Written by: Ben "Doc" Askins, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
The honorable Andy Beshear, governor of Kentucky. My name is Ben Askins. If you’d be willing to take the time to read this letter, I’d like to tell you my story, sir.
Currently, I serve in KY’s Medical Detachment as a Physician Assistant, previously serving as the Battalion Surgeon for Kentucky’s 1-149th Infantry (headquartered in Barbourville). I was on state active duty in Louisville during the civil unrest of 2020 and I spent most of 2022 deployed with the infantry to Kosovo. The Bluegrass State has been my home since 2009 when I moved my family to Kentucky to attend The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. My education was interrupted, however, in 2011 when I volunteered to deploy to Iraq as the senior medic and platoon sergeant for the 617th Military Police Company (headquartered in Richmond). My daughter was born on Father’s Day while I was deployed that year. She was rushed to the NICU at Kosair Children’s Hospital and I came home on emergency leave. She’s a little fighter, tough like her mama. Thanks to the physicians, nurses, and PAs at Kosair, she went home six days later. And I went back on the deployment to Iraq the same day. It was a difficult chapter on many levels for my family.
Upon my return home, I used my GI Bill to complete a Master of Divinity degree, but discovered I was a much better soldier than a preacher. I got selected as the AGR Medical Readiness NCO for the 198th Military Police Battalion (headquartered in Louisville). After several years in a job I loved working with outstanding servicemembers from all over the state, I had the honor of being selected for the military’s prestigious Interservice Physician Assistant Program (IPAP) in 2017. So I moved with my family to Joint Base San Antonio – Fort Sam Houston, Texas for sixteen months of intensive medical education, then back to the Bluegrass for a clinical year at Blanchfield Army Community Hospital on Fort Campbell.
While I was in IPAP, I received news that an old friend – a fellow KY Guardsmen – had died by suicide. He was a tough guy with a big grin. A husband and a father.A good friend with a great sense of humor. We had a lot in common. I miss him to this day and often wear a memorial bracelet with his name on it.
The day after hearing the news of my friend’s suicide, I was working in the Blanchfield emergency room when a woman was brought in via ambulance for an intentional overdose.
Having been a combat medic for over a decade, I knew how to intubate her and stabilize her before admitting her to intensive care. Only time would tell how much brain function she might be able to recover, though. After stabilizing her, I went into the waiting room and sat with her husband and her very young daughter. He was my age and his daughter was the same age as one of my little girls. I knew what to do for someone after they attempted suicide in order to keep them alive, but the prognosis if they recover from that first attempt is grim, medically and psychologically.
Something inside of me shifted while I was sitting in that waiting room with that grieving family the day after losing my friend to the same problem. I decided then – with that man who could have been me and that little girl who could have been my daughter – that I was not going into emergency medicine like I had planned. Instead, I work in mental health to help heal trauma and prevent suicide. For as long as the good Lord allows me to keep breathing, that’s what I intend to do.
In pursuit of that calling, most recently I have worked in a clinic in Lexington, Expedition Mental Health, with my friend and supervising physician, former University of Kentucky School of Medicine faculty member, Dr. Kristin Dawson (MD). We have received training from the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) in the use of MDMA-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder. MDMA is a plant-derived synthetic medicine, developed originally from sassafras (safrole). When combined with trauma-focused therapy, the outcomes for treating PTSD in clinical trials have been nothing short of revolutionary and we are preparing to provide this therapy here in Kentucky in 2024, pending FDA approval and further supervision from MAPS...
Recently, the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission allocated $42 million (less than 5% of the total settlement fund) toward funding research on a different plant-based medicine – Ibogaine. Initial reports and Phase 2 clinical trials suggest this medicine has great potential for the treatment of opioid withdrawal, as well as other chemical dependency disorders.
I’m personally most curious about the preliminary data surrounding traumatic brain injury and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, given the number of concussions I’ve sustained during high school sports and my military service. Further research is necessary in order to gain more safety and efficacy data on this medicine, however, since it has known risks associated with its use. The fact remains that the clinical trial data necessary for making decisions regarding Ibogaine’s utility as a medicine for chemical dependency have not been completed, so discussions of its likelihood for FDA approval or disapproval seem premature. Further studies need to be conducted in order to make such claims; anyone who says otherwise is speculating, at best.
Kentucky has been ground zero for the last two decades of our nation’s opioid crisis. Kentucky was targeted because of the hard-living, hard-working nature of our people – in the coal mines and on the assembly lines, in the cities and on the streets… and in the National Guard. We have the opportunity to be leaders in the investigation of medicines for healing the opioid epidemic. The people of Kentucky are suffering and standard of care treatment outcomes for opioid dependence have left room for improvement. Most of the OAAC funding has already been allocated toward established treatments and improvements in existing infrastructure. If Kentucky does not contribute to Ibogaine clinical research, it will simply be conducted by other states. It’s not a question of whether or not Ibogaine research will be conducted; it’s a question of whether Kentucky will lead the way or not. If Toyota wasn’t manufacturing electric vehicles and batteries in Georgetown, they surely would find somewhere else to do it. You had the foresight to bring those jobs to Kentucky and I applaud you for that, sir. Bring Ibogaine research here as well.
I was there in February of this year when you addressed the KY Air and Army National Guard’s senior leadership at the Expo Center in Louisville, reviewing the natural disasters, civil unrest, overseas deployments, and national public health emergencies that we have all endured together as Team Kentucky during your tenure as Governor. My love for you as a fellow citizen and respect for you as a leader far overshadows whatever minor political disagreements we might have. I am grateful for your leadership during a very difficult chapter in our commonwealth’s history.
Every time Kentucky has asked for my service, at home and abroad, I have answered the call. Anyone who knows me well enough knows that I am no hero, but that I will do my duty out of love for God and neighbor. I don’t know much about Ibogaine, although I have read every published peer-reviewed journal article on the subject. That’s why I think more research needs to be done. I even read Hunter S. Thompson’s smear campaign in Rolling Stone magazine about Ed Muskie using Ibogaine during his presidential candidacy back in 1972. There was a lot of misinformation being passed around about psychedelics and politics back then and I’d like to think that America has done a lot of growing up in the last fifty years. I would love to see transparent public discussions about conducting clinical research on these plant medicines. I simply want to see my neighbors heal and I believe this research is worth conducting here in the Commonwealth. Maybe these sorts of things are way above my pay grade, but that’s my two cents (if it’s even worth that much). Time will tell regarding the outcome and only God will judge. I thank you for your time and attention, sir.
If you found this article interesting, you might enjoy some of my other psychedelic science war stories here. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Threads to join the conversation about the psychedelic science research renaissance. Also visit my website for more info!
Ben "Doc" Askins, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Ben "Doc" Askins has degrees in Outdoor Education, Intercultural Studies, Physician Assistant Studies, and Divinity. He has two decades of experience practicing and teaching wilderness, tactical, and expeditionary medicine in the military. In civilian life, he is a Psychiatric Physician Assistant with an integrative approach to mental health and extensive experience providing psychedelic-assisted therapy and precision medicine. He is certified with the Multidisciplinary Association on Psychedelic Studies in MDMA-assisted therapy. Doc is a National Outdoor Leadership school alum, a veteran of the Global War on Terrorism, and has postgraduate training in Neuropsychiatry and Genomics.
