Letter to the Editor: Save our veterans’ lives

Seventy Iowa veterans commit suicide every year, because the best available treatment for PTSD is illegal.

That’s right, the government prefers to fight the failed Drug War, rather than save veterans’ lives.

MDMA-assisted therapy is the gold standard treatment for PTSD and is already in Phase 3 trials with the FDA. It has demonstrated a 65 percent lifetime cure rate. There is absolutely no other effective medicine or therapy available to treat PTSD.

But MDMA itself is illegal in the United States, and in Iowa, because of the Drug War. Cocaine is legal, with a prescription. Methamphetamine is legal, with a prescription. Morphine is legal, with a prescription. MDMA is not. Because of the failed Drug War.

For this reason, I have asked Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds to call an emergency special session of the Iowa legislature, for the purpose of legalizing MDMA in Iowa, with a prescription, for Iowa veterans. I have also asked all 150 Iowa legislators to support this request, but the response has been tepid.

Every Iowa veteran, and every Iowan who claims to support our troops, needs to call or write their two Iowa legislators. Ask them – will you stand by, while Iowa veterans die?

I won’t.

Rick Stewart

Cedar Rapids

Libertarian candidate for Iowa Governor