SAN ANTONIO – A U.S. Army veteran slammed City Manager Erik Walsh and the hiring practices of the San Antonio Fire Department (SAFD) after he was twice disqualified from joining the academy for briefly using a psychedelic drug to treat brain cancer.
Juan Torres Valenzuela disclosed in his 2023 SAFD application that he ingested two capsules of psilocybin to combat a decrease in his cognitive abilities while undergoing chemotherapy.
The drug usage, although short-lived, has caused Torres Valenzuela to be disqualified for the “use of illicit substances.”
‘I just felt a sharp pain in my head, and I collapsed’
Torres Valenzuela, 31, was commissioned as an Army infantry officer coming out of St. Mary’s University and was deployed to Afghanistan from 2019-2020…