What To Read This Weekend
The Sacramento Bee recently published a three-part series on psychedelic medicine from reporter Yousef Baig. It dives into how psychedelics are providing hope to veterans struggling with mental illness, details the latest scientific research on psychedelic medicine, and covers a California bill with serious momentum sure to be re-introduced in the legislature next session. Here are three highlights from the coverage:
“War breaks our veterans. Psychedelic drugs can ease their pain — yet they remain illegal …. [Jose] Martinez is 34, an Army veteran, Compton native and triple amputee. He spent two years confined to a hospital while he recovered from the loss of both legs and his right arm to an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan in March 2012 …. In the two years after Martinez nearly died, he often fantasized about when and how he would commit suicide … A few months after he was sent home, he tried.” Baig documents how Martinez’s experience with psilocybin helped him turn his life around from a point where “suicide was a daily rumination” to overcoming profound “mental struggles”—a transformation that allowed him to find the energy and focus to become “one of the most prolific para surfers in the world and an inspirational figure in the sport.”
Yet, “the wave of landmark research in recent years [that] has led the White House to begin preparation for psilocybin and MDMA… receive Food and Drug Administration approval for therapeutic use within the next two years,” taking psychedelic medicine to alleviate depression or PTSD remains illegal in most of the country. As Baig writes, “Until that happens, more veterans are going to die. Some will break the law to survive.” But there is hope in California that a popular bill—which received “support from both major political parties” and passed the state Senate before an arcane committee process robbed it of a floor vote in the Assembly–would provide veterans like Martinez with access to psychedelic medicine, Baig reported. Senator Scott Wiener, the bill’s sponsor, “vow[ed] to reintroduce the bill next year… with the hopes that the path laid over the past two years in the Legislature will lead to its enactment.”
Martinez’s story isn’t unique. Baig details the latest science around some of the most common psychedelics, including “several landmark studies, including research by Johns Hopkins University and New York University, [that] have documented psilocybin’s effectiveness as a treatment for major depression and alcohol addiction when combined with counseling” and MDMA, which a recent groundbreaking study “found that 67% of people who received MDMA-assisted therapy ‘no longer met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD’ just two months after treatment.”
Far From Bright Blue California, Demand From Veterans Fuels Consideration of Psychedelic Medicine In Red States and Localities.
In Missouri, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Kurt Erickson recently reported on a hearing of the state’s House Interim Committee on Veterans Mental Health and Suicide, which is poised to to consider how access to psychedelic medicine could help ease the suicide rate among veterans which is higher in Missouri than anywhere else in the country…
“Lawmakers seeking ways to address a suicide crisis among Missouri military veterans heard Wednesday from several advocates who said psychedelic drugs could provide an answer. Among them was Dr. Rahul Kapur, a Kansas City doctor, who said Missouri could consider making plant-based drugs like psilocybin mushrooms legal for the treatment of mental disorders. ‘So far the safety data has been very encouraging,’ Kapur told members of the [committee] … In addition to Kapur, Will Wisner, executive director of the Grunt Style Foundation, said he was deeply affected by his combat experience … He was skeptical of using an alternative medicine, but said it worked. ‘What I found was nothing less than miraculous,’ Wisner said. Under a proposal sponsored by Rep. Tony Lovasco, R-O’Fallon, people with approved conditions could use [psychedelics]... The measure, which could be reintroduced in January, identifies patients with treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder or depression or who have a terminal illness as eligible recipients.”
In Oregon, Lindsay Berschauer, a Republican, who serves as Chair of the Yamhill County Commission described how the county commission planned this summer to ask voters to approve “an outright ban [or] a two-year moratorium” on allowing psilocybin treatment facilities to operate in the county in the wake of a successful statewide ballot initiative that allows regulated psilocybin-assisted treatment in the state. However…
“We kept receiving very common sense, practical testimony that changed our position … It was a lot of public feedback and really some surprising folks who weighed in. We had nurses who want to use alternative therapies, veterans who told us they’d been using this for a long time who said this works, folks from law enforcement and of course their concern is public safety and our sheriff said it’s not an issue. I checked with a couple of our city fire departments too and they said it’s not a problem.”
After the decision, Berschauer said…
“I’m very proud of the decision and the time we took to make it. The context, so we have three commissioners, we’re a smaller county. The context of where we are individually politically matters too because it was pretty surprising that we came to a consensus and agreement on this issue … Commissioner Kulla would probably classify himself as more progressive. Commissioner Starrett and I are very fiscally conservative but also tend to be socially conservative too. It was definitely something that surprised me that we got to an agreement on, you wouldn’t have guessed this would be the outcome.”
