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Sally Roberts has fought battles in both the wrestling ring and the war zone — but none prepared her for the fight she faced after coming home.
Years after her U.S. Army deployment to Afghanistan, national champion wrestler Roberts dealt with nightmares, depression and thoughts of suicide that were shaped by childhood trauma, combat stress and the demands of running a business during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Therapy helped, but only to a point. Medications numbed her pain but didn’t heal it. Then she tried something she never expected: psychedelic therapy.
Roberts claims the treatment saved her life — and now she and other advocates are urging North Carolina lawmakers to take it seriously.
From MDMA (known commonly as ecstasy) to psilocybin (also known as magic mushrooms) to ibogaine (a traditional African plant), psychedelic-assisted therapy is being studied as a potential treatment for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and substance use disorders. The treatment involves taking a psychedelic substance in a controlled setting, typically paired with guided psychotherapy to help patients process trauma or break addiction cycles.
With N.C. Senate Bill 568 under consideration, these veterans want North Carolina to get out front in this use to treat trauma.
“This is not a red or blue issue,” Luke Focer, a former Marine sniper who spoke in favor of the bill at a June news conference, said. “This is an American issue.”
Psychedelics ‘saved my life’
PTSD often develops after traumatic experiences such as combat, sexual assault or serious accidents. These memories can be so overwhelming that the brain walls them off — they become locked away in the amygdala, the brain’s fear center, according to Glenn Withrow, a Chapel Hill physician and proponent of SB568. Even if a person isn’t actively thinking about the trauma, it can resurface without warning — a loud noise, a smell or a sudden movement can trigger intense fear, panic or dissociation, he said.
Standard treatments — like cognitive behavioral therapy and antidepressants — can dull the intensity of the symptoms, which helps manage anxiety or depression, but they do not address the root of the trauma, according to Withrow. Antidepressants can take six to eight weeks to kick in and have about a 34 percent efficacy rate. These treatments can be life-saving, but they often fall short, Withrow said.
Proponents of psychedelics argue that the controversial class of substances offers a different way.
Focer and Roberts traveled abroad to Mexico for psychedelic therapy with ibogaine, which Roberts said gave her “a second chance at life, a do-over.”
“[It] absolutely saved my life,” she said. “I had made the decision that if, for any reason, I went down to Mexico for ibogaine, and it did not work, that I was not going to come back alive because I could no longer live in the state of despair that I was in.”
Ibogaine, a powerful neuroactive substance, can disrupt the brain’s addiction circuitry. Proponents say it eases withdrawal and brings traumatic memories to the surface in vivid, emotionally intense ways. A study from Stanford Medicine and anecdotal reports suggest it may help with PTSD and substance use disorders.
But ibogaine remains a Schedule I substance, considered to have no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. With no FDA-approved trials underway, many people spend thousands seeking treatment in countries like Costa Rica or Mexico despite health risks — including several deaths linked to heart conditions or lack of medical oversight.
“These young men and women we send into the hell of war, they shouldn’t have to go to Mexico or South America to get treatment,” Withrow said.
Other psychedelics like MDMA, psilocybin and ketamine — an anesthetic for humans and animals — are also being studied for treatment-resistant mental health conditions. But in 2024, an FDA advisory panel voted against approving MDMA-assisted therapy, citing concerns over trial design, therapist misconduct and safety gaps. Critics also question the long-term effects and whether psychedelics can be safely integrated into mainstream care.
That’s why researchers and advocates emphasize pairing these treatments with medical screening, trained therapists and careful monitoring.
“There are a number of medicines that can be prescribed … you’re going to have consequences from, and these are really no different,” Logan Davidson, the legislative director for Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions, said. “Doing it in the right setting is so critically important, and that is doing it in the health care setting.”
‘A very effective tool’
Senate Bill 568, introduced in March, would not legalize psychedelics in North Carolina. Instead, it aims to prepare for the possibility that FDA approval for certain substances may come in the next few years.
The bill proposes a 16-member task force of veterans, clinicians, tribal leaders, researchers and public health officials. They would study the risks, benefits, regulatory barriers and ethical concerns around psychedelic-assisted therapy. The task force would also be charged with evaluating how to implement treatment safely and equitably if federal approval is granted.
“If you take your time to think about what you’re doing, it’s kind of a higher likelihood that you might get it right,” Davidson said. “North Carolina is a key leader in the United States, and other states can look to North Carolina for leadership with this kind of thing.”
The bill has wide-ranging bipartisan sponsorship, including from progressive Democratic Sen. Sophia Chitlik of Durham and conservative Republican Sen. Bobby Hanig of Powell’s Point. Advocates say the bill represents a cautious step toward addressing the state’s veteran mental health crisis with evidence-based tools.
“I’m not going to say that it eliminates the risk of abuse, nor is it a cure,” Davidson said. “There is no silver bullet. But it’s a very effective tool that we can add to providers’ toolboxes for a crisis that we currently don’t have many effective tools for.”
Though referred to the Senate rules and operations committee in March, SB 568 never advanced to a floor vote or passed its crossover deadline of May 8, meaning it cannot become law this session. It could become law, though, if the language is added to another piece of legislation before the session ends in 2026.
‘States can lead’
Psychedelic policy has evolved rapidly across the country. Oregon decriminalized psilocybin for therapeutic use in 2020, but a number of cities there have started walking back their approval. Colorado decriminalized psilocybin in 2023. Texas has begun funding research into psychedelics for veterans. The Department of Veterans Affairs recently launched its first psychedelic trials in decades, and the Department of Defense has put $9.8 million into MDMA research.
“Right now we’re facing a federal government that’s cutting back on veterans benefits and veterans programs, which is just the opposite of what’s needed,” Withrow said. “States can lead the way.”
Still, the regulatory framework remains fragmented: Who would benefit from these therapies first? Would insurance companies cover them? How could practitioners be trained to safely administer such powerful treatments?
Davidson said the task force aims to create a framework ahead of federal approval, so trained providers and insurance coverage would be in place to ensure broad access if and when treatment becomes available.
“We trust the FDA. We know they’re working on this, but people need care now,” he said. “You can start to work on these problems before they actually happen.”
For now, psychedelic-assisted therapy is largely out of reach for most North Carolinians. But if federal approval comes — and if state policymakers approve — a bill like SB568 could position North Carolina to roll out treatment.
“This is of North Carolinians, for North Carolinians, by North Carolinians,” Davidson said. “The folks who live here, who know what their state needs, have gotten together and agreed that this is something that’s promising and agreed that this is the best step forward.”
This article first appeared on North Carolina Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
