The person Donald Trump chose to be the next top doctor said in a book that people might want to try psychedelic drugs for therapy, even though they are not proven to work. She also wrote in a newsletter that using mushrooms helped her find someone to date.

Dr. Casey Means suggests thinking about therapy that uses psilocybin, which is interesting because psilocybin is not legal in the US. It is on a list of drugs that are seen as having no medical use and could be easily misused. However, Oregon and Colorado have made this type of therapy legal, but some cities in Oregon have stopped it again.

The main job of the surgeon general is to give Americans good information about how to be healthier and avoid getting sick or hurt. In the past, surgeons general have taught people about health problems like AIDS and stopping suicide. In 1964, the surgeon general warned people about the dangers of smoking, and this helped to make America healthier.

Some people became famous, like Dr. C. Everett Koop, who worked for President Ronald Reagan and changed rules a lot. But other people were easily forgotten.

Means was chosen like others Trump picked before. He seems to like people who are famous, not just good at their jobs. Trump said he chose Means because the Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., told him to. Trump said, "Bobby thought she was great," and that he didn't know her himself.

Means went to Stanford University and studied there. She started working as a doctor in Oregon, but she didn't finish. Now, she is not working as a doctor. When we called her, she didn't want to talk about it.

In her 2024 book "Good Energy," she suggested looking into psychedelics. She wrote the book with her brother, Calley Means, who is a businessman. He now works for the Trump administration, giving advice about health. He has said that he put money into companies that make medicines using psychedelics.

The book talks a lot about how our bodies use energy, which Casey Means calls "good energy". She gives some ideas to help people deal with stress, bad experiences, and ways of thinking that might be stopping them from being healthy and full of energy.

One idea is to "think about therapy with psilocybin," which is a substance in magic mushrooms. She writes about her thoughts on this in a long text of 750 words.

She said, "If you want to, I suggest you try psilocybin therapy with a guide. Studies show that this therapy can be a very important experience for some, like it has been for me."

Some studies say that psychedelics might be good for you, but we don't know if the good things are more important than the bad things. Psilocybin can make you see things for hours, and this can be nice or scary. It has been tested with talking to a therapist to help people with mental health problems and drinking too much, but not much research has been done on healthy people. You might get a faster heartbeat, feel sick, or get headaches. It can be dangerous to take it without someone watching you. If you see things that aren't there, you might walk into the road or do other risky things.

Means said that psilocybin and other psychedelic drugs have been seen in a bad way. She said that MDMA, also called ecstasy or molly, can help people who have PTSD. Last year, the Food and Drug Administration did not agree to let MDMA be used to treat PTSD because some experts thought the research was not good and that it could be dangerous.

In her book, Means calls psychedelics "plant medicine". She says she first used mushrooms around January 1, 2021. She felt like she should do it because "an inner voice" told her it was time to get ready.

She said she felt like she belonged to a very long line of mothers and babies going back to the start of life. She also said that, for her, magic mushrooms could open a door to another world where she didn't have the usual limits of her thoughts, feelings, and past.

In a newsletter from October, Means said she used psychedelics to help her find love at 35. She wrote that she tried "plant medicine" with people she trusted to get ready for a relationship, and added a mushroom picture. She also said she wasn't telling other people to do the same.

This month, Means wrote about what she wants for health in the White House. She wants schools to serve healthier food and thinks ultra-processed foods should have warning labels. She also wants people to check if vaccines are safe and to stop conflicts of interest. She didn't talk about psychedelics, but she said that researchers don't want to study "normal, natural, and drugs you can't get a patent for". She thinks some research money should go to other ways to help health.

Calley Means has also said he supports using psychedelic drugs. In a blog post in 2021, he wrote that he tried psilocybin when he was having a difficult time. He said it was the most important thing that ever happened to him, in his personal life, his job, and his beliefs. In 2022, he said he used all the money from his retirement fund to buy shares in two companies that are working on psychedelic drugs. He didn't reply to messages asking him to talk about it.

Casey Means' hearing to become Surgeon General hasn't been planned yet. Trump chose Means after people had questions about the work history of his first choice, Janette Nesheiwat, who used to talk about health on Fox News. So, he took back her name.