Politics
Trump’s VA Secretary Wants To ‘See People Healed’ With Psychedelics, But They’re ‘Tied Up With Regulation’
The head of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is reiterating 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.
In an interview with Newsmax TV that VA Secretary Doug Collins posted a video of to X on Sunday, he discussed anecdotal stories about the curative potential of psychedelics such as ibogaine and DMT, stressing that the department is “very serious” about tapping into that potential.
Collins noted that VA either internally or through private partnerships is actively conducting about a dozen clinical trials into “various different substances that we’re seeing actually really good results on,” including one based at VA Bronx Health Care that’s investigating MDMA-assisted therapy with “actually really, really good results.”
“I think that’s the part that is very good for me,” he said, adding that VA is also working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to identify ways to expand the clinical trials and “get it into the testing phase for more veterans to be able to use this.”
During the interview, Collins was also shown a recent clip of Navy SEAL veteran Rob O’Neill, who killed Osama Bin Laden, talking about his theory that the federal government has intentionally avoided providing access to psychedelic medicine because cures are less profitable than long-term treatments. Collins responded by saying, “I’m going to tell you right now: This secretary of veterans affairs, myself, I want to heal people.”
“I want to see people healed. I want to see them back to normal. I want to see them in productive lives with their families,” he said. “As a veteran who’s seen this many, many times before, I’m not one to stick us in treatments. I want to see cures, and that’s what we’re about now.”
“I want to make it very clear: I’m very open to this. I want to see it moved out, because I see it actually helping our veterans,” the secretary said. “But also, you know, one of the things we have to be very careful of—and I think, you know, as much respect as I have for those talking about it, they may not be the solution for everybody. But if it’s a solution for some, I want to make sure that it happen.”
“So as we deal with it in the VA—and we are starting more and more trials and working through it—we have our doctors, our psychiatrists and others who are there who can do the administration of the drug then actually watch, listen and talk to the individuals,” he said. “What we’re finding a lot of times is a mix of not only an application of treatment, but also an intensive counseling with that is showing numbers to be really, really good—lowering the levels, lowering those anxieties, lowering those fears. And so look, I’m not ever going to put something on the side that can work for our veterans.”
Collins did acknowledge, however, that “a lot of it is still tied up with regulation in the federal government.”
“But we’re working with HHS to say, ‘How can we move forward on these things so people aren’t having to go elsewhere, out of country to other places, to get these treatments?’ We want to make sure that we’re trying to do the best we can for our veterans here,” he said.
Meanwhile, last week a GOP-controlled House committee approved an amendment attached to a must-pass defense bill that would require a “progress report” on an ongoing psychedelic therapy pilot program for active duty military service members and veterans.
The amendment, led by Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-TX), passed as part of an en bloc package of proposed changes to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in the House Armed Services Committee.
The 2024 NDAA specifically required DOD to establish a process by which service members with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or traumatic brain injury could participate in clinical trials involving psilocybin, MDMA, ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT.
While Congress has been notably amenable to psychedelics research proposals in recent sessions, the House Rules Committee last week separately blocked a bipartisan amendment to a spending bill led by Luttrell that would have given DOD another $10 million to support clinical trials into the therapeutic potential of substances such as ibogaine and psilocybin.
Meanwhile, bipartisan congressional lawmakers recently met with the VA secretary to discuss pathways to provide access to psychedelic medicine as an alternative treatment option for conditions such as PTSD.
After requesting the meeting with VA Secretary Doug Collins in May, Reps. Lou Correa (D-CA) and Jack Bergman (R-MI)—founding co-chairs of the Congressional Psychedelic Advancing Therapies (PATH) 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.
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) separately said the psychedelic ibogaine represents an “astonishing breakthrough” in the nation’s current “sick care system” that’s left people with serious mental health conditions without access to promising alternative treatment options—and he intends to use his influence to advance the issue.
Separately, the U.S. House of Representatives recently included an amendment to a spending bill from Correa and Bergman that would encourage VA to support research into the benefits of psychedelics in treating medical conditions commonly affecting military veterans.
Collins, for his part, 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.
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.
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.
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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.
