Rick Perry: The conservative case for psychedelic medicine

The former Texas governor on helping veterans with PTSD, increasing legal immigration, and the illegal drug he'd most like to try
reason.com/video/2023/08/29/rick-perry-the-conservative-case-for-psychedelic-medicine/
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In June, I traveled to Denver with Zach Weismueller to cover the Psychedelic Science 2023 conference, which was organized by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a group that has been working to gain Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD and related ailments since the late 1980s. That approval is likely to come in the next year.
We produced a 30-minute documentary about what is rightly called today's "psychedelic renaissance," or a new flourishing of substances and subcultures that mostly went underground at the end of the 1960s but are now popping up everywhere: in medical research, therapeutic settings, the arts, the workplace, you name it. Watch the documentary here.
The most surprising speaker at the conference was Rick Perry, the former Texas governor and Trump administration energy secretary. What in tarnation was a conservative Republican doing on the stage, extolling the virtues of drugs long associated with hippies and '60s counterculture?
I sat down with Perry to learn why he believes psychedelics should be legal medicine for veterans and others suffering from PTSD, how to allow more immigrants to come to America lawfully, and why if he were ever to take a psychedelic drug it would be Ibogaine, a notoriously powerful substance made from the bark of an African tree.
Photo Credits: Riccardo Savi/Sipa USA/Newscom; Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom; Bob Daemmrich/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; David Peinado/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Kgjerstad, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Marco Schmidt, CC-BY-SA-2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
Music Credits: "The Ride" by Itamar Doari via Artlist

Пікірлер: 92

  • @JackMadison-gl7jr
    @JackMadison-gl7jr4 ай бұрын

    Psychedelics helped me get out of years of addiction and depression. They really helped me.

  • @JacksonDavis-dw3we

    @JacksonDavis-dw3we

    4 ай бұрын

    I’ve been looking to try out shrooms. Anyone knows where I can source some?

  • @HalieBennett-rr5hz

    @HalieBennett-rr5hz

    4 ай бұрын

    dr.scottshrooms is your guy. The best shrooms and psychedelics guy I know.

  • @BrettPeters-hq6wn

    @BrettPeters-hq6wn

    4 ай бұрын

    He's on instgram??

  • @WilliamRobert-zk7rc

    @WilliamRobert-zk7rc

    4 ай бұрын

    Yes

  • @ChadGriffith-sm5dn

    @ChadGriffith-sm5dn

    4 ай бұрын

    I had my first experience with golden teachers, it was really great.

  • @rustynails68
    @rustynails6810 ай бұрын

    Politicians appear dramatically more reasonable and thoughtful when they retire.

  • @kaveman_realh9224

    @kaveman_realh9224

    10 ай бұрын

    Yeah, it’s almost like you have to leave your brain and/or soul at the front desk like a credit card or your driver’s license when you enter public office in this country.

  • @roymarshall_

    @roymarshall_

    10 ай бұрын

    You do not win democratic elections with nuance

  • @robertsmalls3513

    @robertsmalls3513

    10 ай бұрын

    They’re no longer beholden to special interests at that point

  • @Justin_Beaver564

    @Justin_Beaver564

    10 ай бұрын

    LOL so true.

  • @greatunwashed1

    @greatunwashed1

    10 ай бұрын

    US politics is like professional wrestling. When you're in DC, you got to keep up the kayfabe.

  • @jerrykurtyka9512
    @jerrykurtyka951210 ай бұрын

    26 years in Texas and this is the first time I've seen this man as a fellow human being. I'll listen to what he has to say now.

  • @avajohnson2636
    @avajohnson263610 ай бұрын

    Psychedelic’s definitely have potential to deal with mental health symptoms like anxiety and depression, I would like to try them again but it’s just so hard to source here

  • @eufemialoughary9642

    @eufemialoughary9642

    10 ай бұрын

    LSD and mushrooms completely changed my whole outlook on life. I became a better version of myself This experience gave me a lot of confidence about my self and my body. A bunch of bad thought / behavior patterns were broken. One of these was pretty bad OCD that made me wash my hands a lot. It gave me a lot of hope that things will be fine, this is the one thing that I heard throughout the trip: Everything is alright. The main reason for the trip was my severe depression and it definitely helped me (although it's not gone). Before all I could do was lay in bed. Now I am trying to rebuild my life one step at a time which wasn't possible before."

  • @MarcoGuiterrez-bo7hg

    @MarcoGuiterrez-bo7hg

    10 ай бұрын

    trip_vardy Got psychedelics

  • @NAKEDwolff

    @NAKEDwolff

    10 ай бұрын

    Loved this. I battle from depression, anxiety & C-PTSD, I’ve heard shrooms cured depression. Wish doctors were more open to natural medicines over big pharma but we know why

  • @avajohnson2636

    @avajohnson2636

    10 ай бұрын

    @@MarcoGuiterrez-bo7hg where to search is it IG?

