Multiple veterans groups advised congressional lawmakers about the need to continue exploring psychedelics and marijuana as alternative treatment options for the military veteran population at recent hearings on Capitol Hill. And one veterans advocate cited his experience attending President Donald Trump’s Oval Office signing event for a cannabis rescheduling order as an example of progress in the fight for such alternatives.
At a series of joint hearings before the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees last month and this week, representatives of veterans service organizations (VSOs) testified about the need to promote innovative approaches in mental health treatment, in part to help mitigate the suicide crisis that’s disproportionately impacted those who’ve served.
Dan Wiley, national commander of the American Legion, said on Wednesday that the organization’s “number one priority” is “ending veteran suicide,” which involves finding alternatives to conventional therapies because “pills and therapy have objectively not worked.”
“We need stronger transition programs, innovative therapies and improved safeguards to medication management,” he said, while going out of his way to add that, after a decade with the American Legion, “I was proud to be in the Oval Office as the president signed an executive order that reclassified cannabis as a Schedule III drug.”
“This allows for federal research on how it can reduce drivers of suicide,” he said. “Now the American Legion does not support use of illegal drugs, but we strongly support research that could result in new, effective treatments.”
Hellbound and Down 