North Carolina Could ‘Lead The Nation’ In Expanding Psychedelic Access For Veterans, GOP Senator Says

North Carolina has the opportunity to “lead the nation” in expanding access
to psychedelic medicine for military veterans suffering from major mental
health conditions, a Republican state senator says.

At an event organized by Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), Veterans
Exploring Treatment Solutions (VETS) and the North Carolina Psychedelic
Policy Coalition, Sen. Bob Brinson (R) and Rep. Eric Ager (D) discussed
psychedelics reform following a screening of a documentary, *In Waves and
War*, that followed three Navy SEALs who had life-changing experiences with
plant medicine after serving missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In North Carolina, with its significant veteran population, “we have the
people that are here and the retirees that are here that—if we can figure
out how to establish it—we can lead the nation in this concept,” Brinson
said. “It’s a matter of figuring out how.”

The senator said that he was educated on the issue after hearing directly
from veterans who visited him and shared their own experiences with
psychedelic therapy.

“You can delete an email, you can delete a voicemail—but if you’re in in
front of my face, telling me your story, I can’t deny that,” he said. “And
so you didn’t have to convince me as a veteran, you didn’t have to convince
me of the problem. I knew what the problem was.”

“I’m tired of treating symptoms and taking all of these drugs, and that’s
another story. Then we’re kind of hinting around here, but for them to come
to my office and say, ‘This helped me. This cured me’—and I understand it’s
a light cure, but this is something we need to explore and do,” the senator
said. “That was what hooked me.”

Ager, for his part, said that he first learned about the issue about six
months after joining the legislature in 2023.

“It was clear that people were coming and talking about it, and it was
working,” he said. “And there was a huge amount of research going on… You
spend a long time in the military, and you know lots of people from all
sorts of parts of the military, and have lots of friends from even
childhood and beyond that are struggling with a lot of these things. And
it’s like, you know, why?”

“Why are we making it so hard to do here—something that clearly works, and
it clearly ought to be studied and understood?” he said. “And it dawns on
you frequently that it’s really just the fact that we have all these very
old biases from growing up in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s—and I think we have
a big task to do to just really provide information to legislators, many of
whom haven’t gotten out and served or been around the world and who have
lived in their small communities for most of their lives.”

“To me, it’s one of those things that we just have to do a lot of education
with our with our peers. This is what this is all about,” he said. “It’s
the stories. It’s folks like you all, and those in the movie, and any way
you can find to tell that story.”

“Certainly, I think we can help get people in the door as legislators and
certainly willing to do that,” Ager added. “But in the end, the stories
that you all tell are the ones that are really going to turn the tide.”

SSDP said in a press release that, at the screening, the “emotion and
energy in the room was undeniable.”

“Attendees walked away both moved and motivated reminded of the urgency of
expanding access to safe, effective psychedelic treatments for veterans and
others in need,” the organization said. “This event highlighted not only
the dedication of our community but also the bipartisan support this effort
has garnered from both chambers of the North Carolina legislature.”

Gina Giorgio, director of strategy and development at SSDP, told Marijuana
Moment that the screening of *In Waves and War *“was a powerful reflection
of how far North Carolina has come—and how much potential we have to lead.”

“The response from veterans, community members, and policymakers was
incredibly moving. There’s widespread interest in our Republican-led
legislature and across state agencies to move a Psychedelic Medicine Task
Force forward, along with a strong grassroots presence that’s been building
for years,” she said.

“In North Carolina, there’s real momentum building—not just in the
legislature, but among people who’ve lived this trauma. The emotion in that
room made it clear we can’t afford to wait. Veterans are dying by suicide
every day,” Giorgio said. “Families are holding on, hoping for something
that works when nothing else has. We have the research, we have bipartisan
will, and we have a community ready to do the work. The question now is
whether our legislature will move fast enough to meet the demand.”

SSDP said it hoped the conversation builds on momentum for legislative
reform, including a bipartisan bill filed in March that would authorize the
creation of a new state psychedelics task force to study and issue
recommendations on providing access to the alternative therapies to address
serious mental health conditions.

The legislation from Sens. Sophia Chitlik (D) and Bobby Hanig (R) would
enable the state Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to create
the body. Among its responsibilities, the North Carolina Mental Health and
Psychedelic Medicine Task Force would need to evaluate that “potential use
of psychedelic medicine in addressing the State’s ongoing mental health
crisis” and “barriers to implementation and equitable access.”

The bill filing came about two years after a North Carolina House committee
approved a separate bill to create a $5 million grant program to support
research into the therapeutic potential of psilocybin and MDMA and to
create a Breakthrough Therapies Research Advisory Board to oversee the
effort. The measure was not ultimately enacted, however.


*— Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug
policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon
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*Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on
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Meanwhile in North Carolina, the governor in June reiterated his support
for legalizing marijuana, stressing the need to create a regulated cannabis
program to mitigate the risks associated with products in the intoxicating
hemp market.

“Our state’s unregulated cannabis market is the Wild West, and it is crying
out for order,” the governor said, adding that’s the reason he signed an
executive order this summer creating a bipartisan commission to study
cannabis legalization in hopes of moving the GOP-controlled legislature to
act on reform.

In recent sessions, multiple limited medical marijuana legalization bills
advanced through the Senate, only to stall out in the House.

*Photo elements courtesy of carlosemmaskype and Apollo.*

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