By Joe Garofoli
May 30, 2024
As a former Army Ranger, Jesse Gould is used to lawmakers thanking him for his service. But those good wishes sound hollow after Sacramento legislators spiked a proposal to legalize psychedelics for therapeutic purposes that could have helped veterans battling PTSD and other ailments.
It’s the third time that either the Legislature or Gov. Gavin Newsom has killed a psychedelics legalization measure, this one coming months after a campaign to decriminalize psychedelics failed to gather enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot.
Supporters are baffled and frustrated by the rejections, as they contemplate what their next move will be in a state that has been on the leading edge of drug policy since blessing medicinal cannabis nearly three decades ago but can’t gain traction on psychedelics.
Gould, now a veterans advocate, said there is little time to waste for the military veterans and first responders fighting crippling mental health issues. The Food and Drug Administration has designated psilocybin as a “breakthrough therapy” for treatment-resistant depression, a sign that even the federal government recognizes its potential therapeutic value. In June, the agency issued its first-ever guidelines to researchers interested in how they could be used for medical treatments.
Vets struggling with mental health issues are committing suicide at a rate of close 18 to day, which is 72% higher than the rate for adults who did not serve in the military, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Gould is frustrated that while legislators pay lip service to honoring veterans, “when we actually give them ways that they can help us or at least stem the tide of suicide that’s harming the veteran community, then it’s just crickets,” said Gould, who founded the Heroic Hearts Foundation to help veterans after his own post-service mental health struggles were helped by using psychedelics.
What was especially disappointing with this defeat, Gould said, “is there’s nothing else out there. It’s not like the politicians who defeated this bill have some sort of magical plan to help veterans.”
The measure that died this month before making it to a full Senate vote, SB 1012, would have enabled Californians over 21 to use certain psychedelics in a therapeutic context under the supervision of a licensed and trained facilitator. There is a chance the measure could be reincarnated through a gut-and-amend procedure.
Even if it were, the measure would face the same financial challenges in trying to create a new state regulatory infrastructure in a year when California faces a $27.6 billion budget deficit, even after the state cut $17 billion last month. A Senate analysis found that SB 1012 would have “unknown significant ongoing costs, likely ranging in the low millions of dollars.”
Even that relatively small amount in Newsom’s proposed $288 billion budget didn’t make the cut, perhaps because in part it represented a new program.
“My strong belief is that it was held because of the cost and because we have a huge budget deficit and so a lot of bills with costs were held in a terrible budget year,” said Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat who has worked for four years on legalizing psychedelics.
Wiener isn’t giving up.
Last year, Wiener wrote a bill that would have decriminalized psychedelics, and the measure made it to Newsom’s desk, only to have the governor issue*what Wiener called* a *“thoughtful veto.”*
Newsom has talked about his friendships with veterans and said he is familiar with how psychedelics have been used to treat PTSD. In his veto message, he envisioned psychedelic research and treatment being “an exciting frontier and California will be on the front-end of leading it” before asking for legislation this year that would include “therapeutic guidelines.” In 2016, Newsom led the campaign to legalize cannabis for recreational purposes in California.
So Wiener narrowed the focus of the legislation he proposed this year to comply with Newsom’s request. It didn’t call for decriminalizing psychedelics and instead focused on using them solely for treatment under the eye of licensed professionals.
The measure attracted b-partisan support, particularly for its potential to help veterans, from legislators including Republican Senate Leader Brian Jones, who represents portions of veterans-rich San Diego County.
While Jones supports the narrow use of psychedelics for therapeutic purposes, he’s not for decriminalizing them. He understands why some legislators are reluctant to do either.
“Some naturally put this in the same category as all illicit drugs and aren’t taking the steps of actually checking psychedelics out to see if there is some value,” Jones said. “That’s the easy thing to do. I get it. I mean, I would have done that if I hadn’t had this relationship with vets in San Diego.”
Jones was referring to the work of Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions, a 5-year-old San Diego-based organization that has helped obtain grants for more than 1,000 veterans to obtain psychedelic drugs in therapeutic settings to treat mental health issues.
Because these substances are illegal in most of the U.S., patients typically have to leave the country “that they were willing to die for” to obtain that treatment, said Amber Capone, VETS co-founder. Her husband, Marcus, is a military veteran who found relief for his mental health challenges through the therapeutic use of psychedelics.
“We really felt that California could be a leader, leading other states across the nation and establishing a regulatory framework where veterans could access these therapies in a safe and effective way,” Amber Capone said.
Thinking of all the veterans who take their own lives every day, Capone said, “for us, time is of the essence.”
But the next political move is still in flux.
Supporters are undecided about whether to try again to put a measure on the ballot in 2026. It cost around $12 million to gather enough signatures to get a measure on the ballot in 2022, a rate that is likely to go up by 2026. Even if a psychedelics-related measure made it onto the ballot, tens of millions of dollars more would be needed for a campaign.
“It’s very expensive to qualify a ballot measure and then to actually put the dollars behind it to get it passed,” Wiener said. “You really have to have the funding and have the broad coalition to do it. And so for our coalition, they’re going to have to make that assessment.”
Regardless, Wiener promised to again propose a therapeutics bill next year similar to the one that failed this year.
“If you’re committed to the issue, you just keep going and eventually you’ll get it done,” Wiener said. “This is an issue I’m deeply committed to.”
Click here to read the article at the San Francisco Chronicle