Veterans Caught Between Policy Paralysis and Controversy in DC

The landscape of federal drug policy is undergoing a seismic shift. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are currently navigating conflicting issues: one centered around an urgent push to provide veterans with life-saving psychedelic therapies, and the other, a burgeoning thicket of political scandals and ethical questions threatening to undermine the movement’s credibility.

In a significant bipartisan maneuver, U.S. Reps. Jack Bergman, R-Mich., and Lou Correa,  D-Calif., formally introduced a bill called Expanding Veterans’ Access to Emerging Treatments Act of 2026 on Jan. 16. The legislation, designated H.R. 7091, marks an ambitious attempt to transition psychedelic medicine from the periphery of research into the core of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare infrastructure.

The bill’s introduction comes at a time when the VA is under immense pressure to address a mental health crisis that traditional pharmacology has largely failed to mitigate. For decades, the department has grappled with high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and chronic pain among those who have served in the military. By moving beyond the "one-off" fragmented pilot studies focused on how psychedelics might be able to treat PTSD-addled Veterans that have defined the last five years, H.R. 7091 seeks to establish a permanent, system-wide "on-ramp" for evidence-based healing across the VA.

Bergman and Correa, who serve as co-chairs of the Psychedelics Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus, have positioned the bill as a successor to last year’s Innovative Therapies Centers of Excellence Act. Bergman’s influential position on the House Committee on Veterans Affairs provides the legislative weight necessary to oversee the VA’s health and clinical research programs, ensuring the bill has a direct path to committee consideration.

Speaking at an event hosted by the Psychedelic Medicine Coalition (PMC) on Jan. 14, Bergman emphasized the moral and legislative imperative of addressing the veteran mental healthcare crisis in the U.S.

"It is up to us as the legislative branch to pass good laws and fund the appropriations so we can generate the research, find the breakthroughs, and ultimately implement these breakthroughs so patients can receive better care," Bergman said.

Under H.R. 7091, the VA is authorized to conduct extensive clinical trials using innovative treatments and emerging therapies, including psilocybin, MDMA, ibogaine, ketamine, and 5-MeO-DMT.

Crucially, the legislation authorizes the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to develop compassionate-use and extended-access protocols for eligible veterans. 

Melissa Lavasani, founder and CEO of the PMC, noted that the bill represents a fundamental change in how the government views these therapies.

"For the first time, Congress is not just asking whether these therapies might help — it is also beginning to build the structure required for VA to evaluate and deliver them responsibly," Lavasani said. She added that the inclusion of compounds like 5-MeO-DMT "forges a new vocabulary for evidence-based psychedelic healing."

A central theme of the Bergman-Correa bill is the concept of "medical governance." For years, veterans suffering from treatment-resistant mental health conditions have been forced to seek care in "underground" settings or travel to countries like Mexico or Costa Rica to access substances, such as ibogaine.

Jay Kopelman, a retired U.S. Marine Corps veteran and CEO of the Mission Within Foundation (MWF), believes H.R. 7091 is the solution to the trend of veterans seeking psychedelic care abroad. MWF, a nonprofit that provides scholarships for psychedelic-assisted therapy, joined PMC in endorsing the legislation to ensure veterans have a safe, federally legal pathway to care.

"For years, veterans have been telling us that the current system isn’t enough," Kopelman said. "This bill finally creates a responsible pathway inside the VA, so veterans can benefit from emerging treatments with medical oversight, data collection, and accountability."

While H.R. 7091 focuses on institutional integration, another legislative effort seeks to broaden patient rights through a different mechanism. Last November, Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., along with Reps. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced the Freedom to Heal Act.

This bill aims to expand the 2018 "Right to Try" law to include Schedule I substances. If passed, it would grant legal access to therapies like MDMA and psilocybin for patients who have exhausted all other medical options, provided that the drugs have completed Phase I clinical trials. 

The bill’s supporters, including the Veterans Mental Health Leadership Coalition (VMHLC) and the nonprofit Reason for Hope, contend that current federal restrictions force patients in crisis to choose between engaging with underground psychedelic providers and facilitators or to continue suffering. However, the Freedom to Heal Act has raised concerns among some health experts and advocates who worry about the lack of established clinical protocols.

Lavasani told  Filter Magazine that suicidal patients — who are often excluded from clinical trials — would be safely managed under the Right to Try expansion. This tension highlights the primary debate on the Hill: whether to prioritize rapid access for those in crisis or wait for the slower, more structured institutional roll-out envisioned by the VA-centric Bergman-Correa bill.

While the Freedom to Heal Act has garnered a number of endorsements from a variety of advocacy organizations, email correspondence dated Dec. 12, 2025 from the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee (SVAC) obtained by DoubleBlind appears to indicate a lack of support from SVAC, which would be crucial for advancing the bill further through Congress.

Representatives from Reason for Hope and the VMHLC did not respond to multiple requests for comment in response to criticisms of the Freedom to Heal Act and their organization’s willingness to work with the bill’s controversial co-sponsors.

The momentum for reform has been complicated by recent political drama involving the "ibogaine lobby" — a politically active consortium of ibogaine advocates and organizations — and its high-profile connections, including former Texas Governor Rick Perry, retired professional football player Robert Gallery, and others. At the center of the storm is Matthew Ammel, a Military veteran who previously worked as a bodyguard and allegedly had an affair with former Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema.

