Where were you the morning of September 11, 2001?

Joe McKay was on a Staten Island golf course, but not for long. A New York City firefighter for thirteen years, McKay spent that day, and dozens of days after, filling his lungs with debris, searching shoulder to shoulder with his fellow firefighters. He, and so many others, lost loved ones that day—coworkers and friends. And then, six months later, he started suffering from unidentifiable, debilitating headaches. After a number of appointments and tests, he discovered that he had developed cluster headaches—a condition considered incurable.

It wasn’t until 2015 that Joe decided to take a risk and pursue psychedelic treatment for his pain and his PTSD. After years of living in the dark, suffering from such debilitating pain, he could go whole days at a time without an outburst.

Now, McKay works hard to spread the news: plant medicine heals. He hopes that the negative stigma that surrounds the use of psychedelics in healthcare will continue to lessen, and that those whose lives are ruled by pain will feel emboldened to take a chance on a treatment that might save them. “It’s not a red versus blue issue,” McKay told Tristan Roberts. “It’s a red, white, and blue issue.”