lives have been transformed for the better through different psychedelic medications.”
Ziegler said it is particularly important to research how various psychedelics impact users. “There’s no one psychedelic that’s good for everybody, because they all have their different nuances. As more research comes out, we can learn more about the differences between various psychedelics and how to best apply these medicines for the best health outcome,” Ziegler explained.
Legislative Actions
SOAA’s members have supported a variety of legislative efforts to move the needle on psychedelics.
Elkins is a founding member of the Veteran Mental Health Leadership Coalition, which advocates for bold moves like psychedelic-assisted therapy to end the veteran suicide crisis. Through the VMHLC, SOAA helped advocate for the Breakthrough Therapies Act and the Right to Try Act.
In September 2022, Elkins submitted a Statement for the Record to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs regarding SOAA’s stance on psychedelics as a means to prevent veteran suicide. SOAA also participated in the Congressional Psychedelics Advancing Clinical Treatments (PACT) Caucus with Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA) and Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI).
SOAA supported Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) on an initiative to include the need to research psychedelics as a means to treat PTSD and TBI in the National Defense Authorization Act for 2024.
Supporting Nonprofits that Give Access
SOAA has also advocated for alternative treatments since 2021 by supporting nonprofits that give veterans access to psychedelic therapies, which are widely believed to reduce the risk of suicide by eliminating addictive behaviors and counteracting the effects of PTSD and TBI. The issue is particularly important for the special operations forces (SOF) community, which experiences a suicide rate 27% higher than conventional forces’ service members.
Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions’ (VETS) co-founder and chairman Marcus Capone turned to psychedelic-assisted therapy after leaving the Navy SEAL community in 2013. In addition to bringing back his cognitive function and taking away his desire for alcohol, ibogaine treatments also eliminated his need for prescription medications.
Marcus’ experience led him and his wife Amber to found VETS, which gives grants and assistance to those who want to pursue psychedelic-assisted therapies outside the U.S.
The founder of Heroic Hearts Project, former U.S. Army Ranger Jesse Gould, talked with SOAA in 2022 about how he discovered ayahuasca through the Joe Rogan podcast. Realizing that “something had to change” in his life, he traveled to Peru and took part in four ayahuasca ceremonies. Though the treatments were “an all out ass kicking,” Gould said they resulted in “a very profound, almost inexplicable experience” that “rebooted [his] brain.”
After the experience, Gould said he was able to release control and “pass through the anxiety” and hypervigilance that once were part of a “negative feedback pattern” and “falling into that vortex, just getting worse and worse.”
Through Heroic Hearts Project, Gould has helped hundreds of veterans access psychedelics and receive support throughout their journey.
Elkins explained that among the veterans SOAA has recommended to these and other programs is a prominent elected official. Elkins says that SOAA was able to help the official obtain treatment in an environment that protected their anonymity. Following their experience, Elkins said the official “has become a huge advocate and proponent” for psychedelic-assisted treatment.
State-level Moves
Ziegler says that the executive order will not necessarily change individual states’ controlled substances laws. “All states will require outreach, education, and support to ensure newly approved psychedelics can be successfully implemented in the US healthcare system,” he said.
Arizona’s legislature has already been debating legalizing the use of psychedelics to treat anxiety, depression, and alcohol abuse. Alan Mullen, a SOAA member who retired from a 20-year Special Forces career as a master sergeant, spoke before the Arizona Senate ad hoc committee in favor of increasing access to psychedelic drugs. Mullen detailed his participation in a Stanford study on ibogaine use for SOF veterans, and was questioned by multiple legislators seeking to understand his experience and its results.
Though Arizona’s legislature has yet to legalize psychedelics, the state is already hosting the first FDA-approved clinical trial of psilocybin from whole mushrooms. Dr. Sue Sisley of the Scottsdale Research Institute told SOAA that more than 800 firefighters, law enforcement personnel, and veterans competed for 24 spaces in the study. A senior-level SOAA executive secured a position, and is currently participating in the trial.
Sisley told SOAA that she has faith in the effort. “Even though this represents the first ever controlled trial anywhere in the world examining whole natural psilocybin mushrooms for treating PTSD, we have a mountain of anecdotal evidence from people who have been treating themselves underground,” she said.
Building off momentum in Arizona, starting in March, SOAA Chief Financial Officer Austin Higgins has increased SOAA’s state-specific advocacy for psychedelics.Thus far, Higgins has focused on reaching lawmakers in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia with around a dozen special operations veterans who have utilized psychedelics and believe in their healing potential.
The Time for Research Arrives
In a 2023 interview with the Warrior Angels Foundation, Elkins explained that after “countless individuals” shared stories about treatments that are “life-changing instantaneously,” he believed in the need for pilot programs and research into psychedelics at the Department of Defense and VA. By “raising awareness that these treatments are working,” Elkins said that “slowly we’ll see change start to happen.”
After years of efforts at the national, state, and nonprofit level, that change should soon begin. SOAA is grateful to see a long-awaited win secured for veterans in dire need of a champion for their health.
