After three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, C.J. Hardin wound up hiding from the world in a backwoods cabin in North Carolina. Divorced, alcoholic and at times suicidal, he had tried almost all the accepted treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder: psychotherapy, group therapy and nearly a dozen different medications.
Then, in 2013, he joined a small drug trial testing whether PTSD could be treated with MDMA, the illegal party drug better known as Ecstasy.
“It changed my life,” Hardin said. “It allowed me to see my trauma without fear or hesitation and finally process things and move forward.”
