In 2023, former Texas governor and Trump Energy Secretary Rick Perry stepped on to the stage at a big conference put on by Maps, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.

Thank you.

And he said what a lot of people in the crowd may have been thinking.

What in the hell is that dude doing on this stage?

Talking about me.

Here was a member of the Republican Party, the party behind the war on drugs in the 1980s

and all the PSAs that came with it.

This is your brain on drugs.

Speaking about the potential healing benefits of LSD, psilocybin, and ayahuasca.

I just know government can really F something up if we don't do this right.

And I want us to make sure that we do it right.

While some may have been surprised to see someone like Perry on that stage, the founder of

MAPS, Rick Doblin, wasn't.

He said, quote, it's not that I'm tripping, it's that culture is tipping.

Well, two years later, the culture has tipped even further.

Perry was instrumental in convincing Texas lawmakers to launch a taxpayer-funded study

of a drug called Ibogaine. Some NFL players, including Aaron Rogers and former jet safety

Kerry Rhodes, say psychedelics have done wonders for their mental health. And in Washington,

D.C., you know, the preliminary results are very, very encouraging, and it's something that we want to pursue.

Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and FDA chief, Dr. Marty McCarrie, are promising to speed up the review process for some of these potential treatments.

So how did this shift happen?

And do advocates think Republicans embracing mind-altering drugs is the right move?

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