Bipartisan Lawmakers Warn That Even One Mistake In Push For Psychedelics Access Could Derail Progress

Psychedelics access for veterans is the kind of high-wire act you don’t rush without looking down. In a room in Washington, D.C., where the coffee runs black and the stakes run red, a trio of lawmakers—Reps. Lou Correa, Jack Bergman and Morgan Luttrell—laid it out plainly: one wrong step, one performative outburst, and the delicate push to open therapeutic doors for MDMA, ibogaine and their kin could face-plant. The mission is urgent. The numbers are brutal. Depending on the day, 20 to 40 veterans die by suicide. And yet, the federal apparatus moves like it’s wading through cold molasses.

What’s jamming the gears

The first choke point isn’t ideology—it’s information. Luttrell, a veteran who has publicly discussed traveling abroad for ibogaine therapy, called out a quiet but consequential problem: private research institutions sit on data that could convince skeptical members of Congress, but that evidence doesn’t always make it to the table. He and colleagues have pressed the Pentagon, VA and HHS for ways to pry open those vaults and share findings responsibly.

“The results of these medications are profound in the veteran community,” Luttrell said. “If we push hard and screw this up, it’s gone just like that.”

Bergman took aim at the bureaucracy itself—agencies siloed by design, competing for budget oxygen as if the patient isn’t gasping in the next room. Correa’s message cut through the ceremony: we’ve got potential cures for a societal crisis, and veterans needed them yesterday. The caution isn’t cowardice; it’s strategy, because a single misfire could give risk-averse colleagues the excuse to bolt.

The federal dance: two steps forward, one sideways

Meanwhile, the government does what it does best: advance and stall at the same time. On one hand, the attorney general missed a congressionally mandated deadline to issue streamlined research guidance for Schedule I substances—exactly the sort of procedural fix that could accelerate trials. On the other hand, DEA has finalized higher production quotas for certain psychedelics in 2026 to support research, a nod to growing scientific momentum. VA has faced heat for turning down a grant from a group that connects veterans to overseas psychedelic programs, even as former officials have described top-level openness to reform. It’s a collage of urgency and inertia.

“The challenge is bureaucracies competing for limited resources,” Bergman said. “It’s up to us, as the legislative branch, to pass good laws and fund appropriations that support research—then actually implement them for the betterment of patients.”

Legislators say the politics are trickier than they look. Many members still treat psychedelics like a cultural third rail. Some remember writing the laws that locked people up for these compounds. Others hear the whisper of outside interests guarding their turf. The assignment, then, is to build the on-ramp slowly and clearly: reproducible data, rigorous protocols, unflashy wins. Correa put it bluntly: we can’t mess this up.

Image courtesy of CostaPPR.

Lessons hiding in plain sight

If you want a preview of how this might go, look at the cannabis front, where policy reform keeps throwing elbows with the status quo. Bipartisan lawmakers have floated a path to regulate the hemp marketplace rather than torpedo it—see New Bipartisan Congressional Bill Would Regulate Hemp Products, In Contrast To Ban Trump Signed—a reminder that rules can be written with nuance, not prohibition. In Virginia, senators have finally drawn a blueprint for adult-use stores, signaling what cautious, incremental legalization looks like in practice: Virginia Senators Approve Bill To Legalize Marijuana Sales Under New Pro-Reform Governor. But reform isn’t a one-way street. South Dakota just told terminally ill patients they can’t use medical cannabis in hospitals—proof that compassion can still lose to fear: South Dakota Lawmakers Reject Bill To Let Terminally Ill Patients Use Medical Marijuana In Hospitals. And in Massachusetts, officials swatted down a challenge surrounding a measure to roll back legalization, underscoring how power brokers can contest the will of voters long after Election Day: Massachusetts Officials Reject Challenge To Marijuana Legalization Rollback Initiative Amid Allegations Of Deceptive Petitioning Tactics.

The parallels to psychedelics are hard to miss. Real people in pain. Agencies worried about liability and optics. Legislators counting votes while lobbyists count dollars. The smart move isn’t to light the house on fire; it’s to open a door and invite the skeptics to see what’s on the other side. That means targeted trials for PTSD, TBI and addiction. Streamlined data-sharing between private labs and federal partners. Clear clinical guardrails that reassure the nervous without handcuffing the science.

Move fast, don’t trip

This is a tightrope, and the crowd below loves a stumble. But the path is there: fund robust research, harmonize agency mandates, and brief Congress like adults—with numbers, protocols and patient outcomes. Give veterans a lawful way to access therapies that may change (or save) their lives, while insulating the process from grandstanding. One member melts down, and the whole thing can freeze for a decade. Persevere, stay boringly competent, and the door opens wider—quietly, finally, for good. If you want to support the broader movement toward responsible, compliant access to plant-derived wellness, explore what’s legal today in our shop.