Further legislation to widen access to psychedelics is soon to be deliberated, including one bill focused on research and pilot programs within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The bill would seek to help veterans receive psychedelic therapies within the United States, as many cannot afford to go abroad. 

“We find it morally unacceptable that our nation’s Veterans should be forced to take such extreme, and often detrimentally expensive routes to potentially lifesaving interventions,” wrote retired U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Martin Steele, chief executive officer of Reason for Hope, in a letter supporting the Right to Try Clarification Act last week.

He said that for most veterans who have been able to access it, “psychedelic-assisted therapy has proved not only life-saving, but life-restoring,” and called Booker and Paul’s legislation “a small step in the right direction toward saving lives.”