Combat Veterans, Mental Health Providers Join Together In Fight To Protect Access To Psilocybin Therapy In Jackson County, Oregon
A new group of veterans and mental health providers has joined together to protect access to state-licensed psilocybin treatment facilities in their communities, to help people who are struggling with mental health, in particular combat veterans, who are in the midst of a suicide crisis in the state. Veterans and their doctors believe psilocybin can help. The group formed as ballots begin to hit mailboxes across Oregon this week, asking some voters in more rural and conservative counties—many of whom already voted in favor of allowing access to psilocybin-assisted treatment—if they want to allow access to treatment centers in their community.
What They’re Saying:
The group is urging Jackson County’s voters to allow access to psilocybin-assisted treatment centers in their county. By an eleven point margin, Oregon voters passed a 2020 ballot measure that creates a regulatory framework, trains and licenses facilitators to administer psilocybin therapy, and accredits facilities throughout the state where these treatments take place—and Jackson County was among the counties whose voters approved that measure.
But the measure allowed for local governments to decide to allow, block, or delay access to psilocybin within their borders. And now, the Jackson County Commissioners have added a question on the November ballot for their local voters that, if passed, would block the county’s residents from access to psilocybin-assisted treatment facilities in their communities.
“Some veterans cannot afford to drive hours to access mental health services,” said combat veteran Armand LeComte, who has witnessed more than thirty of his fellow marines die by suicide after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Many veterans in rural Oregon already suffer from a lack of access to mental health treatment and banning psilocybin therapy in their local communities will just make it that much harder for them.”
“When I tried psilocybin therapy, it saved my life.” That’s what Chad Kuske, a retired Navy SEAL living in Oregon who sees access to psilocybin-assisted treatment as vital to the well-being of the Jackson County community, said “In the last few years, I’ve begun to live—and actually be happy again. The FDA has assigned psilocybin therapy ‘breakthrough treatment’ status because it works where other treatments for resistant depression have failed.”
“Jackson County residents made it clear in the 2020 election that they wanted safe, regulated access to psilocybin services. Two years later, we are proud to be a part of the coalition to protect access to these services for all of Jackson County.” Rachel Aidan, M.A in Clinical Mental Health, PhD said. Aiden is also the head of Synthesis Institute, which has plans to open a psilocybin service center in Jackson County next year to provide treatment and training for facilitators.
Psilocybin Provides Oregon Veterans With Reason For Hope
Oregon Faces A Staggering Suicide Crisis. The ballot question arrives as a suicide crisis has engulfed Oregon’s veterans. Oregon’s veteran suicide rate far outpaces national averages, according to a state-level analysis from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The national veteran suicide rate remains near two decade highs—31.7 per 100,000 veterans. It’s significantly worse in Oregon—43.5 suicides per 100,000 veterans. The state’s veteran suicide rate is almost twice the state’s non-veteran suicide rate, and almost 60% of veteran suicides involved a diagnosed mental health or substance use disorder. Those stark numbers come from the Veteran Affairs’ 2022 Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report.
Multiple psychedelic medicine trials—including trials focused on psilocybin—are underway at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The first psychedelic medicine trial for treating veterans began last summer and three other clinical trials are expected to begin this year, including a trial in Portland, The New York Times reported. “It’s our priority to make sure veterans are safe and getting the best care,” Dr. Shannon T. Remick, a psychiatrist at the Department of Veterans Affairs, told the NYT.
Psilocybin is a natural psychedelic medicine that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has designated a “breakthrough” therapy for depression, which means that its use as part of a treatment plan could produce significantly better outcomes than currently available medications. Promising research from scientists at institutions like Johns Hopkins University, University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine, and New York University demonstrates that psilocybin can be effective at addressing a variety of mental health issues, including clinical depression, and end of life anxiety.
Dive Deeper:
The National Context: Bipartisan Push For Psychedelic Medicine Amidst Veteran Suicide Crisis
Oregon Psilocybin Explainer: Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy Comes To Oregon. What You Need To Know.
Oregon Veterans In Crisis: Oregon Takes Action To Tackle Veteran Suicide Crisis
