Psychedelic Medicine Saved My Life After My Navy Career. Now Congress Must Act To Provide Access For Our Veterans (Op-Ed)
From toxifillers.com with love
“These men and women served with honor and are now asking for something radically simple: the right to heal.”
By Matthew “Whiz” Buckley, No Fallen Heroes Foundation
Four years ago this month, I was on my knees. Not in a fighter jet cockpit or boardroom as I’d become accustomed to as a Navy veteran—but in front of the medicine that would change, and quite literally save, my life. Psychedelic-assisted therapy has the potential to provide life-changing healing for our veteran community, and Congress must urgently act to provide access to those who’ve served.
After carrying the weight of childhood trauma and losing 16 of my fellow fighter pilots and aircrew to aviation mishaps—followed by four more F/A-18 brothers who took their own lives—I found myself searching for something beyond the standard treatments. I sought healing the only place I hadn’t looked: Inward.
Psychedelic-assisted therapy shattered what I thought I knew about myself, God, trauma and what it truly means to heal. It interrupted a decades-long battle with alcohol and reconnected me to a divine peace I didn’t even realize I’d been missing.
It also gave birth to a mission: to ensure that veterans, first responders and their families have access to these powerful, life-saving medicines. That mission became the No Fallen Heroes Foundation that I founded.
Last week, I walked into U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) headquarters in Washington, D.C.—not as a patient or protester, but as an invited partner.
Secretary Doug Collins, who recently raised the issue of psychedelics with the president himself during a Cabinet meeting, took time to meet with me directly. He wanted to hear what we’re doing at No Fallen Heroes. He wanted to learn more about the men and women we’ve helped bring back from the edge. And most importantly, he wanted me to know he was on it: “If anyone is going to do this, it’ll be us, and the time is now.”
That same day, the bipartisan Congressional PATH Caucus—which stands for Psychedelic Advancing Therapies for Healing—reached out to the secretary. They’re hosting briefings, gathering data and pushing for evidence-based policy that honors what veterans are telling them: These treatments work.
Also that day, the Psychedelic Medicine Coalition (PMC) hosted its first-ever Federal Summit on Psychedelic Medicine, featuring leaders from across the country committed to rewriting the narrative.
It’s hard to describe the feeling. Four years ago, I felt like I was screaming into the void. We were fighting stigma, inertia and a broken system that preferred prescriptions over real transformation. We were grieving lives lost and facing opposition from all sides—political, cultural, religious.
But now? Now the system is starting to listen.
No Fallen Heroes isn’t just an advocacy group. We’re boots on the ground. We’ve helped fund, support and hold space for dozens of veterans and first responders through legal, safe and structured psychedelic therapy. We’ve partnered with researchers, nonprofit allies and even active-duty service members to push for policy reform. We’re not just sharing anecdotes—we’re tracking data, outcomes and integration tools that actually work.
And yet, for every door that opens in D.C., there are thousands of veterans still suffering in silence. The VA still moves slowly. Many of these therapies remain illegal or inaccessible. Insurance doesn’t cover them. Families are forced to crowdfund healing. Meanwhile, an estimated 17 veterans a day take their own lives. I personally believe the real number is much higher—closer to 22 to 44 a day—if you count the full scope of veteran suicide data. That’s a national disgrace.
The fight isn’t over. We’re not taking victory laps. But we are finally seeing light crack through the darkness.
This movement isn’t red or blue. It’s not about politics. It’s about purpose.
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Republicans and Democrats are coming together on Capitol Hill because they see what’s happening. Leaders like Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI), a retired Marine Lieutenant General and fellow naval aviator, and Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA)—a Republican and a Democrat—are working together through the bipartisan Congressional PATH Caucus to push for safe, legal access to psychedelic therapies for veterans. They’re listening to their constituents, many of whom are decorated combat veterans—but also those who never saw combat yet still carry deep wounds from military sexual trauma (MST), childhood abuse, toxic leadership and the daily grind of service.
These men and women served with honor and are now asking for something radically simple: the right to heal.
To every skeptic still clinging to outdated paradigms, I say this: It’s not a question of if this change is coming. It’s when. And the only thing standing between now and then is how many more lives we’re willing to lose before the system catches up.
No Fallen Heroes will keep pushing. We’ll fund more retreats. We’ll hold more space. We’ll keep fighting—not with weapons or words, but with the unshakable belief that healing is not just possible, it is inevitable. Because I know what’s on the other side.
And I won’t stop until every hero can get there too. It’s time to finally heal our heroes at home.
Fight’s On!
Matthew “Whiz” Buckley is a Navy “TOPGUN” veteran and founder of the No Fallen Heroes Foundation, an organization committed to promoting access to plant-based medicine as an alternative treatment for veterans, first responders and their families suffering from serious mental health conditions.
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Photo elements courtesy of carlosemmaskype and Apollo.
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