The Legalization of Psychedelics

Analyzing Key Players after The 2024 US Election.

Former President Donald Trump was re-elected to the White House earlier this month, becoming the second President in United States history to win two non-consecutive terms. For many psychonauts, President Trump’s return to the oval office brings a new wave of uncertainty to what has already been a tumultuous 2024 for psychedelic science. Now, advocates want to know if President Trump will help or hurt the effort to legalize psychedelic substances. Of course, we won’t know President Trump’s future plans (or concepts of plans) until after his second term begins in January. However, in an effort to shed some light on this issue, I want to take a look at some key individuals in the political sphere a few weeks post-election, and where those people might stand on psychedelic policies. 

Donald Trump

Donald Trump’s policies regarding psychedelic substances are mostly unclear. Throughout this year’s campaign, President Trump has notably avoided talking about the issue of psychedelic substance policy. Despite this silence, he has talked about marijuana on multiple occasions, such as on his self-created social media platform, Truth Social, and on podcast episodes like this one with Lex Fridman. President Trump even advocated for Florida’s Amendment 3, which would have legalized recreational marijuana use in the home for adults age 21 and over. In the same Truth Social post where President Trump claimed to be voting “Yes” on Amendment 3, he stated that he will “[support] states rights to pass marijuana laws, like in Florida, that work so well for their citizens.” Putting the states to vote for legalizing marijuana makes sense at this point when 24 states have already passed similar legislation. But it is unclear whether President Trump’s stance on psychedelic substances would be similar. Even if this were the case and each state could vote on the issue of psychedelic policy for itself, we might still not see a widespread legalization of psychedelic substances in the US like we have with marijuana. On the same day that 61.5% of Massachusetts voters marked their ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris, 57.1% voted No to Question 4, which, if passed, would have legalized the use of certain plant-based drugs such as psilocybin mushrooms for adults 21 and older from licensed therapy centers. Two other states that voted blue in 2024 voted to legalize psychedelic substances in previous votes: Oregon passed measure 109 in 2020, and Colorado passed proposition 122 in 2022. All this to say, if Trump pushes psychedelic legalization onto the states like he wants to for marijuana, it's still uncertain how states would vote, what their policies would look like, and how those policies would be enacted.

Because President Trump seems to be a wildcard on this issue (as well as many others), it might be more fruitful to understand the upcoming psychedelic landscape by looking at the people with whom he’s surrounding himself. I’ll mention many of the names commonly being associated with both President Trump and Psychedelics, and see how each of these people might influence the psychedelic landscape over the next four years.

JD Vance - Vice President Elect

Along with Donald Trump’s victory comes vice president-elect JD Vance, currently a republican US senator from Ohio. In 2016, JD Vance wrote a memoir titled, “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” which describes his childhood growing up in a rural town in Ohio while his Mom struggled with Opiod Addiction. Unsurprisingly, Vice President Vance has been outspoken about the Opioid Crisis in the United States, which may have led voters to assume his stance on psychedelics would be similar. However, the one time JD Vance mentioned psychedelics (as far as I know of), he was open to psychedelic therapy (as described by Joe Rogan on his podcast). With that being said, JD Vance knew very little about the topic whatsoever, asking Rogan clarifying questions like, “And this helps them, the psychedelic therapy? What is it? Is It like MDMA, or is it… what do they use?” (2:55:33). By including this question I don’t mean to disrespect Vice President Vance’s knowledge of psychedelic therapy. I just think that if you’re hoping for a political champion to get legalization for these substances, you might want to look for someone who is more familiar with the issue. One positive takeaway: JD Vance probably won’t be a person who impedes psychedelic legalization per say. After learning more about the topic, JD Vance even said: “I mean, the one thing I have, my issue on all this stuff is kind of, ‘live and let live,’ but keep it in your home” (3:01:13). On that note, I would say JD Vance is a neutral on the issues of psychedelic policy. 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - Appointed as Secretary of Health and Human Services

