Missouri’s GOP Attorney General Says Psychedelic Therapy For Veterans Is ‘Absolutely Appropriate’ As Lawmakers Consider Bipartisan Reform Bills

Missouri’s Republican attorney general says it’s “absolutely appropriate” to make psychedelic therapy available as an alternative treatment option, particularly for military veterans. And he plans to be involved with any program that may be approved by the legislature as it takes up various reform proposals.

In an interview on Navy SEAL veteran Shawn Ryan’s podcast that was released on Wednesday, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R) was asked to share his perspective on psychedelic therapy and its potential to help other veterans with serious mental health conditions.

“I think it’s absolutely appropriate that different options be made available and that everyone be able to make their own decisions about which option for treatment best suits their needs and produces the best results,” he said, adding that he expects psychedelics legislation to “move again this session to accomplish exactly that.”

Bailey, an Army veteran himself who served in Iraq, said that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) “has let warriors down, and there have been too many warriors that have not received the treatment they are owed because of bureaucracy and bad decision making and apathy. And we owe those who have served in the global war on terror and any other conflict—those who have served—we owe them more.”

He also said he’s “encouraged” that President Donald Trump has “put a renewed emphasis on” VA care, and he’s “hopeful that they will make available a spectrum of different treatment options to folks so that again people can make good individual decisions for themselves.”

Trump, however, has not specifically weighed in on psychedelics access.

Asked about potentially serving a leadership role in the implementation of a psychedelics therapy model, Bailey said he’d “absolutely” be interested in the prospect, while advocating for increase representation of veterans in public office because of the unique perspective they offer.

“The more veterans we get in public office, the better off we’re going to be—and the more we’re going to have these voices heard and more we can lead on issues like this,” he said.

The conversation comes as the legislature once again considers a variety of psychedelics policy proposals, including a bill to require the state to carry out a study into the therapeutic potential of psilocybin that was taken up by the House Veterans Committee on Wednesday.

Advocates are hoping to see that legislation expanded to incorporate language from a separate measure being sponsored by Rep. Matt Overcast (R) that would legalize and regulate psilocybin therapy for people with certain mental health conditions.

As far as the specific role the attorney general feels his office might play, Bailey said it will likely involve “helping with technical advice or leadership advice as bills are moving through the legislative process is one way.”

Does he anticipate being “loud” in support of the reform as these bills advance? The attorney general said, “I think I get loud about most things.”

Eapen Thampy, a lobbyist and founder of the group Psychedelic Missouri, told Marijuana Moment on Thursday that as bills move forward in the state legislature and in Congress, “it is the leadership of veterans in elected office like AG Bailey that will bring the lifesaving potential of psychedelic therapy to our warfighters, law enforcement and first responders, and the millions of Americans seeking answers for our mental health, suicide, and addiction crises.”

“President Trump and [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “have called for bold action to Make America Healthy Again, and we are grateful that AG Bailey is a leader that is not willing to take that charge lightly,” he said.

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Meanwhile, two other Missouri psychedelics bills that have been introduced this session—HB 829 from Rep. Richard West (R) and SB 90 from Sen. Stephen Webber (D)—would require all veterans who participate in state-level psychedelics programs to also be enrolled in federal Food and Drug Administration- (FDA) registered clinical trials.

Last year, Missouri lawmakers approved a separate $5 million allocation of state opioid settlement money to study whether psilocybin can help treat opioid use disorders and curb overdose deaths.

Initially the provision was for twice that amount—$10 million—and was was briefly earmarked to study ibogaine as a potential treatment rather than psilocybin. The line was later amended to focus on psilocybin, but before its final passage, all references to the specific substances were removed.

Also last year, two committees in the state House of Representatives advanced separate legislation that would have legalized psilocybin by military veterans, but lawmakers ultimately ran out of time in the session to consider the measure further.

That bill, HB 1830, would have allowed military veterans who were at least 21 and diagnosed with a qualifying condition such as PTSD or substance use disorders to legally access laboratory-tested psilocybin. The legislation was modeled off a separate House bill that advanced to the floor of that chamber a year earlier but was not ultimately enacted.

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