Rfk Jr. Promised A Revolution In Psychedelic Medicine. It Hasn’t Happened.

People who think psychedelic drugs are the key to treating intractable mental illness could not have been more psyched when Donald Trump named one of their own to lead the government’s health agencies.

A year into his tenure, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has yet to expand access to the mind-altering drugs and advocates are starting to lose patience.

The advocates had every reason to expect quick action. Kennedy once put the drugs at the top of his list of unheralded treatments he planned to promote at the Health and Human Services Department, alongside “anything else that advances human health and can't be patented by Pharma.” Since, Kennedy has occasionally reiterated his ambition, but hasn’t taken concrete steps to achieve it. Advocates of psychedelics are starting to wonder if larger forces are standing in the way.

“I was excited to hear that there was a lot of excitement around the administration,” said Melissa Lavasani, founder of the Psychedelic Medicine Coalition, an advocacy group. “It's been a challenge for the psychedelic ecosystem to get to those advisers in the White House…It's been challenging for even those within HHS, even at the political appointee level, to really get things moving.”

Supporters of psychedelic therapies say they fear their goals have been overshadowed by other Kennedy agenda items, related to food and vaccines, and that a chance to get psychedelic drugs to people who need them could be slipping away.

Jay Kopelman, chief executive of the Mission Within Foundation, which conducts psychedelic therapy on veterans for post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental illnesses in Mexico, where regulation is more relaxed, was blunt in his advice to the health secretary: “Get off your ass.”

“We should not have to leave the country that we fought for to access the therapies that we need to heal,” said Kopelman, a Marine Corps veteran. Expanding access to psychedelic therapy has become a galvanizing issue among many veterans, who have higher suicide rates than non-veterans.

The Food and Drug Administration rejected a drugmaker’s bid to win approval for using ecstasy, the club drug also known as MDMA, combined with talk therapy to treat PTSD in 2024, when Joe Biden was president. It found Lykos Therapeutics hadn’t proved it worked or was safe. But advocates of the drugs thought things might go differently once Kennedy took charge of the agency, considering how he’s championed giving psychedelics to people with mental illnesses.

Kennedy vowed to Congress last June, seven months ago, to greenlight clinical psychedelic therapy “within 12 months.” His ascent to the nation’s top health agency under a Republican administration has upended traditional political alliances around the issue: His Make America Healthy Again movement and many veterans now push for looser regulations for natural medicines, while the left has grown more skeptical.

Still, Kennedy’s enthusiasm, along with that of Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, has yet to move the needle.

“This administration is appearing to be a little bit more pay-to-play, but we're a pretty small industry…It’s been a real challenge to play the game that you need to play,” said Lavasani, who is currently working with philanthropists and industry to raise $2 million for a public education campaign around the benefits of psychedelics.

“As far as HHS, we are in constant communication…ultimately we are all subject to what the [White House] advisers will or will not allow,” she added.

Robert Barrow, chief executive of Definium Therapeutics, which is developing a psychedelic drug to treat depression and anxiety, expressed disappointment at the lack of concrete action from the administration and Congress.

“It's a bit discouraging for the field to have a lot of conversations and a lot of signaling about how important it is, and then again, not see that take hold in real, tangible action,” Barrow said.

Reps. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.) and Morgan Luttrell (R-Texas), former servicemembers, called on the Trump administration to sign an executive order prioritizing psychedelic therapies for veterans with mental illness at a forum hosted by the Psychedelic Medicine Coalition and the Mission Within Foundation at the Capitol earlier this month. The following day, Bergman and Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.), who also attended the forum, introduced a bill that would direct the Department of Veterans Affairs to establish a national program to advance research and expand access to innovative treatments like psychedelics.

“In the conversations that we have with every single entity, it just dies when they walk out the room, but when the president says something, mountains move,” Luttrell told POLITICO, adding that the administration should call for a cross-department study on ibogaine in an executive order. A psychedelic drug derived from an African shrub, ibogaine causes hours of hallucinations and poses heart risks, but proponents credit it with healing both addiction and mental illness.

Andrew Nixon, an HHS spokesperson said that the department “shares the goal of ensuring that all Americans — especially our nation’s veterans — have access to safe and effective treatments for conditions such as PTSD, addiction, and depression.”

“Secretary Kennedy is committed to applying rigorous, evidence-based science to research efforts aimed at addressing these serious health challenges,” he added.

The psychedelic industry is ramping up its lobbying activity in Washington. Last year, psychedelic biotech company Compass Pathways hired Eric Rasmussen, who previously worked for Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), and lobbyists at Todd Strategy Group, while the Association for Prescription Psychedelics hired David Crane at lobbying firm Bose Public Affairs and psychedelic biotech company Clearmind Medicine hired Ryan Kane, managing partner at RK Strategies.

Advocates are nonetheless hitting roadblocks in Congress. Last year, Bergman and Correa introduced a bill that would funnel $30 million to the Veterans Health Administration to conduct research into treating mental illness with psychedelics. That legislation has stalled. Earlier this month, the Senate passed the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies appropriations package, removing language in the House version that would have required the FDA and the Drug Enforcement Administration to work concurrently on their analysis of a new drug application.

The DEA considers most psychedelic drugs to be dangerously addictive with no known medical uses and restricts medical research involving them. Ongoing concerns regarding the sufficiency of research and potential health risks remain significant barriers to expanding access to psychedelics.

While developers of psychedelic therapies are optimistic about their progress at the FDA and expect a drug approval as early as late this year, they warn that the removal of the appropriations language will delay treatment to patients who need it.

“You got to look at the cost of the delay...You can measure the toll and suffering and despair,” said Crane, who previously served as a senior policy adviser to the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz).

Lori Englebert, chief commercial officer at Compass Pathways, which anticipates a drug approval in early 2027, said the company will continue to educate Congress about the importance of the provision.

“There are massive delays in terms of getting the product, and we’ll just continue to educate on that,” said Englebert.

In the Senate, Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) has a bill ready that would allow psychedelic therapy for veterans and is looking for Republican co-sponsors, who have been “jumpy” on the issue, according to a staffer.

“This place loves to have problems and just talk about problems and never solve the problem. That's this place,” said Luttrell. “Why is it so hard to convince somebody how important this is?”