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.

As psilocybin-assisted therapy commences in Oregon and Colorado, legislative momentum for psychedelic medicine continues to build across the county. Here are highlights from five states—California, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.

Promising Results From A Randomized Clinical Trial Of Psilocybin Treatment for Major Depressive Disorder: The prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association just published “a randomized, placebo-controlled trial of psilocybin administered with psychological support”, finding that the treatment “was associated with a rapid and sustained antidepressant effect, measured as change in depressive symptom scores, compared with active placebo.”

Representatives Dan Crenshaw, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Lou Correa are leading the push to “create a federal grant program through the National Defense Authorization Act for research into the use of psychedelics for active duty military service members suffering from a traumatic brain injury or PTSD due to their service.” The three Members of Congress held a press conference on the topic in mid-July, and the full fourteen minute video is worth your time.

The UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics released the first of what will be a long-term tracking poll of public attitudes towards psychedelic medicine and treatment. As the researchers explain, here are the top findings from the survey.

Writing in Nature, Sara Reardon reports that the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)—a dominant research institution behind a number of important psychedelic medicine clinical trials—plans to officially request the FDA to authorize the use of MDMA for treatment of PTSD following positive results of a recently completed clinical trial.

“If we can prevent one person from committing suicide, who are we to deny this treatment” asked Missouri Representative Tara Peters, a Republican from Phelps County, during debate on the Missouri House floor late last month on a bill that would allow people struggling with certain serious mental health conditions to access psilocybin-focused clinical trials.

The psilocybin treatment bill was perfected by the House and only awaits one final vote before it is passed onto the Senate.

For over three decades, I served San Francisco, the city where I was born and raised, as a police officer. From solving robberies to enforcing traffic laws, hostage negotiation to undercover narcotics operations, I saw it all. But I never saw—even in the dense, urban Tenderloin neighborhood where I worked for years—psychedelic substances such as psilocybin nor ibogaine posing a serious risk to public safety.

Earlier this month, Henry Fields became one of the first people in Oregon to complete a state-approved psilocybin facilitator program. Breakthrough Bulletin spoke with Mr. Fields this week to understand more about the training itself, what it feels like to be part of one of the first cohorts to graduate from facilitator training, and why he chose to enter the psychedelic medicine field. Here’s what he had to say.

As over a half dozen state legislatures consider psychedelic medicine related bills this session, Breakthrough Bulletin conducted a survey of 1,704 voters nationally to gauge how the American public views the prospect of expanded access to psychedelic treatment. Here are our findings.

Even as states like Colorado and Oregon allow regulated access to psychedelic medicine, and the evidence for the efficacy of psychedelics for treating a range of serious mental health conditions mounts, access to psychedelic medicines remains illegal under federal law. But voters appear ready to change that: A new poll from Breakthrough Bulletin found that a majority of voters—53 percent—support changing federal law to remove criminal penalties for possession of psychedelic substances.

Mirroring the burgeoning legislative reform landscape, the research pipeline exploring the efficacy of psychedelic medicine is blossoming. Here are examples worth your time.

The New York Times’ national podcast, The Daily, dedicated an entire episode to the work that veterans like Juliana Mercer, a marine veteran who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, are doing to increase access to psychedelic medicine across the country. Mercer powerfully describes her own struggles with her mental health while deployed—and the relief that psilocybin provided her.

New study finds psilocybin-assisted therapy produces “marked improvements in psycho-social-spiritual wellbeing” of cancer patients with clinical depression.

Last week, Australia became the first nation in the world to allow psychiatrists to prescribe psychedelic medicine. Here’s what you need to know.