Politics
Bipartisan North Carolina Lawmakers Say Psychedelic Research Bill Can Help Military Veterans
Bipartisan North Carolina lawmakers are stepping up the push for psychedelics reform legislation by asking colleagues to pass it as part of the budget.
Several members of the Senate and House of Representatives spoke at a press conference on Tuesday in support of a bill to fund research on the therapeutic value of substances like psilocybin, ibogaine and MDMA in treating military veterans, first responders, frontline healthcare personnel and survivors of domestic violence or sexual assault.
“This bill makes a real investment in mental health innovation, research and access to the people of our state,” Sen. Robert Brinson (R), lead sponsor of the Healing through Evidence-based Access to Lifesaving Care (HEAL) Act, said, noting that “momentum is building” for psychedelics reform at the federal and state levels.
Rep. Allen Chesser (R) cited statistics about the large number of military veterans who die from suicide, saying that “if we keep doing what we’ve done, we’re going to keep losing the veterans that we’ve sworn to protect.”
“This is not a radical liberal idea, and it does not belong to one party or the other,” he said of psychedelics reform. “We stand here, representatives from both sides of the aisle, from both chambers, working together, because good policy crosses borders.”
“We’re here today because there is a new option… They’ve had phenomenal results,” Chesser said of psychedelics. “These aren’t fringe ideas. They are on the path to becoming approved medicines.”
Sen. Sophia Chitlik (D) said that “study after study…have shown that psychedelics can yield durable, measurable results for treating trauma and depression.”
“Veterans give everything to defend our country, and some of the most severe wounds that they come back with are invisible to most of us, but they are not invisible to their loved ones,” she said. “Today I’m proud to say that these wounds are no longer invisible to their legislators.”
Chitlik and other lawmakers filed a separate bill last year to authorize the creation of a new state psychedelics task force to study and issue recommendations on providing access to the alternative therapies to address serious mental health conditions.
In 2023, a North Carolina House committee approved a separate bill to create a $5 million grant program to support research into the therapeutic potential of psilocybin and MDMA and to create a Breakthrough Therapies Research Advisory Board to oversee the effort. The measure was not ultimately enacted, however.
Rep. Eric Ager (D) said that PTSD “is rampant across the veteran community.”
“Clearly, what we’re currently doing isn’t working. It’s time to take a close look at the alternatives,” he said. “This bill is the very beginning of that, and I look forward to working with my colleagues. I really hope we get it into the budget and can get it passed.”
If the legislation is enacted, a new Breakthrough Therapies Research Grant Fund would be established under the Department of Health and Human Services to award competitive grants for research on drugs designated as “breakthrough therapies” by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The money would support three-year studies on the benefits of psychedelics for populations that are disproportionately impacted by trauma, with the legislation specifying that “the research study involving psilocybin shall be concentrated on the treatment of anxiety disorder, depressive disorder, or both.”
S1018 would also create a new Breakthrough Therapies Task Force charged with studying psychedelics’ potential and barriers to access, reviewing research grant applications and recommending licensing and insurance requirements for therapeutic use.
The body would additional be charged with considering “legal and regulatory pathways to the legalization of psychedelic medicines in the State and the potential effects of the medicines on public health.”
The legislation, which cites a psychedelics executive order that President Donald Trump signed in April, seeks to appropriate $5.4 million in funding to support the research grants and overall effort.
Brinson, the lead sponsor, said at a separate event last year that North Carolina has opportunity to “lead the nation” in expanding access to psychedelic medicine for military veterans suffering from major mental health conditions.
Advocates called on lawmakers to pass the legislation.
“At a time when so many individuals and families are struggling with mental health challenges that traditional treatments have failed to address, we believe it is crucial to expand access to therapies that are showing promise,” Gina Giorgio, founder of Carolinas for Care, said in a press release. “Our work brings together lived experience, clinical expertise, and community advocacy to ensure that care is informed by science and delivered with compassion.”
Logan Davidson, legislative director for Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions (VETS), said that “veterans across the Carolinas deserve access to treatments that actually work.”
“VETS has seen firsthand how psychedelic-assisted therapies can restore what PTSD and traumatic brain injury have taken from those who served—but too many of our veterans are still waiting,” he said. “The HEAL Act gives North Carolina the tools to accelerate the research that can change that, and we’re proud to stand with Carolinas for Care in making that case to the General Assembly.”
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Meanwhile, North Carolina’s Senate president pro tempore recently said that lawmakers will take a more serious look at legalizing medical marijuana following the Trump administration’s move to reschedule cannabis at the federal level.
The North Carolina Senate has passed medical cannabis bills in a number of past sessions that have later stalled out in the House of Representatives.
The Senate leader’s comments came weeks after a governor-appointed cannabis commission in North Carolina issued a report recommending that the state move away from a criminalization-based approach to the plant and toward a system of “robust” regulations that provide for adults’ legal access to THC products.
The North Carolina Advisory Council on Cannabis, which Gov. Josh Stein (D) convened last year, says in the new document approved in April that the current “absence of regulation for North Carolina’s intoxicating cannabis market raises numerous concerns,” noting that hemp products are readily available yet largely unregulated and that marijuana remains prohibited altogether in the state, even for medical use.
Stein, for his part, thanked the group for its “expertise, hard work, and thoughtful deliberation” in a press release and reiterated his support for legalizing marijuana.
“Last year, I charged this group with developing a comprehensive solution to the unregulated sale of cannabis that is grounded in public health and public safety, with a special focus on keeping young people safe,” the governor said. “This report provides the General Assembly with guidance and makes clear that a well-regulated market, including both oversight and enforcement authority, is a safer market for our state.”
The interim report recommends that rather than construct separate frameworks for hemp and marijuana, the state should enact molecule-based regulation focused on THC itself, saying that “the plant source is irrelevant and should not drive different treatment when the intoxicating compound is the same.”
It also suggests that when choosing how to regulate THC and cannabis, North Carolina should enact “an adult access market with protections for medical consumers.”
The panel, however, “does not view a medical-only program as an effective interim step or compromise solution,” and the state should proceed to adult-use access immediately while considering the “availability of medical-consumer protections” as “an important component of a broader regulatory structure.”
During his time as the state’s attorney general, Stein led a separate task force under then-Gov. Roy Cooper (D) that examined racial injustice issues and ultimately recommended decriminalizing marijuana and studying broader legalization in response to racially disparate enforcement trends.
Meanwhile, a tribe in North Carolina, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, launched the state’s first marijuana dispensary in 2024—despite the protests of certain Republican congressional lawmakers.
Lawmakers have also filed legislation this session to allow North Carolina voters to decide whether to legalize marijuana for personal or medical use at the ballot box this November.
Photo courtesy of Mark Groeneveld.
