North Carolina Could ‘Lead The Nation’ In Expanding Psychedelic Access For Veterans, GOP Senator Says
North Carolina psychedelic access for veterans isn’t a pipe dream anymore—it’s a promise whispered in the hallways of the legislature and shouted in the raw testimonies of people who’ve seen too much and survived anyway. In Raleigh, a bipartisan crowd of policymakers and advocates gathered after a screening of In Waves and War, a documentary tracing three Navy SEALs through the crucible and back, guided not by yet another prescription bottle but by plant medicine. Republican Sen. Bob Brinson didn’t mince words. With a veteran’s bluntness, he said the quiet part out loud: North Carolina, thick with active-duty troops and retirees who’ve carried the weight of war home with them, can lead the nation on psychedelic medicine—if lawmakers can figure out the how. That “how” is the whole fight: turning lived experience and clinical promise into a regulated, dignified path to care.
Brinson’s conversion wasn’t sparked by white papers; it happened across a desk, eye to eye. Vets came in, told their stories. You can delete an email, he said, or a voicemail. But you can’t delete a person in front of you laying out the panic, the insomnia, the bottle-counting, the nights that never end—and then telling you something helped. Not a miracle cure, but relief with teeth. Democratic Rep. Eric Ager arrived at the same destination by a different road: months into his first term, he realized there was real science here, not just counterculture mythology. The obstacle wasn’t evidence; it was old biases calcified from the Just Say No decades. His answer: education and narrative—bring more voices in the room, tie the research to the faces of people legislators know. The result, as organizers put it, was a room charged with urgency and bipartisan attention, the kind you can feel in your chest. If you want receipts, organizers at Students for Sensible Drug Policy documented the moment in a public update you can read here: SSDP event recap.
Policy, of course, is where good intentions meet the buzzsaw. A bipartisan Senate bill filed this spring would create a North Carolina Mental Health and Psychedelic Medicine Task Force housed within the Department of Health and Human Services—a practical step toward evidence-based access. The job is nuts-and-bolts: survey the research on psilocybin, MDMA and related therapies for PTSD, depression, and traumatic brain injury; map the regulatory landscape; flag legal and medical barriers; and design equitable access so rural vets and uninsured families aren’t left scavenging for care. It’s not the state’s first flirtation with psychedelic reform. Roughly two years ago, a House committee endorsed a $5 million grant program to fund clinical research and set up a Breakthrough Therapies advisory board. It didn’t become law. But the quiet tide has kept rising: more data, more testimony, more urgency as veteran suicide remains brutally high. The pitch, stripped of ornament, is simple: stop numbing symptoms; start treating the wound.
Zoom out and you see North Carolina’s drug policy moment wobbling on a knife’s edge. The governor’s been plainspoken about legal cannabis—arguing a regulated cannabis program would tame an intoxicating hemp market that’s turned into the Wild West. He even inked an executive order to study a legalization framework and nudge a reluctant House that’s repeatedly stalled on medical marijuana. That context matters because policy doesn’t live in silos. Just across the border, we’re watching what happens when a state floors the brakes on hemp; Ohio’s crackdown has storefronts scrambling and supply chains breaking, a cautionary tale captured in As Ohio’s Intoxicating Hemp Product Ban Takes Effect, Business Owners Brace For Impact. Culture is shifting underneath all of it too. America’s relationship with cannabis keeps evolving—usage patterns, social acceptance, even the humble blunt—a trendline explored in Marijuana Blunt Smoking Has ‘Increased Significantly’ In The U.S. In Recent Years, Study Shows. When norms change, policy has to catch up or get run over.
Nationally, the feds are still cooking the main course while the states set the table. Even on marijuana, a senior Republican has signaled it’s time to square federal rules with state reality, a shift laid out in GOP Senator Says It’s Time To Create A Federal ‘Regulatory Construct’ For Marijuana To Align With State Legalization Laws. Meanwhile, the courts keep tugging at the threadbare blanket of prohibition—sometimes ducking, sometimes engaging—like in Supreme Court Denies One Case On Gun Rights For Marijuana Consumers, But Justices Will Discuss Several Others This Week. For veterans navigating PTSD, chronic pain, and a labyrinth of benefits eligibility, that legal patchwork isn’t academic—it’s life. North Carolina has a chance to do something rare in politics: cut through the noise and move fast where it matters. Build the task force. Fund the research. Train clinicians. Write the rules with equity and safety in mind. Then open the door. And if you’re ready to explore compliant, high-quality options while the policy tides shift, take a look at our shop.
