Coverage and analysis on psychedelic medicine.

For the first time in six decades, the department will fund research to “gather definitive scientific evidence on the potential efficacy and safety of MDMA and psilocybin when used in conjunction with psychotherapy to treat Veterans with PTSD and depression.”

“Momentum Builds For Psychedelic Therapies For Troops, Vets.” That’s the headline from Roll Call’s Mark Satter who reports on the considerable “momentum building in Congress to explore a new path for servicemembers and veterans struggling with psychological illnesses: psychedelics.” Satter interviewed several Members of Congress and reported on the “small but significant shift among lawmakers’ attitudes toward therapeutic use” of psychedelics. Those attitude changes are driving a host of new psychedelic medicine-related proposals.

For The Boston Globe, Jonathan Saltzman reports on an innovative, ongoing clinical trial by researchers at Dana-Farber / Harvard Cancer Center’s Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy program, which is the “first to test synthetic psilocybin on patients in hospice care [with] cancer, heart disease, and other terminal illnesses and six months or less to live.”

A new study, published in the prestigious science journal Nature Medicine, finds that “MDMA-assisted therapy seems to be effective in reducing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.” The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will consider the results “as part of an application for approval to market MDMA as a treatment for PTSD, when paired with talk therapy.”

Governor Newsom Urges California Legislature To Send Him Psychedelic Medicine Legislation: “Both peer-reviewed science and powerful personal anecdotes lead me to support new opportunities to address mental health through psychedelic medicines,” California Governor Gavin Newsom wrote in a statement vetoing legislation that would have decriminalized—as opposed to regulating the therapeutic use of—psychedelic substances such as psilocybin.

Combat veterans and first responders are on the front lines of the battle to expand access to psychedelic medicine. Here are three recent accounts—two from combat veterans, and one from a New York firefighter who responded to the 9/11 attack—detailing why those who serve our country at great personal cost to their own mental health are now showing by example the promise that psychedelic medicine holds.