Missouri Lawmakers Consider Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy To Aid Military Veterans With PTSD

“Antidepressants and years of counseling could be helpful, but it is not turning the tide.”

By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent

In hopes of helping veterans facing mental health issues, Missouri lawmakers are once again pushing legislation that would require the state to conduct a study on using psilocybin—also known as “magic mushrooms”—to treat depression, substance use or as part end-of-life care.

Similar legislation has been filed for the last three years, and in 2023 the House voted overwhelmingly in support of the idea. But it’s never made its way to the Senate.

On Monday, several members of the House Veterans Committee said they were staunchly against the proposal when they first heard about it. However, research the committee has explored over the years has changed their minds.

That includes studies done by psychiatry researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, who were the first in Missouri to give a legal dose of psilocybin in 2019.

They have been using a brain-imaging technique to learn how psilocybin affects certain networks in the brain.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican state Rep. Richard West of Wentzville, said he was skeptical at first, as a former police officer.

“And obviously I’m here presenting this to you today,” West said, “so I 100 percent believe in the effectiveness of this treatment.”

Democratic state Sen. Stephen Webber of Columbia has filed a companion bill in the Senate.

During Monday’s hearing, several lawmakers said they were passionate about seeing the study advance. Among them was state Rep. Michael Johnson, a Kansas City Democrat who served in Operation Desert Storm.

“I wish this was available then or we knew more about it then,” Johnson said, “because I’ve seen the ill effects that the war has caused on a lot of my fellow comrades. And some have even taken their lives because they didn’t have an opportunity to have something like this.”

This bill requires the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services to provide grants totaling $3 million for the research, subject to lawmakers approving the appropriation.

The state would collaborate on the study with a Missouri university hospital or medical center operated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Missouri. The focus of the treatment is on veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, substance use disorders or for those who require end-of-life care.

The suicide rate among veterans in Missouri is nearly double the state rate and one of the highest in the country.

The committee heard from several veterans who spoke about their experiences. One of those who spoke in favor of the bill Monday evening was John Hernandez, a former Marine and CEO of EagleCrest Recovery drug treatment centers, where 75 percent of his clients have a PTSD diagnosis.

“The current treatment model is just not working,” he said, “if you understand the relapse rates and recovery. Antidepressants and years of counseling could be helpful, but it is not turning the tide. And we are very excited to see that the state of Missouri could possibly be a forerunner in the United States as far as providing treatment.”

This story was first published by Missouri Independent.