(NewsNation) — Advocates for psychedelic therapy are growing increasingly frustrated with the Department of Health and Human Services, accusing the agency of failing to deliver on promises to expand access to psychedelic drugs for psychological treatment.
It’s being called the medical revolution that wasn’t, despite Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s push for the Trump administration to embrace psychedelic drugs for treatment. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says among the 5.8 million veterans it served in 2024, about 14% of men and 24% of women were diagnosed with PTSD. However, psychedelics like MDMA are still not FDA-approved to treat post-traumatic stress disorder.
In August 2024, the FDA rejected an MDMA-assisted therapy application, calling for more research before it can be used widely in medicine. Even at the veteran’s association, where interest is high, this is still mostly research—not routine care. The VA recently announced funding for a new study on MDMA-assisted therapy for veterans with PTSD and alcohol use disorder, and enrollment is expected to begin this year.
“I think it’s just taking some time to get the right stakeholders on the government side to the point where they’re ready to start acting,” Melissa Lavasani, founder and CEO of Psychedelic Medicine Coalition, said. “So, I don’t know if there’s one bottleneck, but a lot of little bottlenecks in these respective areas that have, you know, contributed to it.”
So, what is needed to move this treatment option forward? Data, policy and capacity. Advocates say more rigorous trial results are needed to gain FDA acceptance. This would then require a clear regulatory path that defines the treatment, its intended use and the safe delivery method. Then, trained clinicians, clinics’ safety rules and funding would be needed for the rollout.
Psychedelic sessions are both intense and costly. But for Air Force veteran Matthew “Whiz” Buckley, who turned to psychedelic therapy after losing 16 fighter pilot friends, the results were immediate.
“Instantaneously, it was, I’ve done some challenging things in my life,’ Buckley said. “This was, without a doubt, the most challenging. It wasn’t fun, it wasn’t recreational. I feel the next day. I feel like I got hit by a bus driven by God.”
Buckley has since launched a non-profit to help veterans access supervised clinical psychedelic therapy. It is important to note that the VA strongly discourages self-medication with psychedelics or any unprescribed substances.
