Providence, Rhode Island
AP
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President Donald Trump’s new pick for surgeon general wrote in a recent book that people should consider using unproven psychedelic drugs as treatment, and the newsletter suggested that mushroom use can help you find a romantic partner.
Dr. Casey said that psilocybin is illegal under federal law, so recommendations for considering induced psilocybin-assisted therapy are prominent. It is listed as a Schedule 1 drug defined as a substance that has no currently recognized medical use and is highly likely to be abused. Oregon and Colorado have legalized psychedelic therapy, but some Oregon cities have banned it.
The job of a surgeon is to provide Americans with the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and reduce the risk of illness and injury. Past surgeon generals have used their position to educate Americans on health issues such as AIDS and suicide prevention. The surgeon general’s warning about the risks of smoking in 1964 helped change the course of American health.
Like Dr. C. Everett Coupe, a surgeon to President Ronald Reagan, he had a major influence on policy and became widely known, and others easily slipped from memory.
‘The nomination follows a pattern from Trump that selects people known for public personas over policy positions. In the case of measures, the Republican president said he chose her solely on the recommendations of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “Bobby thought she was great,” Trump said.
A method of earning an undergraduate and medical degree from Stanford University started a medical settlement in Oregon, but did not complete it. Her medical license is listed as inactive. The method of contacting us by telephone declined to comment on the records.
She recommended psychedelics in her 2024 book, Good Energy. She wrote alongside her brother Calley Means, who now works as a health advisor in the Trump administration and says she invested in a biopharmaceutical company specializing in psychedelics.
Many of the books focus on metabolic health, and what Casey means is “good energy.” She suggests many strategies to help people manage and heal stressors, trauma and thought patterns that limit us and contribute to our poor metabolic health and prosperity.
One such strategy is to “consider psilocybin-assisted therapy,” which refers to compounds found in psychedelic mushrooms. She details her thoughts on the subject in a 750-word sentence.
“If you feel you’re being called, I recommend you explore intentional and induced psilocybin therapy,” she writes. “Strong scientific evidence suggests that this psychedelic therapy could, as it was for me, be one of the most meaningful life experiences for some people.”
Although there are several studies that suggest the benefits of psychedelics, the benefits have not been shown to outweigh the risks. Psilocybin can cause hours of hallucinations, but it’s comfortable and frightening. When combined with talk therapy, it has been studied as a treatment for mental illness and alcoholism, but rarely studied in healthy people. Side effects include increased heart rate, nausea and headaches. Taking it without supervision is dangerous. Hallucinations can cause users to step into traffic or take other risks.
The measure writes that psilocybin and other psychedelics are being blamed. She touted the benefits of MDMA, also known as ecstasy or molly, to help people with post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. Last year, the Food and Drug Administration refused to approve the use of MDMA as a treatment for PTSD after a panel of advisors found to be flawed in the study and to be a serious risk in using it.
Means refers to the psychedelics in her book “plant medicine.” She explains how she first took mushrooms around January 1, 2021.
“I felt myself as part of an infinite, unbroken series of millions of mothers and babies’ universe nest dolls from the beginning of my life,” she wrote, adding that in her experience, “Psilocybin could be a gateway to another reality free of my ego, emotions, and the restrictive beliefs of personal history.”
In a newsletter she published in October, she also said she used psychedelics to help create “spaces to find love at 35.” She wrote that she was ready for the partnership and “had a reliable guide and experience in plant medicine” ready to cut off the line with a mushroom emoji. She noted that she doesn’t necessarily make recommendations that others do the same.
In a post about the White House Health Policy Wishlist this month, she said she wanted to provide more nutritious foods at schools, suggesting that ultra-highly processed foods be labeled with warning labels, asked to investigate vaccine safety and wanted to remove conflicts of interest. She didn’t specifically mention psychedelics, but the researchers said there was little incentive to study “generic, natural, and non-patentable treatments,” and that part of the research budget should be dedicated to alternative approaches to health.
Calley Means also advocates the use of psychedelic drugs, and in a 2021 blog post he tried out Psilocybin at a challenging time in his life and said, “It was the most meaningful experience of my life. He said in 2022 he “sold everything about my 401K” and bought shares at two companies developing and researching psychedelics. He did not respond to messages seeking comment.
“It means there is no confirmation hearing scheduled. Trump chose the measure after questions were raised about the first pick resume of former Fox News medical contributor Janet Neshwatt, a surgeon general, and he retracted her appointment.
Associated Press medical writers Carla K. Johnson of Washington and Associated Press author Ali Swenson of New York contributed to the report.