Melissa Lavasani And “Whiz” Buckley On Psychedelic Trends In 2025
Happy Black Friday, and in this special Trade To Black episode, Melissa Lavasani, CEO of Psychedelic Medicine, and former Top Gun Fighter Pilot Matthew “Whiz” Buckley join us to talk about industry projections for 2025. Many are anticipating that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presence in Trump’s cabinet will have a positive impact on the cannabis industry, but we haven’t delved as deeply into the implications for psychedelics.
Some of the strongest supporters for the legalization of psychedelics have personal impact stories, and RFK Jr. has his own. His son participated in an ayahuasca ceremony in Patagonia which helped him process the grief of losing his mother, Mary Richardson Kennedy, who died by suicide in 2012.
Melissa Lavasani, CEO of the Psychedelic Medicine Coalition, will explain how she believes RFK Jr.’s support for psychedelics as the HHS Secretary is a truly pivotal moment. This represents a major shift in political attitudes toward psychedelics, particularly within federal agencies like HHS, where career staff have long been quietly advancing this work despite previous administration’s hesitation.
We’re always glad to welcome back Wiz Buckley, a former Top Gun fighter pilot and founder of No Fallen Heroes, because of his important work in veteran healthcare. There’s a desperately urgent need for better treatment protocols for disorders such as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and treatment-resistant depression. Standard treatment success rates for these disorders are abysmal, sometimes as low as single digits, and psychedelics have been showing potential in filling the gap. Both guests agree that veterans’ mental health could be a key bipartisan driver for advancing psychedelic therapies within the VA system.
Melissa and Wiz note the presence of a strategic delay by larger corporations in adopting psychedelics. Smaller psychedelic companies will likely be the ones to innovate and prove viability, only to be acquired by larger firms once profitability is demonstrated and the risks are minimal. This dynamic could pose problematic in maintaining the integrity of psychedelic therapies as they integrate into for-profit healthcare systems.
But there’s hope. Melissa outlines legislative opportunities for psychedelics with the new administration, predicting more proactive measures from Congress to integrate psychedelics into veteran healthcare at least. She advocates for creating a coordinated research framework within the VA, leveraging its position as the largest healthcare provider in the US.
