Inside the Fight for Veteran Policy and Therapy for PTSD: Zachary Federico on Return to Base Podcast
"The impact veterans have had in the policy space is already being felt, and they shouldn’t underestimate how important their voices are.”
ALEC Veterans and Military Affairs Task Force Director Zachary Federico spoke with host Cliff van Ripley on the VeteranLife podcast, Return to Base, about his work on the task force and about the latest medical treatments for veterans involving psychedelic-assisted therapy.
The conversation began with Federico providing an overview of the task force and the importance of ALEC’s work in developing model policies to address issues like veteran mental health.
“State legislators are people like you and me that just decide that this was a way they could serve their community, and so they’re going to take 2–4 months out of their life every year, regardless, depending on the state,” Federico noted. “And they’re eager they are to help their constituents.”
Ripley and Federico then discussed the current legislative focus in the states regarding psilocybin-assisted therapy and Ibogaine as potential treatments for conditions like PTSD, which are often resistant to traditional treatments. Federico explained the challenges veterans face with current treatments and the promise of psilocybin and Ibogaine, citing research showing significant remission rates for PTSD.
“There seems to be a lot of momentum on it right now,” he highlighted. “Our task force has developed two different model policies on this. We have one which is the Therapeutic Psilocybin Act. This is one that’s actually a regulated access program, where it allows, if passed, veterans in that state to access psilocybin-assisted therapy within the states with strict guardrails and everything to ensure safety.”
Federico continued, elaborating on the Veterans Mental Health Innovations Act, which focuses on funding for these therapeutic treatments.
“The Veterans Mental Health Innovations Act allocates research money to clinical trials for Ibogaine-assisted therapy. And the reason—you might be wondering why the state has to get involved in all this—is because generally all this innovation comes from the private sector, but unfortunately, Ibogaine is a naturally occurring substance, and clinical trials are expensive, and there’s no profit motive for companies to do clinical trials on something they cannot patent.”
The conversation concluded with Federico offering advice for servicemembers looking to continue serving their fellow veterans beyond the uniform.
“The impact veterans have had in the policy space is already being felt, and they shouldn’t underestimate how important their voices are… The vast majority of Americans, when they hear a veteran talk, they listen because they respect that service.”