Next on the list, Robert F Kennedy Jr., who President Trump has recently appointed as Head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), an appointment that still has yet to be confirmed by congress. RFK Jr. ran in the presidential race as an independent, but dropped out of the race and endorsed President-Elect Donald Trump on August 23rd after a controversial campaign. Most notably, RFK Jr. claimed that worms ate a part of his brain. Just two months later, he dumped a dead bear cub in Central Park. Despite the unfortunate campaign mishaps that have put Robert F Kennedy Jr. in recent election headlines, he has been better known in recent years for his anti-vaccine Rhetoric. RFK Jr. has repeatedly made the claim that vaccines cause autism (0:40). Additionally, his views on vaccines were repeated sources of media attention during the COVID-19 pandemic, after he claimed that COVID-19 was an “ethnically targeted” virus. RFK Jr. was even banned from Instagram in February of 2021 for “repeatedly sharing debunked claims” about the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine. One such claim linked the death of baseball legend Hank Aaron to the COVID vaccine. I don’t mean to bash Robert F Kennedy Jr. too much here, but I do want to highlight that as far as authority figures on health go, it’s hard to find a more polarizing figure than RFK Jr. 

However, many psychedelic enthusiasts see Robert F Kennedy Jr’s appointment as good news for the future of legalization and research in psychedelic science. RFK Jr. has endorsed psychedelic science on numerous occasions, including a recent tweet from November 10th, where RFK Jr. posted a video of Joe Rogan discussing psychedelic-assisted therapy for veterans with the caption, “Yes, [Joe Rogan] veterans are the most deserving of benefiting from psychedelic therapy.” During his presidential campaign, RFK Jr. said that he would, “definitely decriminalize psychedelics,” seemingly implying decriminalization on a federal basis. Just before the election, he tweeted that the “ FDA’s war on public health is about to end. This includes its aggressive suppression of psychedelics.” If Robert F Kennedy Jr. is confirmed by the senate, then it seems like his advocacy for psychedelic science could play a key part in psychedelic legalization.

However, I think the psychedelic community needs to ask itself a question here: Do you want to be aligned with Robert F Kennedy Jr., who has repeatedly come under fire for spreading misinformation about public health? Other political views aside, after listing “aggressive suppression of psychedelics,” in the tweet above, he also mentions raw milk and ivermectin (a drug that some people believe can prevent COVID-19). Both raw milk and ivermectin have been debunked scientifically, with most health experts and research concurring against Robert F Kennedy Jr.s claims. If I were advocating for the legalization of psychedelics, or if I wanted to preserve the public opinion around the quality of psychedelic research, I don’t know if I would want “psychedelic science” and “raw milk science” mentioned in the same sentence. Overall, I do want to give a lot of credit to Robert F Kennedy Jr. on his stance toward psychedelic science. This is one that he actually seems to know a lot about, even having his own connections to the psychedelic experiences of loved ones. Overall RFK Jr’s appointment as secretary of Health and Human Services is a good thing for psychedelic science, but take it with caution too. 

Aubrey Marcus - Founder of Onnit, a holistic health brand; Psychedelic Advocate

Another could-be key player in the psychedelic landscape is Aubrey Marcus, who is a self-described Author, Podcaster, Entrepreneur, Filmmaker, Philosopher, Poet, and Husband. He is the founder of Onnit, “a globally disruptive brand based on a holistic health philosophy he calls Total Human Optimization.” But notably, Aubrey Marcus was “one of the first public voices in support of psychedelic medicine in the podcast era,” after he appeared on Joe Rogan in 2011 to talk about his experiences with the psychedelic substance ayahuasca. 

Aubrey Marcus was also one of Robert F Kennedy Jr’s biggest supporters when he was running for President. In his endorsement video of RFK Jr, Marcus said “I see this as a necessary miracle that’s going to allow this to happen. You’re going to be the next president, and I just know that in my bones.”

I don’t want to sell Aubrey Marcus short by not including a longer section on him, but I am also not super familiar with all of his work. I’ll leave you with links to both his website and YouTube channel so you can evaluate Marcus and his ties to RFK Jr.

