Dr. Casey Means, President Trump’s nominee to be the next U.S. Surgeon General, has opened up about using psychedelic mushrooms multiple times
The wellness influencer even claims that her experience using the hallucinatory drugs helped her prepare to “find love at 35”
Previous concerns have been raised about Means, as she never completed a medical residency and her medical license is currently inactive
Donald Trump’s nominee for surgeon general has some experience with “plant medicine,” also known as psychedelic mushrooms.
On Wednesday, May 7, the president took to Truth Social to reveal that he had nominated Dr. Casey Means, a medical professional and wellness influencer, who is closely linked to the “Make America Healthy Again” ideology espoused by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In her 2024 book, Good Energy, which Means, 37, co-authored with her brother, Calley Means, she refers to her first experience with mushrooms in January 2021. She said she was inspired to experiment with the drug by “an internal voice that whispered: it’s time to prepare.”
“I felt myself as part of an infinite and unbroken series of cosmic nesting dolls of millions of mothers and babies before me from the beginning of life,” she wrote. “Psilocybin can be a doorway to a different reality that is free from the limiting beliefs of my ego, feelings, and personal history.”
Means has also touted the effects of MDMA, also known as ecstasy or molly, for the treatment of PTSD. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the drugs are still schedule 1 narcotics and federally illegal in the United States, though some parts of Oregon, where Means established an alternative medical practice after failing to complete her surgical residency, have legalized psychedelic therapy.
Calley Means/ Instagram
Casey Means and brother Calley Means pose together in May 2024
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Additionally, Means has claimed that the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms helped her “find love at 35.”
According to the Associated Press and the New York Post, she wrote about undergoing “plant medicine experiences with trusted guides” to prepare herself for partnership in an October 2024 newsletter shared a few months after she got engaged to entrepreneur Brian Nickerson.
While Means made it clear that she didn’t think mushrooms were for everyone, she encouraged readers to try them for themselves.
“If you feel called, I also encourage you to explore intentional, guided psilocybin therapy,” she wrote in Good Energy. “Strong scientific evidence suggests that this psychedelic therapy can be one of the most meaningful experiences of life for some people, as they have been for me.”
Public admissions of drug use aren’t the only concern the public has raised about Means’ nomination to become one of the nation’s top health professionals.
Just a day after Trump, 78, declared that she “has the potential to be one of the finest Surgeon Generals in United States History,” he backtracked when questioned about her credentials.
On May 8, an Oval Office reporter asked the president, “You just announced a new nominee for the U.S. surgeon general who never finished her residency and is not a practicing physician. Can you explain why you picked her to be America’s top doctor?”
“Because Bobby thought she was fantastic,” he answered, referring to RFK Jr., before noting: “I don’t know her.”
Means completed her undergraduate degree and medical school at Stanford University, however, she never finished her surgical residency. In Good Energy and during public appearances, Means has said that her residency experience left her disillusioned with the state of modern medicine.
Ultimately, she did complete enough postgraduate work to qualify for a medical license in Oregon, and turned to alternative medicine. Her website purports her ultimate goal to be “working towards a healthier and happier planet by empowering people to understand their health and the limitless potential within them.”
It remains to be seen, however, if Means’ nomination will hold up to congressional scrutiny — particularly given that her medical license has been inactive since January 2024, according to Oregon public records.
Means’ confirmation hearing has yet to be scheduled.
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