Bicameral Broad Defense Bill Mandates Psychedelics Clinical Trials For Active Service Members

Congressional lawmakers from both sides of the aisles and in both chambers agreed upon a large-scale defense bill which includes funding psychedelic studies for military service members, reported Marijuana Moment’s Kyle Jaeger.

The report on the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) released Dec. 6 shows it includes the House GOP-led version of the bill containing the psychedelics research provision. A section creating a medical cannabis pilot program for veterans was finally withdrawn.

See the recent luck of marijuana and psychedelic amendments on separate spending bills.

The 2024 bill’s psychedelics provision calls on the Department of Defense (DOD) to create, within 180 days of enactment, a process for service members with PTSD or traumatic brain injury to participate in clinical trials specifically involving psilocybin, MDMA, ibogaine or 5-MeO-DMT.

DOD is enabled to work with certain federal or state government agencies and academic institutions to conduct clinical trials for which $10 million will be provided.

Additionally, the defense secretary must provide lawmakers with a yearly report on the findings.

Both the psychedelics and medical cannabis amendments were attached in the House Armed Services Committee before floor consideration, after which members proposed additional drug policy reforms which were almost entirely blocked from floor consideration.

And yet, that same chamber later approved other psychedelics research reforms, similar to the NDAA sections, as part of FY2024 appropriations legislation concerning the DOD. As Jaeger explains, it’s still unknown whether the “largely duplicative provisions” will be adopted in the final spending bill.

See previous attempts for psychedelics research on active service members in 2022 and this year’s, including bipartisan moves like a $75 million research grant program and a formal letter for inclusion in NIH-funded clinical trials.

Photo: Benzinga edit with photo by Cburnett on Wikimedia Commons and Octavio Hoyos on Shutterstock.