How Psychedelic Drug Therapy Can Save Lives

How Psychedelic Drug Therapy Can Save Lives

psychedelic drug therapy
Watch Dan Crenshaw discuss his legislation authorizing trials on psychedelic drug therapy at the Department of Defense

Giving veterans and active duty service members access to psychedelic therapy to treat PTSD has been a top priority for me for years now in Congress. This mission has always been personal. I’ve lost brothers to invisible wounds of PTSD, and I’ve watched others recover when nothing else worked.

That’s why I passed a law authorizing trials on psychedelic therapies like psilocybin and ibogaine through the Department of Defense. Stanford’s study on ibogaine showed an 88% drop in PTSD symptoms, 87% reduction in depression, and 81% decrease in anxiety for veterans with traumatic brain injury. These promising treatments can save lives. 

I’m more encouraged about the potential for progress on this issue than I have been in a long time. President Trump has real advocates for this therapy in top positions within his administration, including Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. With the Trump Administration’s openness and strong bipartisan support for this policy, we’re closer than ever to ensuring we fully research the potential clinical benefits of breakthrough therapies so we can get veterans the treatment they need.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw and Chloe Cole: The Big Beautiful Bill Protects Children and Taxpayers From Radical Gender Ideology

Rep. Dan Crenshaw and Chloe Cole: The Big Beautiful Bill Protects Children and Taxpayers From Radical Gender Ideology

The “Big Beautiful Bill” will accomplish a lot, including reigniting America’s economy and keeping your tax rates low. But perhaps one of the most important things it does may be getting overlooked. It bans the use of taxpayer funds in Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and Affordable Care Act for transgender procedures.

Put simply: it protects vulnerable kids and American taxpayers.

For years, we have both led the charge to keep kids safe from radical gender ideology, one of us from Congress and one of us from the trenches of the public square. Rep. Crenshaw authored the Crenshaw Amendment specifically for the “Big Beautiful Bill,” which prohibits taxpayer funding for puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-change surgeries. And Ms. Cole is herself a victim of radical gender ideology, having tried to transition genders starting at age 12—only to regret it by age 16.

No one knows this fact better than Chloe Cole. Children should never be subjected to this medical assault on their developing body and mind. Encouraged by radicalized medical “professionals,” these transgender procedures are invasive and irreversible, leading to a lifetime of complications and additional health problems. Children, lacking the mental and physical maturity to make life-altering decisions, simply cannot understand the consequences of these procedures—not in the short term and especially not in the long term. True “consent,” as we would normally understand the term, cannot exist under these circumstances.

This is common sense. First of all, most Americans agree with these simple statements. But the scientific consensus also backs our position. Various systematic reviews of the evidence came to the same scientific conclusions: low quality evidence of any benefits, with immense risks.

And yet, the medical establishment, like so many other parts of society, has been overtaken by activists masquerading as “experts.” They’re putting ideology ahead of ethics, and children across America are paying the price for the leftist activists’ arrogance.

No taxpayer should be forced to cover the cost of these procedures. Doing so makes Americans complicit in the destruction of children’s minds and bodies. When people pay taxes, they assume they’re funding things like national security and the safety net. They don’t think they’re paying for a misguided doctor to cut off the genitalia of a confused child. The only thing taxpayers should cover in that situation is real mental health care.

To his credit, President Trump has already taken strong steps to protect children and taxpayers from radical gender ideology. He has issued an executive order that prohibits the use of taxpayer funding for sex changes. He has also directed his administration to investigate those who put children at risk. Most recently, the Trump administration released its own sweeping review of the evidence surrounding pediatric transgender procedures. The short version: There’s no real evidence of benefits to children—but there’s reams of evidence showing that kids are being irreparably harmed.

These are steps in the right direction, but the “Big Beautiful Bill” is the most important step of all. Until the Crenshaw Amendment and further restrictions are  written into federal law, a future president can simply undo the protections that President Trump has put in place. Congress must do its part to make this permanent.

This isn’t some fringe issue, by the way. The medical nonprofit Do No Harm has found that 14,000 kids between 2019 and 2023 alone have already been subjected to dangerous transgender procedures, many of them using taxpayer funds. With a federal law in place, taxpayers and parents can rest easier.

Know this: we are winning, but the fight isn’t over. The Crenshaw Amendment is a giant leap forward, and this is our chance to pass it and do what is right for our children.

Dan Crenshaw represents Texas’s 2nd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. Chloe Cole is the patient advocate at Do No Harm.

A Major Victory in the Fight Against Radical Transgender Ideology

A Major Victory in the Fight Against Radical Transgender Ideology

CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT THE MAJOR VICTORY IN THE FIGHT AGAINST RADICAL TRANSGENDER IDEOLOGY ON THE DAILY WIRE
One of the most important policies included in the Big Beautiful Bill is one that has been a top priority for me for years now – defunding taxpayer supported gender transition procedures and treatments on minors. This represents the most significant victory against radical transgender ideology that Congress has ever achieved. 

My policy is simple – Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program will no longer cover life-altering and dangerous transgender medical procedures on kids once this bill becomes law. It will save countless kids from irreversible self-harm, and will send a signal to the American people that their government will no longer be willing participants in this pseudoscience.  

Gender transition procedures are the lobotomy of our generation. So-called ‘gender-affirming care’ isn’t healthcare—it’s fringe science with no proven benefit and massive risks. I’m proud to have spearheaded the policy to ban funding of these procedures for the last few years and urge my colleagues in the Senate to act swiftly to pass this into law.
A major victory in the fight against radical transgender ideology

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