Politics
Navy SEAL Who Killed Bin Laden Says Psychedelic Therapy “Works” For PTSD, In Interview With Tucker Carlson
A Navy SEAL veteran credited with killing Osama Bin Laden says psychedelic therapy has helped him process the trauma he experienced during his time in the military, stressing that “it works” and should be an available treatment option.
In an interview with Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host who now hosts his own podcast series, Rob O’Neill of the SEAL Team 6 team discussed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and how his supervised use of the psychedelic ibogaine in Mexico has helped him stabilize himself psychologically after enduring various traumas during and after his service.
“I do ibogaine now. I do psychedelics,” he said, adding that he takes the treatment outside of the U.S.—where the substance remains a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA)—once a year to prevent symptoms of PTSD.
“What the psychedelics do is they get me structured,” O’Neill, who founded the New York-based cannabis company Operator Canna, said. “It works.”
“I’ve seen guys try to drink their way out of [PTSD], which is horrible,” he said. “The alcohol doesn’t help but the psychedelics do. And that’s why they’re not legal here: because it works. I don’t know why they won’t help the veterans with that.”
O’Neill noted that there are organizations such as Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions (VETS) that are helping to facilitate psychedelic treatment for veterans, but he said the government should be doing more to provide access to the treatment domestically, particularly for the veteran community.
“We get veterans and first responders to Mexico,” he said of another company, Ambio. “But we should have this in New York at the VA. We should have it in Virginia and California. Veterans should be able to get ibogaine administered medically, and that’s how they do it in Mexico.”
“It gets in your brain. It shows you stuff. And it kind of cleans out the closet,” O’Neill said.
“It’s terrifying,” he said, while caveating that it’s ibogaine that produces the intense trips that force people to reconcile with their traumas and see black-gummed and yellow-teethed demons, whereas DMT is “awesome.”
The narrative is familiar. In recent years, veterans have been at the forefront of the push to expand psychedelics research and provide therapeutic access to substances such as MDMA, ibogaine and psilocybin, arguing that it’s a potential alternative that could mitigate the veteran suicide epidemic and treat symptoms of PTSD, TBI and other mental health conditions.
O’Neill’s conversation with Carlson came days after the U.S. House of Representatives included an amendment to a spending bill from Reps. Lou Correa (D-CA) and Jack Bergman (R-MI) that would encourage VA to support research into the benefits of psychedelics in treating medical conditions commonly affecting military veterans.
Last week, meanwhile, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his agency is “absolutely committed” to expanding research on the benefits of psychedelic therapy and, alongside of the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is aiming to provide legal access to such substances for military veterans “within 12 months.”
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins also disclosed in April that he had an “eye-opening” talk with Kennedy about the therapeutic potential of psychedelic medicine. And he said he’s open to the idea of having the government provide vouchers to cover the costs of psychedelic therapy for veterans who receive services outside of VA as Congress considers pathways for access.
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Collins also recently visited a facility conducting research on psychedelics, and he reiterated that it’s his “promise” to advance research into the therapeutic potential of the substances—even if that might take certain policy changes within the department and with congressional support.
The secretary’s visit to the psychedelics research center came about a month after the VA secretary met with a military veteran who’s become an advocate for psilocybin access to discuss the therapeutic potential of psychedelic medicine for the veteran community.
Collins also briefly raised the issue in a Cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump in April.
Meanwhile last month, bipartisan congressional lawmakers asked the VA head to meet with them to discuss ways to provide access to psychedelic medicine for military veterans.
In a letter sent to Collins, Reps. Lou Correa (D-CA) and Jack Bergman (R-MI)—co-chairs of the Congressional Psychedelic Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus—said they were “encouraged by your recent remarks about the importance of pursuing research into psychedelic treatments and other alternative treatments to improve Veterans’ care.”
Correa and Bergman separately introduced a bill in April to provide $30 million in funding annually to establish psychedelics-focused “centers for excellence” at VA facilities, where veterans could receive novel treatment involving substances like psilocybin, MDMA and ibogaine.
Bergman has also expressed optimism about the prospects of advancing psychedelics reform under Trump, arguing that the administration’s efforts to cut spending and the federal workforce will give agencies “spines” to tackle such complex issues.
Kennedy, for his part, also said in April that he had a “wonderful experience” with LSD at 15 years old, which he took because he thought he’d be able to see dinosaurs, as portrayed in a comic book he was a fan of.
Last October, Kennedy specifically criticized FDA under the prior administration over the agency’s “suppression of psychedelics” and a laundry list of other issues that he said amounted to a “war on public health” that would end under the Trump administration.
In December, VA separately announced that it’s providing $1.5 million in funding to study the efficacy of MDMA-assisted therapy for veterans with PTSD and alcohol use disorder (AUD).
Last year, VA’s Yehuda also touted an initial study the agency funded that produced “stunning and robust results” from its first-ever clinical trial into MDMA therapy.
In January, former VA Under Secretary for Health Shereef Elnahal said that it was “very encouraging” that Trump’s pick to have Kennedy lead HHS has supported psychedelics reform. And he hoped to work with him on the issue if he stayed on for the next administration, but that didn’t pan out.
Photo elements courtesy of carlosemmaskype and Apollo.
