President Joe Biden’s younger brother Frank said in a radio interview Wednesday that the president has been “very open-minded” about the use of psychedelics as a form of medical treatment, particularly for addiction.
During a phone interview with Sirius XM radio’s Michael Smerconish, Frank Biden expanded on discussions the host had put forward regarding a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) piece titled, “Magic Mushrooms. LSD. Ketamine. The Drugs That Power Silicon Valley.”
“He is very open-minded,” Frank Biden said of the president. “The question is, is the world, is the U.S. ready for this? My opinion is that we are on the cusp of a consciousness that needs to be brought about to solve a lot of the problems in and around addiction, but as importantly, to make us aware of the fact that we’re all one people and we’ve got to come together,” he told Smerconish.
Frank Biden, a recovering alcoholic for many years, told the host his addiction has prompted his interest in the topic.
I hope @potus will say so on record: Biden’s brother says the president is ‘very open-minded’ about psychedelics for medical treatment https://t.co/OViDldFR39
— Michael Smerconish (@smerconish) June 29, 2023
Reporters Kirstin Grind and Katherine Findley reported in their WSJ piece that routine drug use has become the norm in the corporate culture of Silicon Valley, citing Elon Musk’s purported use of ketamine for depression. Musk, himself, weighed in on the discussion, tweeting his belief of the “zombifying” effect of anti-depressants, saying that from what he’s witnessed from friends, “ketamine is the better option.” (RELATED: Study Shows How Psychedelics Work Better And Faster Than Antidepressants)
“In the 1950s, the federal government looked deeply into the application of psychedelics for the treatment of addiction. They had magnificent success,” Frank Biden told Smerconish.
Biden further explained that through the use of psychedelics test subjects were able to separate themselves from the underlying trauma causing their addiction. He then went on to differentiate between the recreational use of psychedelics and the use of it for medical reasons, telling Smerconish he supported the latter.
Biden argued the only reason psychedelics weren’t widely accepted as a medical treatment option is because of the “innate prejudice” surrounding the use of them due to the widespread recreational use of the drugs in the 1960s just as they were being applied clinically.