How Psilocybin Answered My Gun Questions

I don’t talk about it outside a tight circle of people, but recovering from Traumatic Brain Injury is a difficult and emotional journey. As a person that could remember 10 digit grids on-the-run, not being able to remember the six digit security code between apps on the phone was scary.

After a few years of diagnosis and unsuccessful conventional treatment, Heroic Hearts Project offered me an alternative treatment in Costa Rica. It changed my life and created a path to recovery. Five years later, I’d confidently say that my memory is 95% recovered, I’m happier, and just about everything in life is better.

Because of our culture and legal system, we can’t talk about it openly. And it’s a shame because I’ve personally witnessed this type of treatment work for veterans and first responders. When the Psychedelic Medicine Alliance of Washington helped get Senate Bill 5263 in front of Washington State legislators, it was time to step up and help our community receive a natural treatment for post traumatic stress and TBIs.

If you want to support this effort you can click this link to support. If you want to learn more, visit the Heroic Hearts Project website.

I learned a lot in this legislative process, but it’s not what you think.

Getting any legal change pushed through takes time, effort, and money. The process involves hiring a professional to coordinate meetings with representatives and session testimonies–it’s boring AF. Instead of doing the standard swiping of social media while waiting for my turn to speak, I sat and listened.

Testimonies ranged from issues surrounding Hepatitis A, universal health care coverage, drug addiction screenings for inmates getting released, manufacturing challenges, etc.. The volume, variety, and depth of the challenges felt overwhelming. But those that spend their time preparing, rehearsing, and executing per the process tend to get things done.

Whether we like it or not, our “tac/mil/le” community is exceptionally judgmental of those that don’t look like us, talk like us, or think like us. And that was the overwhelming majority of people sitting beside me at the testimony. I can’t say that I agreed with everything they said, but I had to respect the people putting in the work.

As I sat there, my questions about Washington’s anti-gun laws were answered. The anti-gun community simply put in the work, time, and money. “Our” community’s response wasn’t suits and well rehearsed testimony–it was derpy 2A advocates that don’t believe in cardio toting guns around the Capitol to “exercise their rights.” (Super bad look) If it wasn’t the public media shitshow, it was frantic online banter that had zero impact on legislators.


Photo Cred ( The Olympian )

Look, I get it. Criminals don’t obey laws. The Government is evil. The ability to own a firearm is a right granted to Americans by the Constitution. And even if it wasn’t, people should be able to defend themselves, family, and communities from criminals. We’ll “Molon Labe” with the best of them.

But the constitution is a living document. Look it up. It will change if a mass of people put in the time, effort, and money.

What I learned: They’re simply outperforming us.

Maybe if we want to keep our rights or change our communities for the better, we should get a haircut, trim the beard, exercise, plan, rehearse, and execute in a professional manner. Trying to broker any deal with a gun in plain sight is sketchy at best and adds fuel to the opponent’s fire.

For all you keyboard commandos and 2A tacti-bros, you've spent the last few years criticizing administrations and prepping for the future that will probably never come. Maybe it's time to step up, put in the work and defend your rights in a meaningful way.

They’re showing up and outworking you.