This guest op-ed was submitted by Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions. Psychedelics Today publishes opinion pieces to reflect a range of perspectives across the psychedelic field.
While most national headlines have focused on the latest federal psychedelic bills cycling through Congress and the growing momentum behind the Texas Ibogaine Initiative, Psychedelics Today recently covered one of the most significant but underrecognized victories of 2026. In March, Utah passed HB 390, the Veterans PTSD Clinical Research Amendments, and in doing so, quietly advanced one of the most consequential pieces of psychedelic legislation in the country this year.
HB 390 did not pass because of lobbyists or legislative maneuvering. It passed because veterans, researchers, and Utahns showed up, shared their stories, and helped lawmakers understand the urgency of the need. Veterans were the anchors of this effort – operators who had exhausted every treatment the VA had to offer, sought psychedelic-assisted therapy abroad, and then walked into the Utah State Capitol to describe what that experience meant for their lives. Their stories moved lawmakers in ways that data alone never could.
VETS supported the effort by helping veterans testify, including VETS grant recipient and Army Special Forces veteran Kyle Bingham. Alongside other veterans and advocates, they helped lawmakers understand both the urgency of treatment-resistant PTSD and the need for responsible, research-driven pathways.
At VETS, we’ve supported over 1,400 veterans and their spouses in accessing psychedelic assisted therapy abroad because no legal pathway exists at home. That is not a sustainable solution. No veteran should have to leave the country to access care that may change their life. HB 390 is a direct response to that reality, and it is worth noting that the legislation is explicitly and specifically focused on veterans. In a field where research often targets broad clinical populations, this bill prioritizes the men and women who carried the heaviest burden and received the least adequate care.
HB 390 authorizes the Huntsman Mental Health Institute at the University of Utah to conduct a clinical study on the safety and feasibility of psychedelic-assisted therapy for veterans with treatment-resistant PTSD. The framework is rigorous: FDA investigational new drug application, DEA Schedule I research registration, IRB approval, and detailed clinical protocols covering informed consent, adverse event reporting, and therapist qualifications. This is serious science conducted within a serious structure.
And critically, this research isn’t waiting on funding. The State of Utah appropriated $1 million toward the study and the Huntsman Mental Health Institute is pursuing philanthropic matching funds. The science is authorized, the framework is in place, and the money is there. This study is happening.
The final version of HB 390 names three investigational substances: MDMA, psilocybin, and 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine, better known as 5-MeO-DMT. This is the first-in-the-nation state-funded research authorization for 5-MeO-DMT. While its therapeutic potential has been discussed in research circles for years and used ceremonially for generations, it has remained largely outside the formal U.S. health care system and policy conversation.
Its profile is distinct from psilocybin or MDMA: the experience is shorter, often more intense, and early data suggests it may produce rapid and profound reductions in depression, anxiety, and existential distress. By naming it explicitly in legislation and backing that inclusion with real dollars and a clear research intent–Utah has introduced 5-MeO-DMT into American policy in a way that no state has done before.
HB 390 did not emerge in a vacuum. In 2024, Utah authorized psilocybin and MDMA in controlled settings, but that program stalled, held up in part by the difficulty of accessing federally scheduled compounds for research. HB 390 is the bill that makes a state-funded study operational. It also builds on Texas, which passed HB 1802 in 2021, directing research on psilocybin for veterans and showing how states could act without waiting for federal movement. Utah incorporated those lessons and pushed the frontier further. The bipartisan passage of this bill in one of the country’s most conservative legislatures signals that evidence-based psychedelic research has moved well beyond counterculture into the mainstream of American political life.
HB 390 doesn’t legalize. It doesn’t decriminalize. It does something harder and more durable: it creates the conditions for rigorous, FDA-compliant American clinical research on a compound the field has long believed deserves serious investigation, for the population that needs it most.
The bill has passed. The funding is secured. The Huntsman Mental Health Institute is ready, and for the first time in American history, a state will fund clinical research into 5-MeO-DMT.
