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For Army veteran Gehrig Tucker—who suffered traumatic brain injuries and did not find conventional treatments effective—the therapeutic use of the psychedelic ibogaine provided profound relief. Spending time outdoors hunting and fishing has also been an important part of his healing process, and today, he is co-leader of Heartland Harbor Foundation, which supports the mental health of military members, veterans, first responders and their families by providing hunting experiences. Photo/courtesy of Gehrig Tucker
In 2019, Gehrig Tucker, now 29, joined the Army. While he was going through the Special Forces Qualification Course, he suffered two traumatic brain injuries that drastically impacted his cognitive ability.
“I had to write down the steps on how to change my oil,” he said. “Something I’ve done a thousand times, and I would have to write that down.”
Tucker, a Carson City native, was also diagnosed with major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress. His first attempt at healing took place at a traumatic brain injury clinic in Boston called Home Base. There, he tried SSRIs.
“It shows great results for some people—but for whatever reason, it did not help me,” said Tucker.
After a personal experience with MDMA (often called ecstasy or molly) allowed Tucker to feel, for the first time in his life, compassion for himself, he obtained a sponsorship from the Sierra Psychedelic Society to try ibogaine—a plant-based psychoactive drug—at the medical facility Beōnd in Cancun, Mexico.
“The best medications that we can legally offer help only an estimated half of patients and often come with intolerable side effects.”
Dr. Sarah Henry, clinical psychologist
“I went down there with two guys, and they heard about ibogaine from the Joe Rogan podcast,” said Tucker. “They both said that they went down there knowing how effective it was so that when it didn’t work for them, they could go home and kill themselves, and not feel guilty, because they tried the most effective thing. I heard both of those guys in the same week say, ‘I love myself,’ and, ‘I forgive myself.’”
The treatment lasted nine weeks and was the most challenging and profound experience of Tucker’s life.
“I saw God,” said Tucker. “I went to heaven. I experienced what infinity was. I experienced a love beyond what I could previously comprehend, and it helped to restore my soul, and it helped physically restore my brain. I truly believe that medicine (ibogaine) is a gift from God.”
Nevada lawmakers discuss legal reforms
Other veterans—as well as doctors, therapists, researchers and politicians—in Nevada who share Tucker’s sentiment are taking action to legalize psychedelics for therapeutic use.
On March 11, the Senate Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections held a hearing in Carson City, with participants also attending virtually from Las Vegas, to discuss Senate Joint Resolution 10 (SJR 10), a landmark initiative to reform psychedelic medicine policy. The resolution has garnered significant bipartisan backing, with 27 sponsors, including 20 Democrats and seven Republicans, supporting the measure.
Nevada lawmakers met on March 11 to discuss SJR 10, a landmark initiative to reform psychedelic medicine policy. Photo/courtesy of Blaire Zika
“Today, there are a total of 28 states that have active or recently passed legislation advancing psychedelic therapy,” said Jon Dalton, Navy veteran and president of the Nevada Coalition for Psychedelic Medicines, an advocacy organization. Of those 28, he said, 14 are red, and 14 are blue. “They all recognize these alternative treatments have profound benefits to cure our most challenging mental health disorders.”
Dalton also said that the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has publicly stated, “My mind is open to the idea of psychedelics for treatment.”
Kate Cotter, executive director of the Nevada Coalition for Psychedelic Medicines, as well as the Sierra Psychedelic Society—a nonprofit that provides education and promotes risk management around psychedelic medicines—said that SJR 10 urges Congress to:
• Increase federal funding for research into the therapeutic applications of psychedelic compounds
• Establish a streamlined process for approving and conducting research
• Create a pathway for terminally ill patients to access investigational treatments
• Reschedule psilocybin, psilocin, DMT, ibogaine, mescaline and MDMA to reflect their therapeutic value
• Establish legal protections for individuals and entities complying with state and local laws for psychedelic use
Said Nevada State Sen. Rochelle Nguyen, from Clark County: “Give us guidance on how we can go forward with this. Allow us to do research. Allow us to come up with regulatory structures. Give us some more guidelines so we can do this lawfully, and we can protect our communities, and we can give these needed medicines where we already have the beginnings of research on this to our first responders, to our veterans, to people struggling with addiction.”
The federal government currently classifies these “needed medicines” (psilocybin, psilocin, DMT, etc.) as Schedule I under the Controlled Substances Act, meaning they have no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.
Dr. Sarah Henry is a licensed clinical psychologist in Reno specializing in treating PTSD, depression, anxiety and post-concussive syndrome. She said this classification is outdated and actively harms those who need it most. Henry said our present mental health tools are inadequate.
“The best medications that we can legally offer help only an estimated half of patients and often come with intolerable side effects,” she said. “Psychotherapy, while it is effective, it is also time-and resource-intensive, and it requires sustained effort that can feel impossible to those who are in need of immediate release.”
Addressing safety, concerns, Dr. Dustin Hines, associate professor of neuroscience in UNLV’s psychology department, said, “Decades of control studies affirm that psilocybin is a favorable safety prototype. It’s non-addictive. It actually promotes anti-addictive properties. Physiologically, it’s well-tolerated and carries minimal risk of overdose.”
Some of those who need help the most are, like Tucker, veterans. “Health disorders pertaining to depression, anxiety, addiction, suicidal ideation and PTSD particularly affect Nevada’s veteran population, where the suicide rate, as indicated in committee meetings, is 50.7 per 100,000, which is significantly higher than the national veteran suicide rate of 33.9 per 100,000,” said Marla McDade Williams, administrator for the Division of Child and Family Services in Nevada’s Department of Health and Human Services.
Delvin Bourn, an Army veteran and the founder and president of Bourn Free Foundation—a nonprofit dedicated to veterans’ mental health—and John Henry Parker, a Marine veteran and adviser to the Nevada Coalition for Psychedelic Medicine, were in attendance to speak on behalf of service members.
“I have gone through a lot of therapy through the VA, but psilocybin has single-handedly been the most effective treatment to address my PTSD and anxiety,” Bourn said.
Parker suffered from severe PTSD until his introduction to psychedelics about 15 years ago. He was the son of a Marine Corps Korean War and Vietnam combat veteran who never sought help. In 2009, he lost his son, Danny, a Purple Heart recipient and Army combat veteran with two deployments to Afghanistan. Due to the severity of his PTSD, Danny did not survive his transition from military service.
“I’ve worked with hundreds and hundreds of struggling veterans, one-on-one, who suffer from treatment-resistant PTSD, depression, substance abuse disorders and suicide ideation, and I can tell you that progress is slow, arduous and, at times, heartbreaking,” said Parker said.
Next steps
When Sen. James Ohrenschall, who presided over the meeting, asked if anyone in Carson City or Las Vegas opposed or wanted to voice neutrality on SJR 10, no one spoke.
The next step is for the committee to hold a work session on the resolution, after which it may head to the Senate and Assembly floors.
“This may seem like it’s an innocuous SJR, where we’re sending a letter, but it is super important that we, as a state, send a message to the federal government, send a message to Washington, D.C., that we need to start helping our community,” said Sen. Nguyen. “We have a mental health crisis.”
Gehrig Tucker, who supports SJR10 and runs the Heartland Harbor Foundation—a nonprofit that supports the mental health of service members and veterans by leading hunting trips—agrees.
“What we’re doing is not working for the majority of people, and if you just look at the data, psychedelics provide much more effective treatments with much less side effects,” Tucker said. “This needs to be researched effectively so we can understand these things on a deeper level, and then provide effective treatment to as many people as possible.”
