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Ground Game — Government
Ground Game

The science on psychedelic therapy is accelerating, and the policy is trying to catch up. The people caught in between are the ones who need affordable, accessible care and can’t get it yet. Ground Game, from the Center for Psychedelic Policy, talks to the researchers, clinicians, and advocates working at that intersection, translating the momentum into something legislators, funders, and advocates can act on. The podcast is hosted by Sam Chapman, who led the campaign that created the first regulated psilocybin program in the nation.

Copyright: © 2026 Center for Psychedelic Policy

Latest Episodes:

Amy Charlesworth: Healing Veterans and First Responders with Psilocybin Sep 11, 2026

Show notes

Amy Charlesworth spent 16 years in the Army before she found herself suicidal, having exhausted every conventional treatment the VA system had to offer. A single retreat experience with psilocybin changed that trajectory, and she's spent the years since as a licensed Oregon facilitator whose practice centers on veterans and first responders.

Amy and Sam Chapman break down her 12-week program of preparation, journey, and integration, all before tackling a difficult question: what do you tell someone who's suicidal and wants this therapy, when regulations often treat that population as too high-risk to serve? The episode closes with concrete ways to get involved, from Oregon's public comment sessions to meeting with your own legislator.

About the Guest

Amy Charlesworth is a 16-year Army veteran and an Oregon-licensed psilocybin facilitator whose practice is centered on serving military veterans and first responders, with a growing focus on end-of-life care. She is an official facilitator with Oregon Health & Science University's ongoing research into treatment efficacy over time, and she serves on Oregon's Rules Advisory Committee for the psilocybin program.

Resources

Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) Public Listening Sessions
Center for Psychedelic Policy
To share your story or connect with your legislator: sam@cppolicy.org

Sponsors

Tricycle Day, the leading psychedelic newsletter
Althea, the trusted guide to legal psychedelic care in Oregon and Colorado

Sen. Jeff Steinborn: How New Mexico Created Psilocybin Access Through the Legislature Jul 16, 2026

Show notes

Senator Jeff Steinborn didn't know much about psilocybin therapy when a constituent called him the week before the 2024 legislative session. What followed ended with New Mexico becoming the first state legislature in the country to pass a psilocybin access program. SB 219 passed through the Legislature by a large margin, but the path wasn't always certain.

Steinborn walks through the committees that nearly killed it, the veterans who showed up and changed the room, and the decisions that made it work: getting the Department of Health in before a single word was drafted, building a bipartisan coalition in a space that has historically split along party lines, and knowing which messenger to send into which room.

If you work in psychedelic policy, this is the clearest account yet of what it actually takes to get a bill across the finish line.
About the Guest

Jeff Steinborn has served in the New Mexico Legislature since 2013, first as a Representative and as a Senator since 2017. He is an organizer and environmental advocate by profession and has been a leading voice on cannabis policy, environmental protection, and more. He was the chief sponsor of Senate Bill 219, the first psilocybin access program passed by a state legislature in U.S. history, signed into law in April 2025.
Resources

Sponsors

Tricycle Day, the leading psychedelic newsletter
Althea, the trusted guide to legal psychedelic care in Oregon and Colorado

Amanda Gow: Building the Mental Health Clinic That Psilocybin Therapy Needs Jun 10, 2026

Show notes

Amanda Gow didn't set out to build a psilocybin service center. She set out to build a mental health clinic that uses psilocybin as a tool.

After 15 years working in trauma-focused youth services, she saw firsthand how often the people who needed mental health care the most had the fewest real options. Her answer was Bendable Therapy, a psilocybin-assisted therapy model staffed entirely by licensed mental health professionals, built around deep preparation, in-depth integration, and ongoing group support. And they're doing the research to back it up.

Bendable's IRB-approved study found depression and anxiety scores dropped by roughly half, with 70% of participants moving from significant to minimal anxiety within 30 days. Nearly half were on psychiatric medications that would have disqualified them from a traditional clinical trial. Adverse events were rare. Now they're recruiting for a new study on psilocybin for complex regional pain syndrome, with fully funded sessions and travel stipends for participants.

Sam and Amanda get into what makes the Bendable model work, what the research is actually showing, and why preparation and integration may drive outcomes more than the session itself. They also dig into the cost question honestly: not just whether psilocybin therapy is expensive, but expensive compared to what? And what would it take to get private insurers and employers into this conversation?

About the Guest

Amanda Gow is a licensed mental health professional, Oregon-licensed psilocybin facilitator, and co-founder of Bendable Therapy in Bend, Oregon. She brings 15 years of experience in youth services and trauma-focused care to a model built around clinical rigor and access. Bendable is an active IRB-approved research site and runs a nonprofit to expand psilocybin services to underserved populations.

Resources

Sponsors

Tricycle Day, the leading psychedelic newsletter
Althea, the trusted guide to legal psychedelic care in Oregon and Colorado

Dr. Matthew Hicks: Making the Case for Low-Income Access May 26, 2026

Show notes

Most of the research done on psilocybin has happened at elite institutions with carefully selected participants. Dr. Matthew Hicks did something different.

He ran the first clinical trial ever conducted inside a state-regulated psychedelic program. He focused on a low-income population that clinical trials have systematically failed to reach and that public payers have systematically failed to serve. And he did it for a fraction of the cost and timeline of a typical federal trial.

The findings are striking. A group treatment format that cut the cost of care by more than half. Meaningful drops in severe depression scores across the cohort. And one of the strongest measured outcomes was something the team didn't expect going in: participants' ability to function socially.

In this episode, Matt and Sam dig into the design choices behind the study, what surprised them most, the follow-up study Matt wants to fund next, and why this work is exactly the kind of evidence that could move the needle on Medicaid coverage for psilocybin therapy.

This is the kind of research that's not just asking "does this work." It's asking "does this work for the people who actually need it most, in a system that could actually pay for it." That's the question that defines the next phase of psychedelic policy.

About the Guest

Dr. Matthew Hicks is a naturopathic doctor, an Oregon-licensed psilocybin facilitator, and a member of the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board. He's the founder of Synaptic Institute, one of Oregon's leading facilitator training programs, and was the lead investigator on the first clinical trial of psilocybin therapy conducted within Oregon's state-regulated program.

Resources Mentioned

Sponsors:

Tricycle Day, the leading psychedelic newsletter
Althea, the trusted guide to legal psychedelic care in Oregon and Colorado

Lt. Diane Goldstein: How Law Enforcement is Rethinking Psychedelics May 11, 2026

Show notes

Retired police lieutenant and Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP) Executive Director Diane Goldstein joins Sam Chapman to discuss drug policy reform, the role of psychedelics in addressing law enforcement trauma, and LEAP's advocacy for psychedelic access and mental health support. The conversation also covers the fiscal case for legal psychedelic access and the broader psychological and societal costs of current drug policy.

As always, feel free to reach out to Sam with any feedback, comments, or ideas for future episodes at sam@cppolicy.org.

Dr. Adie Rae: Inside Oregon's First Federally Funded Psilocybin Study Apr 28, 2026

Show notes

To launch Ground Game, Sam Chapman speaks with Dr. Adie Rae, co-director of the Open Psychedelic Evaluation Nexus, the team at the center of a historic $3.3 million NIDA grant to track outcomes in Oregon's legal psilocybin program.

The conversation covers what Oregon's program has already revealed about safety and efficacy, why real-world data matters, the economic realities of building psilocybin research infrastructure from the ground up, and what this federal investment signals for the future of psychedelic access nationwide.

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