Bergman: 'The time is now' to push for breakthroughs in psychedelic treatments

Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.) said on Tuesday that “the time is now” to push for breakthroughs in psychedelic treatments given President Trump’s recent support for this field of research.

At The Hill’s “Rethinking Psychedelic Treatment for America’s Mental Health Crisis” event sponsored by Definium Therapeutics, Bergman, co-founder and co-chair of Congressional Psychedelics Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus, said he was “excited” that an executive order issued last month is encouraging more people to take the “risk” in researching psychedelic drugs.

Trump signed an executive order aimed at accelerating psychedelic drugs used to treat mental health disorders. The order — which directs the Food and Drug Administration to expedite its review of new treatments — is specifically targeted at helping veterans struggling with symptoms of anxiety and depression.

“I’m product agnostic … I’m interested in outcomes,” Bergman said. “So, when you got the top cover of the executive order and the executive order will only last, you know, as long as President Trump is in office and then the next president, we don’t know, could they rescind it?”

“So, that’s why the time is now to get the ball rolling, to see some breakthroughs. It’s not the time to sit around and ‘Well, no, we can just delay a little longer. We won’t have to deal with this,'” added Bergman. “If you’re that person, we’re coming after you. OK, you need to be doing something else for a living.”

Interest and excitement surrounding psychedelic drug use for mental health disorders has grown immensely in recent years. Substances like psilocybin, ketamine and ibogaine have emerged as potential candidates for treating conditions like treatment-resistant depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

When asked about further actions he would like to see in the psychedelic space, Bergman said, “We tend to think about ‘OK, what drug are we going to use? What’s the medium going to be?’ That’s only part of the equation. We have to have the centers set up and we have to have the therapists trained and ready to administer the protocols in this new way.”

To support these efforts, Bergman introduced the Innovative Therapies Centers of Excellence Act with Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.), fellow co-chair of the PATH Caucus. The bill would direct the Department of Veterans Affairs to establish at least five innovative therapies centers dedicated to researching therapies including MDMA, ibogaine and ketamine.