Ammel’s personal life entered the public record after his ex-wife filed an “alienation of affection” lawsuit against Sinema in North Carolina, alleging a pattern of illicit psychedelic drug use involving Sinema and members of her congressional staff, including Ammel. Sinema also told Psychedelic Alpha last year that she’d personally covered the cost of ibogaine-assisted therapy for Ammel at Ambio Life Sciences’ Ibogaine clinic in Tijuana, Mexico. The scandal deepened when it was revealed that Ammel was included on a trip to Gabon at the end of January, sponsored by the advocacy group Americans for Ibogaine.

The timing of this international excursion has raised significant ethical concerns. Ammel is currently facing felony assault charges stemming from a domestic altercation on Nov. 25, 2025, in which he allegedly threatened to “shoot and kill” his landlord — an incident that led to an involuntary psychiatric hold, during which Ammel stands accused of attacking and attempting to strangle a psych ward nurse.

Representatives from Americans for Ibogaine did not respond to multiple requests for comment regarding whether or not they were aware of Sinema and Ammel’s legal troubles prior to Ammel’s trip to Gabon with AFI.

Political observers like Lavasani have noted that the involvement of figures under legal scrutiny can tarnish the perceived legitimacy of advocacy groups, potentially chilling bipartisan support for bills like H.R. 7091.

Beyond individual scandals, a movement for institutional transparency is taking root in Washington. Tina Williams, a U.S. Navy veteran and advocate based in Indiana, recently filed a formal request for congressional oversight, alleging a lack of accountability within the burgeoning psychedelics sector.

Williams’ complaint details what she characterizes as an "interconnected ecosystem" comprising tax-exempt organizations, universities, private foundations, and for-profit pharmaceutical drug developers. According to the filing, this structure – which blends philanthropy with venture capital – raises concerns regarding undisclosed conflicts of interest and the potential for "improper private benefit from charitable assets."

The request identifies the Psychedelic Science Funders Collaborative (PSFC) as a central node in this network. Other entities named include the New Approach PAC and the Healing Advocacy Fund, along with research institutions such as Johns Hopkins University and the University of California, Berkeley. Williams is asking Congress to evaluate the integrity of these tax-exempt activities, arguing that a review of the "whole-system dynamic" is necessary to prevent the erosion of public trust in federally regulated research.

Graham Boyd, the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the PSFC and New Approach PAC, did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the contents of and claims made in the complaint. 

Williams’ argument contends that the current policy environment focuses on the trauma of veterans while ignoring their professional expertise. “We hear frequent discussion about veteran suicide rates — our vulnerabilities — but far less about veterans’ strengths and professional capabilities,” Williams said in a statement provided to DoubleBlind.

She argues that the industry's challenges stem from "insufficient and inconsistent engagement with key stakeholders," particularly those with backgrounds in logistics and governance. “Systems that rely on vulnerability-focused narratives while underutilizing stakeholder expertise risk long-term instability,” her statement added. 

“Veterans bring experience as public servants, strategists, systems designers, governance practitioners, infrastructure builders, engineers, project managers, and medics,” Williams said. “Many have managed supply chains, coordinated medical response, and built accountability systems in high-stakes environments.”

Williams further states that if the federal government is serious about its stated goals, its approach to policy must shift. “If reducing veteran suicide is a stated objective, workforce creation and entrepreneurship development should be treated as core components of policy design rather than ancillary considerations,” she concluded.

The request concludes by warning that excluding diverse voices from psychedelic community leadership results in a "corporate-heavy" policy landscape that ultimately prioritizes profit over affordability, access, and cultural reciprocity. Williams asserted that "broader stakeholder participation is essential to balanced and durable governance," particularly where public trust and tax-exempt status are involved. 

The convergence of these events — the filing of H.R. 7091, the debate over the Freedom to Heal Act, the Sinema-Ammel scandal, and the filing of Williams’ official complaint — signals a "coming of age" for psychedelic policy in Washington. 

As the Department of Veterans Affairs prepares for a potential influx of research funding should H.R. 709 advance, lawmakers must balance the urgent need for veteran care with the need to maintain a transparent policy environment. "We owe it to the veterans to get this right," Kopelman said. "Accountability isn't just a buzzword; it’s the only way we ensure these medicines remain available for the long haul".

With H.R. 7091 officially in the legislative hopper, the coming months will determine whether the VA can establish a "gold standard" for psychedelic medicine or if progress will be slowed by bureaucratic complexities. The policy fight on Capitol Hill is no longer just about the substances themselves, but about the systems that manage them. While H.R. 7091 emphasizes medical governance and stability, the Freedom to Heal approach focuses on immediate relief. In the middle are veterans, navigating the space between emerging science and a political system only beginning to understand the gravity of the mental healthcare crisis they face, all while FDA-designated “breakthrough therapies” remain illegal to use on U.S. soil. 

Lawmakers must now decide if they can insulate this medical progress from political volatility, or if the scandals involving the "psychedelics lobby" will delay the path to healing. Melissa Lavasani noted that the public often overlooks the substantive groundwork being laid by advocates and allies on Capitol Hill and across the country.

“There’s a lot of noise in this space right now, but what people don’t see is the steady, serious work happening behind the scenes at the federal level,” Lavasani said in a statement to DoubleBlind in the wake of the recent controversies around Capitol Hill. “While headlines focus on personalities and controversy, real progress is being made quietly every day in policy, research infrastructure, and bipartisan relationships that will actually determine whether these therapies become safe, accessible, and sustainable”.

Note: This article was produced in partnership with Psychedelic State(s) of America – a nonprofit-sponsored news organization dedicated to rigorous independent psychedelic journalism. Learn more about PSA’s Media Partnerships Program and the PSA Media Fund here.

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