  • @LillyHO2

    @LillyHO2

    10 ай бұрын

    One of my best experience in my life was doing lsd and writing a paper on my interpretation of God and how the universe works, it was amazing and I got an A in the college class of comparative religion

  • @herzogsbuick
    @herzogsbuick10 ай бұрын

    Having seen Rick Perry run against Ron Paul in 2012, and just...in general...this is a different Rick Perry. That takes a lot for me to say, but he seems so...calm and pensive. Still politicking with names and stuff but, that's a trait that gets you elected. I'm not sure I liked Nick putting him on the spot about having used psychedelics, because this is rather nascent...but if this Rick Perry hasn't done mushrooms I'm fucking Miles Davis, there's no goddamn way he changed this much. Or maybe there is, wtf do I know.

  • @smitty7592

    @smitty7592

    10 ай бұрын

    See if you can find the 60 minutes piece on veterans doing private security for the cannabis farms in Colorado right after it went legal in that state. I did not have to be a user in order to understand the positive impact it was having for these veterans who were basically protecting something they had a vested interest in its survival. This single story changed my opinion on nationwide cannabis legalization. I think my point is that you can recognize the impact, positive or negative of something without having actually experienced it. Then again, you are welcome to go try fentanyl, heroin, and tranq to ultimately experience what it is like to live homeless on the streets of any metropolitan city...or you can just see that that is the result and believe it to be true.

  • @slackerbelmont
    @slackerbelmont10 ай бұрын

    Biases aside, Mr. Perry seems to be the type that speaks from his core and is intellectually humble enough to point you elsewhere for information when he thinks that source is better.

  • @SirBlackReeds

    @SirBlackReeds

    10 ай бұрын

    He still didn't discuss the issue of psychedelics flipping red states blue.

  • @conorwatters3474
    @conorwatters34749 ай бұрын

    great video. appreciated hearing Perry speak at the Conference. these medicines can and do help vets! and I support that immigration stance. appreciate Perry's level-headedness here.

  • @bobharris7401
    @bobharris740110 ай бұрын

    OMG, I am so ecstatic to Perry be on the side of this subject. Perry 2028. Where do I donate?

  • @DoniTheMisfit
    @DoniTheMisfit10 ай бұрын

    It shouldn't have ever been illegal in the first place, but better than going in the opposite direction.

  • @candidcamel
    @candidcamel3 ай бұрын

    Rick Perry passes the vibe check ✅

  • @andrewcain6518
    @andrewcain651810 ай бұрын

    If you think that a person isn't in charge of their consciousness, then you aren't a conservative.

  • @SirBlackReeds

    @SirBlackReeds

    10 ай бұрын

    Tell that to Laura Stack. A small snippet from her article about what legalizing pot did to Colorado. "My son, Johnny, was 14 at that time. Five years later, he died by suicide after becoming psychotic from ‘dabbing’ HiTHCpot (no other drugs in his system). Johnny had been diagnosed with “THC abuse - severe” by a psychiatric hospital." Speaking of which, does Colorado mean nothing to you?

  • @trombone113

    @trombone113

    10 ай бұрын

    @sirblackreeds - I can certainly see your point. But what you wrote is basied on emotion and bias. I feel so sorry that you lost your son. Suicide is such a difficult thing to deal with that most of us know nothing about. No system will ever be perfect. And some people will always get the short stick. But the simple fact is, your son's suicide was going to happen if pot were illegal in Colorado. He had a VERY addictive personality and he was going to smoke pot regardless. There is nothing the state could have done and there is nothing YOU could have done to stop it. You need to stop blaming others, including yourself for his death. I am also HIGHLY suspect of their diagnosis. Just because pot was the only drug in his system at the time of his death doesn't mean that is what precipitated it or that was the only drug he used. My brother has smoked weed all his life. Talking to him about it recently I learned that if he has too much, he gets very paranoid, to include heart palpitations. So he microdoses. He said it still relieves a tremendous amount of inflamation and pain in his body. I have taken large doses of ibuprofen for inflamation my entire life as that seems to work for me. And in March I quit taking hydrocodone I had been on for 12 years not because the pain was gone (other than inflamation) but because my pain was much worse. I knew that if I were to go up on the doses, I would suffer from horrible side effects. For example, the difference between pain relif and horrible, inceasent itching was less than 1 pill at the smallest dose. So I could not go up on the dose. I quit on my own but under my doctors care. When I explained what I wanted to do and why, I got no hesistation from her at all. And I go to the V.A. for just about everything. I truly hope your son is at peace now. I just hope that one day you will be able to live in peace as well.

  • @MegaAndy93
    @MegaAndy9310 ай бұрын

    Can he run for the Rep nomination pls and thank you

  • @robertsmalls3513

    @robertsmalls3513

    10 ай бұрын

    I would prefer that he runs against John Cornyn in the Senate primary tbh. More effective that way

  • @kayp.3832

    @kayp.3832

    9 ай бұрын

    That would be an excellent choice actually!@@robertsmalls3513

  • @Embassy_of_Jupiter
    @Embassy_of_Jupiter10 ай бұрын

    More mentally healthy people via psychedelics = more healthy mothers and fathers, more social cohesion, less medical spending, better outcomes for verterans, more economic growth, etc.. What's not to like?

