🫠 Psychonaut POV

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the psychedelics newsletter that wouldn’t bet against Texas. They’ve got rattlesnakes… and Topo Chico.

Amber Capone never imagined she’d have to choose between her children and her Navy SEAL husband. Fortunately, it didn’t come to that. Ibogaine turned Marcus from a shell of himself back into the charismatic man she'd met at 17. Then, Amber built VETS Inc., a nonprofit that's since guided 1,000 veterans to psychedelic healing abroad.

We asked Amber about the family crisis that pushed her to the edge, how creating the documentary "In Waves and War" affected her, and why Texas might be America's most promising battleground for psychedelic medicine reform.

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Can you share the personal turning point that led you to founding a nonprofit dedicated to psychedelic treatments for veterans?

My husband Marcus served 13 years as a Navy SEAL, and as a family, we sort of adopted that same mindset. We had a very high tolerance for suffering and didn't realize how dysfunctional our life had become. It wasn't until my daughter said to me, "Mom, how much longer do we have to do this?" after another challenging episode that I realized what I was subjecting our children to wasn't normal or sustainable.

I realized that I more or less had to choose our children or Marcus. Of course I was inclined to choose my children, but by doing that, I was almost ensuring they would live a life without their father. I knew Marcus was struggling with suicidal ideation and feeling like he was such a burden to the family. I thought, if the worst really does happen, I want to know we tried everything.

At that point it felt like, what do we have to lose? One friend had reported that ibogaine was a life-changing experience, so I trusted him and convinced Marcus to take this leap of faith. When I saw him after the treatment, it was like seeing him when I first met him at 17. Instantly, his mood was stabilized, his countenance was different, his anxiety was gone, his depression was lifted, and most importantly, his cognition returned. Even his eyes were different. He was back.

Seeing something so efficacious in such a short period of time, I thought others in our community might also benefit. We just had to find a way to help our friends.

The new documentary In Waves and War shares your family's story so openly. What surprised you most through the process of producing the film?

I don't think I realized how hard it would be or how vulnerable you need to be for it to resonate with audiences. We went into this project thinking that if it helps one person—if it saves one life—there was nothing to shield. It was this radical vulnerability that we felt compelled to share, and the others in the film felt the same.

When you have cameras in your home or sit down for an interview, especially when you've done it a number of times, you tend to forget that it’s going to be on a big screen one day. That's great in the moment because it allows you to be open, but there was this real sense of panic the first time it premiered at Telluride Film Festival. I had a mild freak out. “What did we do? Was this a mistake?” I didn’t want our story to be politicized or judged.

It has been received so well, though. The documentary touches on the SEAL teams, 9/11, how our country and veterans answered the call without knowing they were getting into 20 years of sustained conflict, and then some of the fallout from that. The filmmakers were intent on depicting the scenes of the ibogaine journeys themselves, so they worked with a studio out of the UK on rotoscoping animation. Those scenes really add a special element to the film. It's a lot of emotion, but audiences have generally felt really compelled to get behind this movement after seeing it.

The Texas Ibogaine Initiative seems to have some momentum behind it. What makes you confident this bill has a real shot at passing, especially in a traditionally conservative state?

The Texas Ibogaine Initiative would fund clinical research into ibogaine treatment for veterans with PTSD and those struggling with opioid addiction. There's a lot of excitement and momentum, primarily around Texas being a leader and such a patriotic state committed to veteran issues. Every person that has played a key pivotal role in advancing this has been willing to take a very measured but bold risk.

Texas has already led in this regard. We advocated for the passage of HB 1802 back in 2021, which established a state-funded study of psilocybin for veterans with PTSD—the first time a state had dedicated funds specifically to psychedelic research. We're working with Logan Davidson, who was pivotal in the passage of the previous legislation, and I think with the same strategy and precise messaging, we can do the same with the Texas Ibogaine Initiative.

What I love most about Texas is that decisions are rooted in common sense. It's like, we've got a problem, this might be a solution, so let's get after it. Texas is bold in that regard, and I respect it. If they're able to enroll people struggling with opioid use disorder into these trials as well, it could start a tidal wave across our country that could directly combat this horrific opioid epidemic, the suicide epidemic, and the epidemic of suffering in our society broadly.

Why focus specifically on ibogaine rather than other psychedelics or plant medicines?

First of all, VETS as an organization does not solely advocate for ibogaine. We provide funding for overseas retreats or research for six different psychedelic compounds: ibogaine or iboga, 5-MeO-DMT, ketamine, psilocybin, MDMA, and ayahuasca. They come to us having done their due diligence and present a grant plan requesting money for specific retreats. But of the 900-plus grant recipients, well over 90% choose to do the same iboga protocol that Marcus did.

The collaborative study we did with Stanford suggested that ibogaine had properties or capabilities that other psychedelics may not have. They looked primarily at traumatic brain injury, along with a host of other measures like PTSD scale, depression, anxiety, cognitive functioning, executive functioning, disability rating, and suicidality. Everything trended so aggressively in the right direction that it's gotten the attention of many researchers and clinicians as holding really significant promise.

From the conversations I've had, there's a hesitancy amongst lawmakers to get behind LSD, MDMA, or psilocybin research because there are more recreational components tied to those narratives. Ibogaine is very different. It's administered in a medical setting, it's not a “fun” experience for most people, and there's very little potential for abuse. However, it's still classified as Schedule I—meaning, no medical value and a high potential for abuse—which is the total opposite of reality.

VETS has helped nearly 1,000 veterans access treatments abroad, but the goal is clearly to make these therapies available at home. What’s your vision for the next five years?

I would love to see Texas be successful with the ibogaine initiative and for clinical trials to start on ibogaine. As a nonprofit, we would love to be “put out of business” because these treatments are available here in the United States, but just getting something through FDA clinical trials is not enough.

We aren’t on the decriminalization bandwagon only because we feel like the compounds are so powerful, they could potentially be destabilizing. They should be clinically guided with proper preparation and integration support. This is a life-changing opportunity; you don't want it to be a life-upending experience because someone is not properly supported.

We do envision these being clinically available and hopefully covered in some way. The reason so many people are trying to get into our program is because we provide the full subsidy for veterans to receive the treatments. Even with MDMA, assuming it makes it through the FDA process, you're talking about $15,000 or more to go through the treatment protocol. How do we help offset those costs?

In five years, do I think everything can be solved? Probably not, because we're still working within a system that's very slow to change. But we've made significant progress in just over five years. I hope MDMA makes it through FDA clinical trials, followed by psilocybin. This could be a revolution in mental health care. In the next five years, I hope that our suicide rates are decreasing and our satisfaction with life as a society is increasing.

Want more from Amber?

Get support exploring psychedelic therapy, donate to VETS, or join her in ending the veteran suicide epidemic as a volunteer.

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DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice. The use, possession, and distribution of psychedelic drugs are illegal in most countries and may result in criminal prosecution.