Donald Trump's return to the White House could be a bright spot in an otherwise brutal year for the psychedelic medicine movement. How’s that? The President-elect has said he wants Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be part of his health care team, and psychedelics are at the top of a list of things, including raw milk, chelating compounds and sunshine, Kennedy alleges the Food and Drug Administration is keeping away from Americans. “FDA’s war on public health is about to end,” Kennedy wrote on X last month, listing “aggressive suppression of psychedelics” among the regulatory decisions he wants to reverse. “If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.” Big picture: The FDA was at the center of psychedelic medicine’s bad year. The agency rejected drugmaker Lykos Therapeutics’ application to treat PTSD with the psychedelic drug MDMA and talk therapy in August after the agency’s outside advisers said Lykos’ regimen wasn’t effective and the company hadn’t shown that its benefits outweighed its risks. The decision sent a chill through the psychedelic drugmaking community, contributing to one Lykos competitor, Compass Pathways, delaying the release of study results and laying off staff. The psychedelics movement took another hit last week when Massachusetts voters rejected a ballot measure to legalize certain plant-based psychedelics for adults. Big names, big money: Tech mogul Elon Musk, who also has Trump’s ear after vigorously campaigning for him, has said he has a prescription for ketamine, a drug with psychedelic properties. The Wall Street Journal has also reported that Musk has used magic mushrooms, ecstasy and LSD. Silicon Valley venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who supported Trump’s first bid for the White House, served as Vice President-elect JD Vance’s mentor in the financial world and donated to Vance’s Senate campaign, has invested millions in psychedelic drugmaker Atai. Podcast host Joe Rogan pitched Vance on MDMA therapy for veterans when Vance was a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience last month, telling Vance that psychedelics have helped his friends with PTSD who served in the military. “You can definitely still study whether this helps people or not. Why aren’t we doing that?” Vance said of psychedelic therapy. “This is a problem I know nothing about,” he added. “This proposed solution — literally the first time I’ve heard about this.” What's next? If Trump wants to boost psychedelic medicine, allies are waiting in Congress, including Reps. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.), Morgan Luttrell (R-Texas) and Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), who believe the FDA should fast-track approval of MDMA-assisted therapy for veterans. On Thursday, the nonprofit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which is Lykos’ largest shareholder, acknowledged that the regulatory environment will likely look different next year. “While President-elect Trump’s alliances may raise the visibility of psychedelics in public health discussions, we are hopeful that regulatory safeguards for patient and public health will remain intact,” Ismail Ali, director of policy and advocacy at MAPS, said in a statement. “MAPS remains optimistic about the future of federal support for psychedelic research through agencies like the [Department of Veterans Affairs] and the National Institutes of Health.”
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