Trump’s Veterans Secretary Had ‘Eye-Opening’ Psychedelics Talk With RFK Jr.—And He Plans To Press Congress To Act

The head of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) says he had an “eye-opening” talk with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Trump administration’s top federal health official, about the therapeutic potential of psychedelic medicine. And he intends to press Congress to take action on the issue.

VA Secretary Doug Collins, a former Republican congressman, also said during an interview on the Shawn Ryan Show that was posted this week that 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 noted that VA has already been conducting clinical trials into the therapeutic use of psychedelics for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI), and the initial results show it’s “working,” with “tremendous change” among participants.

The secretary said he and Kennedy, the health and human services secretary, “sat in my office two weeks ago and talked about this very issue,” including how to navigate the regulatory and bureaucratic barriers to freeing up funds to support psychedelics access.

“Because we’re actually a hospital, a healthcare organization, we’re bound by some of the laws that Congress has made that have bound us into what we can use and what we can’t use,” he said, adding that marijuana is a “big example” of an alternative therapy that VA isn’t able to provide under current law.

“You’ve had a lot of congressmen say, ‘We’re not gonna do that. We’re gonna keep it where it’s at’” under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). “And so that it binds us a little bit.”

Asked for details about his conversation with the HHS secretary, Collins said it was “eye-opening because, of course he is very ‘Make America Healthy Again—getting the food additives out, getting those kind of stuff.”

He said they discussed the unique authority HHS and the agencies under it such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) possess to affect change around psychedelics policy, and it was “really interesting” to hear Kennedy’s perspective on the issue, which he spoke frequently about during his own 2024 presidential campaign before joining the Trump administration.

Kennedy told the VA official that, because of his personal history with heroin addiction during his youth, he’s not comfortable with using psychedelics himself. But “then he wanted to explain that a family member of his, a child of his, who had an experience using psychedelics that changed his life drastically.”

Kennedy told Collins that he realized “this is working” for his child, because “I actually see it happening and see it work…in my own flesh and blood,” the VA secretary said.

“I think that’s the part that, for me, began to be exciting a little bit,” Collins said, “to see, here’s someone who is so sensitive to those issues of medication,” and yet they believe in the therapeutic promise of this novel alternative treatment option.

Collins also said that, under right to try legislation that Trump signed during his first term to allow experimental use of drugs not currently approved by FDA for people with serious illnesses, VA is “exploring right now—among the many things that I’m shoveling as fast as my shovel can shovel—is to see is there ways… we can expand some of those programs right now into psychedelics.”

The host also floated the possibility that the government could provide vouchers to people for psychedelics therapy while access remains restricted under current federal law, and Collins said he does think “it’s a possibility.

“I think everything for me is on the table right now. And that doesn’t mean everything’s gonna get approved. That doesn’t mean that it’s gonna happen. But, for me, I want to say, ‘Okay, if we have these possibilities that we’re seeing—the mentoring, the counseling, the treatments, especially stuff like that that are working—can we partner with that” with non-governmental institutions.

“If it is something we can now try, then I’m going to be looking at this,” he said.

As far as administrative next steps, Collins said “the first all we’re gonna do is continue to collect data from various research projects on psychedelics, including those being facilitated by VA, and determining if “there’s a possibility to expand.”

“I’m not trying to evasive here. I’ve got to get the knowledge of what we’re doing and what we have not done,” he said. “So let’s get data on that [and] have our people start reaching out across the board to say, ‘Okay, what is out there?’”

“Then we’ve gotta also then take that and look at what is the structural limitations that I have?” Collins said. “What is the VA structural problems to either entering into a larger study or entering into a trial basis or basically possibly even, as you said, early voucher funding or whatever that may be. What are my structural limitations that Congress has put on me there? Is there structural limitations that says you can use X dollars for this, but you can’t use X dollars for that?”

If there are regulatory barriers that VA can’t independently overcome to explore the treatment option, Collins said that, at that point, he’s going to go to congressional leaders and tell them, “Look, these are things that I need to changed.”

“Give me the statutory ability. And even if you wanna do it on a limited basis to start off with, I’ll take that so that I can actually start trying,” he said he’d tell lawmakers. “If I find out I don’t have some of the statutory limitations, then I wanna know what, policy-wise, may be hindering this, or is there a policy that can make sure that we’re working with partners to do this.”

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, Rachel Yehuda, director of mental health at VA’s James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center, also touted an initial study the agency funded that produced “stunning and robust results” from its first-ever clinical trial into MDMA therapy.

Yehuda said on Monday that she’s been waiting to learn more about the new VA secretary’s views on psychedelics, and she “appreciated” his recognition on the new podcast of the work she and her colleagues have done around the issue.

Was waiting to hear from our new @SecVetAffairs @RepDougCollins about how the @DeptVetAffairs might be thinking about psychedelic therapy for veterans. Great podcast. Appreciated recognition of our work at @VABronx. @MSPsychedelics https://t.co/uHGN6d0CoA

— Rachel Yehuda (@RachelYehuda) March 31, 2025

In January, former VA Under Secretary for Health Shereef Elnahal said that it was “very encouraging” that Trump’s pick to have Kennedy lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (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.

Meanwhile, advocates are also eager to see how Collins navigates marijuana policy issues at VA, which has historically resisted congressional efforts to reform rules around studying cannabis or authorizing government doctors to issue medical marijuana recommendations to veterans in legal states.

The official has a prior record of voting against medical cannabis access for military veterans during his time in Congress.

Separately, a GOP congressman recently cheered news that the Department of Defense (DOD) has allocated nearly $10 million in funding for research into the therapeutic potential of MDMA for active-duty military members.

Another Republican congressman 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.

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