On the green grass in front of the U.S. Capitol, veteran advocates gathered Wednesday around a memorial created from 150,000 sets of dog tags. The symbolism, they say, is for 150,000 military veterans who have died by suicide since 9/11, a crisis that many believe could be eased in some measure by MDMA-assisted therapy.
A crowd of veteran advocates, health professionals and members of Congress gathered at the capital around the memorial to call for loosening of rules on MDMA, which faces a critical decision within the Food and Drug Administration in August. Jesse Gould, a former Army Ranger, said MDMA had been a life-saving alternative therapy for him and led him to start the Heroic Hearts Project. His group was among the groups that helped create the memorial and bring it to Washington D.C.
“Enough is enough. We have witnessed firsthand the treatment’s transformative power,” said Gould. “This nation’s heroes deserve healing and the opportunity to reclaim their futures. The FDA alone has the power to granting veterans access to this MDMA therapy. Approving this treatment is not just a formality. It is a lifeline for the nation’s veterans.”
MDMA is a psychoactive drug and makes up the active ingredient in illegal drugs like ecstasy (though law enforcement often finds that ‘street-level’ ecstasy is a mix of other illegal drugs). However, when used in controlled therapy settings, many trauma specialists and a wide community of veterans believe MDMA can alleviate mental conditions that often afflict veterans, like PTSD and depression.
Among the messages the Capitol rally embraced was for the FDA to “Follow the science.”
That path has been a rocky one for MDMA. In June, an FDA advisory committee voted overwhelmingly not to endorse loosening rules on MDMA, based on safety concerns in previous studies. That ruling reversed several years of positive signs, beginning in 2017 when the FDA designated MDMA-AT as a “Breakthrough Therapy,” an administrative label that fast-tracked clinical trials. Subsequent trials found that over 71% of participants no longer met PTSD criteria after three MDMA-AT sessions, while 86% showed significant improvement.
However, the committee that voted in June noted that those studies were plagued by bad data, because participants were able to easily figure out if they had been given actual MDMA or if they had been given a placebo, as part of an experiment’s ‘control group.’ In order to produce results that researchers consider valid, a control group must be “blind,” or unaware if they are receiving the real treatment.
Former Navy SEAL and Congressman Morgan Luttrell said that he was one of many veterans suffering from PTSD and TBI who traveled outside of the country to receive alternative therapies like MDMA-AT. Luttrell pointed out that it’s not just the veteran who is impacted by PTSD or other mental health ailments.
“It wasn’t just affecting me. My wife, my kids, my family, the secondary, tertiary rings of effect, we have to be aware of that. It touches every single person,” Luttrell said. “If I have a bad day in Congress, my colleagues understand, and they’re like, ‘Damn, I wish he wasn’t having a bad day.’ But it’s just absolutely how it is. So if we can increase the amount of tools that we have in our toolbox to affect change, yes, we will.”
The group asserted that it won’t just be limited to veterans. There are 13 million Americans with PTSD, with the thousands of veteran suicides making up a 1/4 of all suicides in the country, and despite the current array of treatment options, suicide rates continue to climb. It’s become paramount that there is a demand for something new to treat PTSD, suicidal ideation, TBIs, and more.
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Congressman Jimmy Panetta said there have been no new treatments for PTSD and TBI since 9/11. He was against alternative therapies, but after seeing the research, he’s had a change of heart.
“I can tell you, as a former prosecutor who used to put people in jail for using, selling, and manufacturing MDMA, MDMA therapy is definitely thinking outside the box for me but let me tell you, based on the results from the research, based on the results […], they say it works,” Panetta said. “They say it opens individuals to self-compassion and catharsis as they revisit deep-seated memories. They say they changed as a result of it, and they say they stay changed.”
The VA has pushed forward with initial trials. Still, for the treatment to reach millions of veterans, the FDA has to approve it for mainstream treatment, allowing non-veterans to be eligible for treatment as well. After the FDA approves the treatment, the Drug Enforcement Agency will need to reclassify it, and depending on the new classification, treatment access and modalities will be finalized.