Once illegal, now hopeful: Nevada advocates eye Trump’s shift on psychedelic therapies

Editor's note: Este artículo está traducido al español.

In 2018, after 23 years as a Navy SEAL, Jon Dalton retired and turned his attention to a new struggle: living with depression and anxiety.

Dalton, who now lives in Reno, said he had completed 11 combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan and sustained seven brain injuries throughout his service. He tried several medications to manage the lingering effects, but none was effective.

It wasn’t until a few years later, when a friend and fellow retired Navy SEAL suggested looking into psychedelic therapies, that Dalton began to find some hope.

Despite initially being “very much against anything related to illegal drugs,” Dalton traveled in 2022 to Mexico, which has become a hub for psychedelic-assisted therapies since certain substances are not scheduled or exist in a legal gray area that allows clinics to operate. There, he completed a treatment with ibogaine, a powerful West African plant alkaloid used in part to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. 

“The change was so profound in how it healed,” he said.

In the United States, psychedelic drugs such as ibogaine, psilocybin, LSD and MDMA are all currently classified as Schedule I substances under the Controlled Substances Act, which the federal Drug Enforcement Administration maintains and enforces.

Schedule I is considered the most restrictive tier, reserved for substances deemed to have no medical use and high potential for misuse. Yet a growing body of supporters nationwide is pushing for a reclassification and the exploration of these drugs in medical settings.

President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order that could help people struggling with serious mental health issues access psychedelic therapies. People like Dalton are hopeful for what the executive order may bring.

“Psychedelic therapy, where you’re working with a medical professional that’s trained in working with psychedelics, and you work through your issues … I came out the other side with an emotional range that was greater than I had ever had, and so, it was like the lights got turned back on for my emotions,” said Dalton, who co-founded the Nevada Coalition for Psychedelic Medicines. “While this shouldn’t be legal in the sense of walking into a cannabis dispensary and finding a mushroom shelf, I firmly believe that we should have regulated access with proper medical oversight, and we shouldn’t be sending anyone — veterans, first responders or any Americans — down out of the country to get this kind of care.”

Trump’s April 18 executive order directs the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to expedite its review of psychedelic compounds with breakthrough therapy designations; instructs federal agencies to reduce regulatory barriers to clinical research; and expands collaborations with the Department of Veterans Affairs on psychedelic-assisted therapy for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and traumatic brain injuries.

It also provides $50 million for state-level research and establishes a pathway for eligible patients to access investigational psychedelic drugs, including ibogaine compounds, under the Right to Try Act.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also announced that the administration was coordinating with the DEA and Department of Justice to conduct rescheduling reviews for psychedelic compounds that successfully complete Phase 3 clinical trials.

During the signing event, Trump spoke about his order’s aims to help veterans with severe mental health issues and open up options for new kinds of treatment. Right-leaning podcaster and supporter Joe Rogan, who was also present during the signing, had lobbied Trump privately on the issue, according to ABC News.

“In many cases, these experimental treatments have shown life-changing potential for those suffering from severe mental illness and depression, including our cherished veterans; our veterans are having a tremendous hard time,” Trump said at the signing. “I got a call from a number of people, including the great Joe Rogan, and he said we have to do something about this. And I looked into it.”

Early research from institutions like Stanford University has suggested that ibogaine may alter certain neural pathways and lead to improvements in some mental health conditions, and a growing number of military veterans have turned to the drug as a last resort when legal medications haven’t worked for their maladies.

Psychedelics are not risk-free. Some studies have shown increased occurrences of dangerous heart rhythm abnormalities and vomiting. Approximately 33 deaths have been associated with ibogaine ingestion between 1990 and 2020, according to a review of cases reported in scientific literature. It remains unclear whether the drug itself, undiagnosed heart conditions or other factors were the direct cause — most fatalities occurred in unregulated settings without proper medical monitoring.

Kate Cotter, co-founder with Dalton of the NCPM and its sibling organization Sierra Psychedelic Society, said psychedelic-assisted treatments can be “very safe” when used with proper guidance and screening, citing studies from Stanford, the University of New Mexico and Johns Hopkins University. She and Dalton also point to Dustin and Rochelle Hines, associate professors of neuroscience in UNLV’s psychology department, who they said “are constantly doing studies on various psychedelics.”

Momentum for psychedelic-assisted mental health treatments continues to build in Nevada. In 2023, Nevada lawmakers passed and Gov. Joe Lombardo signed Senate Bill 242 into law. It established the Psychedelic Medicines Working Group, opening pathways for the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services to conduct studies on the use of entheogens — psychoactive substances including psilocybin and psilocin — in medicinal and therapeutic settings.

Two more bills regarding psychedelic treatments were introduced in the 2025 Legislature: Senate Joint Resolution 10 and Assembly Bill 378.

While AB 378 did not make it out of committee, SJR 10 — which the NCPM helped draft — was adopted with bipartisan support. It urged Congress to increase federal funding for research into psychedelic-assisted therapies; establish a process for medical use of psychedelics under the Right to Try Act signed in Trump’s first term; enact legal protections for supervised use under state law; and reschedule psilocybin, psilocin, DMT, ibogaine, mescaline and MDMA.

“Nevada has been ahead of the curve on this issue, and I’m proud to have led SJR 10 to push for expanded research, federal rescheduling and legal pathways for supervised treatment,” state Sen. Rochelle Nguyen, D-Las Vegas, one of the bill’s sponsors, said in a statement.

Nevada would be a good testing ground for future treatments, considering its high population of veterans and those living with substance use disorders, Dalton and Cotter said. In 2022, Nevada was home to more than 205,000 veterans, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness said 600,000 adults in Nevada had a mental health condition as of March 2025.

Ushering in this new era of psychedelic research will take time, so Dalton and Cotter are readying Nevadans for that future. They are gearing up for next year’s legislative session and expanding outreach to inform state leaders and community members about the issue.

On May 14 at the College of Southern Nevada’s West Charleston Campus, the NCPM will host a free public screening of the Netflix documentary “In Waves and War,” which follows three Navy SEAL veterans as they seek ibogaine-assisted treatment for their PTSD and traumatic brain injuries.

The screening will begin at 6 p.m. in Building K, Room WCK101, then be followed by a panel featuring Dalton, Nguyen, Dustin Hines and Assemblywoman Rebecca Edgeworth, R-Las Vegas. Diane Goldstein, executive director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership and a retired police lieutenant, will be the moderator.

“We’re not on an island here,” Cotter said. “This is part of a very large effort for the latest phase and all of the world to basically redefine how we see medicine and to hopefully reschedule so that we have access to these compounds.