  • @thegrimharvest

    @thegrimharvest

    10 ай бұрын

    Whats not to love? Literally everything you just said. If the end goal is maximum probability for pharmaceutical companies. Happy healthy socially cohesive people won't need what they're selling. Won't someone please think of the shareholders and the CEO's bonuses? Pharmaceutical companies selling limited/questionably effective products that inevitably cause just as many problems as they're intended to address. Which then unsurprisingly need to be treated with other products of also limited/questionable effectiveness, which also can (and often do) both create whole new side effects by themselves and/or because of their interactions with the original substance. Take a pill for a problem only to get ten more problems and need ten more pills for those problems, which will also create problems you need a pill to address. And at some point one of the pills will cause the initial symptom and the circle will be complete. The end user will be worse off than before they started, and potentially altered in ways that are irreversible. But at least the stock value for the company is good and profits are up. And if they should start to slump, just convince more people that they have conditions that only the pills can fix. Even if it costs a small initial investment in spreading a little walking around money among certain mental health agencies. Just they spread the wealth around via doctors while telling them Oxy wasn't addictive, and they should prescribe it as much and as often as possible. Gotta spend it to earn it and all that, after all. Just make sure no matter what happens, that the plebs believe they need what the pharmaceutical company is selling.

  • @SirBlackReeds

    @SirBlackReeds

    10 ай бұрын

    And what if it backfires? What if what happened to Colorado after it legalized weed happens nationwide? Do you think the Blue States of America is the way to go?

  • @dougmurrayshow
    @dougmurrayshow10 ай бұрын

    On this subject, he seems thoughtful and practical. My intuition is that ibogaine might have have already been in the picture. If a trip to Mexico to legally use a substance that is already known to be safe and effective, was the only thing standing in the way of getting the treatment, I'm not sure why he would wait till age 80+ to use it.

  • @fss1704

    @fss1704

    10 ай бұрын

    i'm not with the people above, there's research being done in a stuff better than ibg in brazil, can't name it, but starts with calix and the other part is the 4 start letters from the white flour compound.

  • @johnslugger
    @johnslugger10 ай бұрын

    *Every conservative wants to meet GOD. This is a quick way to take a peak.*

  • @actualgod6108
    @actualgod610810 ай бұрын

    Nice

  • @looneycrow7978
    @looneycrow79789 ай бұрын

    I heard ibogane gives horrid headaches but it does sound interesting.

  • @julian9898
    @julian98989 ай бұрын

    I mean… this interview was pretty trippy 😂😂😂

  • @chasemartin4450
    @chasemartin445010 ай бұрын

    The conservative case for psychedelics: freedom. The progressive case for psychedelics: freedom. The libertarian case for psychedelics: freedom. ALL THE RIGHTS FOR ALL THE PEOPLE!

  • @Melissa0774
    @Melissa077410 ай бұрын

    I think scientist should be allowed to research whatever substance they want. Maybe there would have to be a special government lab that should be the only place in the country that's allowed to produce the drugs for the research studies. But other than that, I say let the IRBs, (institutional review boards,) at the universities and hospitals handle it, as far as the safety and ethics are concerned. They already do all kinds of other human research that doesn't involve drugs, but nonetheless could still be dangerous or unethical if it wasn't done right. But they've made a lot of reforms and they're doing fine. The Milgrim experiment days are over.

  • @Metaphoria_Music

    @Metaphoria_Music

    10 ай бұрын

    I would't trust them with anything after this: kzread.info/dash/bejne/lJtms6mak7nSnqw.htmlsi=P8uwxF7MRVimjwzz

  • @johnslugger
    @johnslugger10 ай бұрын

    *Growing up in the 1970's and 1980's 90% of Republican kids I know where into at least 3 to 4 drugs both soft and hard.*

  • @jamespatterson1989
    @jamespatterson198910 ай бұрын

    Glad to see them taking up a good cause, but I can't help but think that if psychedelics didn't help tHe tRoOpS that no conservative would give a shit about it.

  • @emilholst9789
    @emilholst978910 ай бұрын

    Speak up Rick FFS, you are on mick!

  • @thenextbigthing3167
    @thenextbigthing31679 ай бұрын

    It felt wierd watching this after i knew he was on the side of drugs when hes never done any

  • @Machinegundon64
    @Machinegundon649 ай бұрын

    Am I going to do research and find out he is getting paid by some lobbyists?

  • @user-kl9sr4ry6s
    @user-kl9sr4ry6s10 ай бұрын

    Oo

  • @abe_ismain
    @abe_ismain9 ай бұрын

    This is good place for money to go to! 😅

  • @sameeryoussef4911
    @sameeryoussef491110 ай бұрын

    Will psychedelics help prevent the US military crossing US borders and causing real PTSD for innocent victims?