Politics
Trump Admin Could Be ‘Revolutionary’ In Advancing Marijuana And Psychedelics Reform, Democratic Congressman Says
A Democratic congressman says the Trump administration presents a “revolutionary” opportunity to advance drug policy reform around marijuana and psychedelics.
In an interview with Marijuana Moment on Thursday, Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA) discussed the prospect of cannabis rescheduling under President Donald Trump, who said recently that a decision on the issue would be announced within weeks.
“I guarantee you that the administration has been weighing in on these issues” as GOP lawmakers consider their stances on marijuana reforms, Correa said, adding that while former President Joe Biden initiated the rescheduling review that led to a Schedule III reclassification recommendation, “it never happened.”
“With this administration, you have a lot of the high-level ranking members and secretaries saying cannabis, mushrooms and psychedelics are good,” he said. “This is revolutionary—the first time…since we declared the war on drugs in the 70s that we’re actually having common sense come back to drug policy.”
Correa, a founding co-chair of the Congressional Psychedelic Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus, said that while his preference would be for the federal government to remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) altogether rather than see it merely rescheduled, “I’ll let that be answered by the experts who’ll be doing research on the medications and the medical properties of these chemicals. But I’ll take either one of them.”
“Obviously, my hope would be, as you begin to reschedule some of these drugs, the bigger question you’re asking is really drug policy. And in my opinion, we haven’t put enough attention to having people not consume,” the congressman said. “You get rid of the consumption and the markets probably disappear—which comes back to the issue of mental health, which comes back to alcoholism, which comes back to drug addiction, which comes back to cues, which comes back to psychedelics as possible cure.”
To Correa’s point about the drug policy positions of officials in the Trump administration, it has been built out in a way that involves multiple pro-reform members.
The congressman also weighed in on a recent policy change at the Department of Defense, which notified military branches that service members will start to be drug tested for the psychedelic compound psilocin, one of the two main components of psilocybin mushrooms.
“Why now?” Correa asked. “Because they know it works.”
“Everybody’s taking this stuff, man. I may start taking it, too. We’ll see,” he said.
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For example, the head of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Doug Collins, recently reiterated that he’s “very open” to expanding access to psychedelics therapy for veterans—emphasizing that he’s intent on finding ways to “cure” people with serious mental health conditions and not just treat their surface-level symptoms.
After requesting the meeting with Collins in May, Correa and Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI), another founding co-chair of the psychedelics caucus—said the three had a productive conversations about advancing psychedelics therapy for the veteran community.
Collins has stood out as a VA secretary who’s especially passionate about exploring the potential of substances such as ibogaine and MDMA to provide relief from serious mental health conditions, coordinating with other officials including HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who said recently that his aim is to free up plant-based medicine options within 12 months.
The VA secretary 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.
Collins also briefly raised the issue in a Cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump in April.
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).
The LCB contributed reporting from Washington, D.C.
Image element courtesy of Kristie Gianopulos.