Elon Musk -  Nominated to be Co-Leader of the Department of Government Efficiency 

Elon Musk has been in the political spotlight frequently in recent weeks for his close ties to Donald Trump’s campaign. After winning the election, President Trump rewarded Elon Musk’s efforts on the campaign trail by nominating him to be a co-leader of the newly proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), along with Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. While DOGE is not an official government department, the goal of the department is to, as Ramaswamy put it, “start the mass deportations of millions of unelected federal bureaucrats out of the D.C. bureaucracy.” I don’t want to speculate too much about DOGE. You can read much more informed opinions from political experts on the news platform of your choice. But I will point out that if slashing government departments is the goal, then one department likely to suffer is the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Department of Veterans Affairs is by far the largest government department, with almost half a million employees. Considering that veteran patient groups have benefit greatly from recent government funding for psychedelic research, there might be some drawbacks for psychedelic research if the Department of Veterans Affairs is slashed. However, Musk is also a noted advocate of psychedelic science. He has been open about his own psychedelic use, especially his use of legally-prescribed ketamine. “My personal opinion,” he said on a popular podcast, “is that psychedelics are like, way better for treating depression than a lot of the SSRIs that are given out.” In 2021, Musk said, “I think generally, people should be open to psychedelics.” It will be interesting to see how Musk’s opinions interact with each other. He seems very interested in cutting back on government size via DOGE, but he might shield psychedelic science from some of those cut backs given his open advocacy in the past. Now, how much of a shield Musk may provide against the new DOGE is a question that only time will answer. Overall, I think Elon Musk is another wildcard. 

Joe Rogan - Host of the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast

Joe Rogan is a comedian, UFC commentator, and host of the podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast.” I’m assuming you’ve listened to it at some point (maybe even one of the links earlier in the article), considering it's the number one podcast on both spotify and apple music. This podcast was particularly influential after Joe Rogan hosted both Donald Trump and JD Vance in the days before the election. 

Joe Rogan has talked openly about his pro-psychedelic opinions before on the show, and has even hosted psychedelic enthusiasts such as Paul Stamets, Dennis McKenna, Duncan Trussel, Rick Doblin, and many more. Joe Rogan also endorsed Donald Trump the night before the election, solidifying his support for the new President Elect. Later, a video on X showing President Trump and Joe Rogan embracing at a UFC event went viral with 11.8 million views. For psychedelic science, this seems like good news. Joe Rogan has an enormous, influential audience of mostly male listeners, which overlaps with Trump’s voter demographic this past election. If his target audience hears enough support for psychedelic science, a portion of Trump’s voter base could shift in support of psychedelic research. Overall, Joe Rogan has been a positive influence on the current psychedelic movement.

Peter Thiel - Entrepreneur/Investor

Peter Thiel is an entrepreneur and business technology investor, known for his work in co-founding PayPal and investing early in prominent businesses such as Facebook, AirBnB, and SpaceX. In 2016, Peter Thiel (whose net worth is currently estimated at $13.1 Billion) gave the Donald Trump campaign $1.25 million dollars of support. However, in 2024 Thiel decided not to fund any political campaigns, saying that Trump’s first presidential stint “was crazier than I thought. It was more dangerous than I thought. They couldn’t get the most basic pieces of government to work. So that was- I think that part was worse than even my low expectations.” Despite Thiel’s disappointment, another factor that contributed to Thiel’s lack of monetary support stemmed from his belief that the Trump/Vance ticket would win the election no matter how much money was donated from the super PACs on both sides: “Trump is locked on a massively winning race. And the Democrats are locked on a massively losing race. And that’s why the money doesn’t matter.” It’s hard to say what Thiel’s current opinions of President Trump look like after the election. However, one thing we do know about Peter Thiel is that his main interest has always been protecting his investments. The good news here is that one of Thiel’s biggest recent investments was in psychedelic science. In 2020, Thiel gave $125 Million worth of funding to ATAI Life Sciences, a startup aimed at developing psychedelic drugs to treat mental health disorders. In 2022, ATAI received its first FDA approval to conduct a clinical trial on a non-psychedelic form of Ketamine for treatment-resistant depression. ATAI is currently developing, and investing in, a variety of psychedelic research on substances such as DMT and Ibogaine.

What to Make of All This

There are certainly a lot more key players impacting the current movement to legalize psychedelic substances than are included above. The aim of this article was simply to provide readers with information about some of these figures that have made recent headlines. I tried to include as much objective information as possible (with hyperlinks throughout), but of course, you can probably abstract some of my personal opinions from this post as well. I want to say that those opinions are my solo opinions as the author of this post, and that TCIPS is not a political organization in any way. If you feel inclined, leave a comment with your thoughts, more information, disagreements, etc. No matter what your individual beliefs may be regarding the politics associated with psychedelic science, I think these debates are worth having in order to consider and implement the safest approaches to the legalization of psychedelic substances. 

Thanks for Reading!

By Ian Carroll