California will spend $4.7 million researching whether psychedelic drugs like psilocybin, MDMA and ketamine can help veterans whose PTSD hasn't responded to standard treatment. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 113, a state budget trailer bill, on Sept. 18, folding in years of advocacy work aimed at giving veterans access to emerging mental health therapies.
The new law absorbed language from Senate Bill 1224, known as the California Emerging Therapies Research Partnership Act, which was written to steer state resources toward federally registered clinical trials, according to Patch. As reported by KPBS, the measure grew out of roughly three years of advocacy on behalf of veterans who had not found relief through conventional mental health treatments. Sen. Brian W. Jones, who represents Santee, announced that the budget trailer bill had been signed into law and said veterans deserve access to promising emerging therapies.
What the Fund Will Actually Pay For
Under the bill's text, the California Emerging Therapies Research Partnership Fund will be jointly administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to CalMatters Digital Democracy. The fund is set up to issue grants to a University of California campus that would serve as an anchor institution for a federally registered emerging therapies clinical trial, per the same bill record. Lawmakers defined emerging therapies broadly, covering psilocybin, ibogaine, MDMA, DMT and ketamine, but only when administered inside a federally registered clinical trial rather than through general clinical use.
The legislation also requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to convene a California Veteran Emerging Therapies Research Advisory Council, according to the bill record. KPBS reports that the law is intended to ensure California researches options for veterans with PTSD when conventional treatments have not worked.
Veterans Groups Pushed for Years
Jesse Gould, founder of the Heroic Hearts Project, praised Jones, Newsom, and state senators Josh Becker, Scott Wiener and Josh Lowenthal, among others, for their roles in getting the measure across the finish line, per KPBS. Gould described the state's $4.7 million allocation as a meaningful milestone, and KPBS reports that his organization worked alongside veterans, researchers and bipartisan California leaders for more than five years on the effort. Heroic Hearts Project says on its website that its process has helped more than 1,500 veterans and their families address the impacts of military trauma, and the group says psychedelic therapies for PTSD are drawing increasing attention from researchers, policymakers and the public.
Several other veteran organizations backed Jones's legislative push, according to KPBS, including the American Legion, AMVETS, Healing Breakthrough, the Military Officers Association of America and Vietnam Veterans of America. KPBS notes that veterans returning home suffer from PTSD, depression, opioid addiction and other invisible wounds of war.
Not Every Treatment Works for Every Veteran
David Kuta, commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars for California, told Patch that traditional treatments such as counseling and medication help many veterans but do not work for everyone. Kuta also criticized what he called a one-pill-fits-all approach to treating veterans' mental health conditions, the outlet reported.
California's move follows a similar, smaller step in Utah, where Gov. Spencer Cox signed House Bill 390 in March, authorizing a state-funded clinical study of psychedelic-assisted therapy for veterans with treatment-resistant PTSD, according to the University of Utah Health. Utah allocated $1 million to its study, with the number of veterans who can ultimately enroll depending on available funding, and the law targets veterans whose PTSD has not responded to FDA-approved medications or evidence-based psychotherapies. University of Utah Health emphasizes that the Utah law does not legalize psychedelic therapy or open public access — it creates a tightly regulated research pathway instead.
A Broader National Shift Toward Research
The federal government has also been moving on this front. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says it launched a clinical trial evaluating the effectiveness and safety of psilocybin for major depression in veterans, including those with treatment-resistant depression, according to the VA. The Food and Drug Administration says it is supporting development of psychedelic drugs for serious mental health conditions, per the FDA, and the agency has scheduled a public hearing this month on the potential future therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs.
California's new law does not open psychedelic therapy to the public; it channels state money toward federally registered clinical trials aimed at answering whether these substances can safely help veterans who have exhausted other options. For now, the fight that Jones, Gould and a coalition of veterans groups waged for years has produced a research framework rather than a treatment program — a first step that supporters say could eventually widen the toolkit available to veterans struggling with PTSD, depression and other invisible wounds of service.
