Juan-Carlos Foust is organizing the event with the Port Townsend Psychedelic Society to help promote treatment for veterans, noting that 20 veterans die by suicide everyday.

Photo courtesy of Juan-Carlos Foust

Trauma. Not exactly everyone’s favorite buzzword, but it names something necessary for all of society to face.

While Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder first entered the public lexicon through returning soldier’s struggles, it’s become more widely accepted throughout all strata.

And treatments now vary widely as well.

To help introduce new tools in this arena, a symposium on “Veterans, Law Enforcement, First Responders, and Psychedelics” will be hosted at the American Legion Hall in Port Townsend at
5:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16.

“We focus on veterans, fire responders, and health care workers because of that theme of public service,” said Juan-Carlos Foust one of the organizers and speakers of the event.

“But also the exposure that these groups have to high levels of stress, their exposure to the dying process, and also addiction. Whether that’s as a health care worker treating addiction, or as a veteran who might be experiencing substance abuse as a symptom of underlying disease,” he added.

Foust is an organizer within the Port Townsend Psychedelic Society, co-director of REACH WA (the Responsible Entheogen Access and Community Healing Coalition), and an ambassador to the Heroic Hearts Project, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting veterans in gaining access to psychedelic treatments and healing community.

Foust is also the proud son of a Navy physician and grandson of a Coast Guard officer.

The event will offer perspectives on the healing potential of psychedelic medicine for veterans, law enforcement, and first responders — both for themselves and for the communities they serve.

“This is a community that can help us all figure out how to integrate psychedelics into our society,” Foust said.

Topics addressed will include alternative treatments for processing traumatic experiences, suicide prevention, alliance building amongst public servants, community healing options, and harm reduction, from the perspectives of those involved in these respective fields.

While entheogens, or plants that produce a non-ordinary state of consciousness, have a long history reaching back to ancient cultures, their use has yet to find an accepted place in the Western world.

“It’s going to have to look necessarily different when it gets integrated into our American society. From a practical point of view and also from a cultural point of view, I think these groups are going to be really essential to achieving that,” Foust said.

“There’s also a lot of stigma around the topic in these communities and we believe that they’re all positioned to assist in the implementation of psychedelic medicine,” he added.

Foust will speak alongside others in a variety of fields like Zach Skiles, a veteran marine turned psychedelic therapist, scholar, and facilitator; Betty Frizzell, a former police chief advocating for effective mental health treatments; Lauren Feringa, a veteran combat medic dedicated to helping prevent suicide and heal trauma in the communities she serves.

Doors will open at 5 p.m. and there is a $5 to $20 suggested donation at the door though no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

To register in advance, go to tinyurl.com/PTSymposium.