Louisiana leaders explore psychedelic therapy to heal veterans

BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — At the state capitol, Louisiana leaders looked into how psychedelic therapy can help heal veterans. Taking a closer look at how one treatment once considered taboo helps with mental health.

“A psychedelic medicine or alternative plant-based medicines to take them from the brink of death and suicide to where now they’re on the healing road,” said Senator Patrick McMath (R-La).

It’s a controversial claim, considering their legal status, but McMath leads a task force studying how Psychedelic drugs could help veterans heal from trauma and depression.

“We lose nine veterans in this state to suicide. That can’t happen,” said McMath.

Researchers say psilocybin, LSD, and other drugs may be more positive than their stigma suggests. McMath said it’s time to explore every safe, effective option.

McMath says, “These sessions need to be very closely monitored, both from a patient health standpoint that comes first, from prior to meeting to having the session to monitoring that takes place during the session.”

The National Institute of Health said people’s minds may be changing, but there is still research that suggests psychedelics could have negative effects, including addiction, self-harm, or overdose. McMath said it’s worth studying whether the pros outweigh the cons.

“If there’s an opportunity for those folks to truly heal and use this medicine as that healing process, as part of that healing process to ultimately save their life, we need to take that seriously,” said McMath.

If Louisiana moves in this direction, this could just be a microdose of what’s to come in studying psychedelics.

“Just the fact that we have a task force that is exploring this potential new breakthrough medicine in Louisiana is going to lead the way,” he said.

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