STAT+: Psychedelics proponents hope Trump administration will foster a new era

Eight months after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared that the Food and Drug Administration’s “aggressive suppression of psychedelics” was about to end, he and his newfound allies in the Trump administration are in a position to do something about it.

Kennedy, now the secretary of health and human services, is one of several influential players in the administration who have voiced support for psychedelics as a potential mental health treatment. Calley Means, a White House adviser, wrote that psychedelics “should be an important public policy priority for the United States,” and his sister Casey Means, the president’s surgeon general pick, described psilocybin therapy as “one of the most meaningful experiences of life …” 

Such sentiments — including favorable remarks by FDA Commissioner Marty Makary about the promise these mind-altering substances could hold for veterans — have buoyed hopes among companies, advocates, and investors in the field. It’s a jolt for boosters who just last year suffered a setback when the FDA rejected a company’s application to use MDMA as part of a treatment protocol for post-traumatic stress disorder.

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