Trump signs order to speed review of psychedelics, including the
controversial drug ibogaine
[April 20, 2026]
By MATTHEW PERRONE and SEUNG MIN KIM
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday directed his
administration to speed up reviews of certain psychedelic drugs,
including ibogaine, which recently has been embraced by combat veterans
and conservative lawmakers despite having serious safety risks.
Ibogaine and other psychedelics remain banned under the federal
government's most restrictive category for illegal, high-risk drugs. But
the administration is taking steps to ease restrictions and spur
research on using the drugs for medical purposes, including conditions
like severe depression.
“Today’s order will ensure that people suffering from debilitating
symptoms might finally have a chance to reclaim their lives and lead a
happier life,” Trump said as he signed an executive order on the drugs.
The Republican president said his directive will help “dramatically
accelerate” access to potential treatments. "If these turn out to be as
good as people are saying, it's going to have a tremendous impact,” he
said.
Veteran organizations and psychedelic advocates have long contended that
ibogaine, which is made from a shrub native to West Africa, has great
promise for hard-to-treat conditions such as post-traumatic stress
disorder and opioid addiction.
Trump’s announcement follows pledges by Health Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. and other administration officials to ease access to
psychedelics for medical use, an issue that has won rare bipartisan
support.
Joining Trump in the Oval Office were his top health officials,
conservative podcaster Joe Rogan and Marcus Luttrell, the former Navy
SEAL whose memoir about a deadly mission in Afghanistan was the basis of
the film “Lone Survivor.” Rogan said he texted Trump information on
ibogaine and the president responded: “Sounds great. Do you want FDA
approval? Let's do it.”
“You’re going to save a lot of lives through it,” Luttrell told Trump
during the ceremony. “It absolutely changed my life for the better.”
The Food and Drug Administration next week will issue national priority
vouchers for three psychedelics, which the agency's commissioner, Marty
Makary, said will allow certain drugs to be approved quickly “if they
are in line with our national priorities.” The vouchers can cut review
times from several months to a period of weeks. It is the first time the
FDA has offered that fast-tracking to any psychedelics.
The FDA is also taking steps to clear the way for the first-ever human
trials of ibogaine in the U.S.
Trump's action surprised many longtime advocates and researchers in the
psychedelic field, given that ibogaine is known to sometimes trigger
potentially fatal heart problems. The National Institutes of Health
briefly funded research on the drug in the 1990s, but discontinued the
work due to ibogaine's "cardiovascular toxicity.”
“It’s been incredibly difficult to study ibogaine in the U.S. because of
its known cardiotoxicity,” said Frederick Barrett, director of the Johns
Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. “If the
executive order can pave the way for doing objective, scientific
research with this compound, it would help us understand whether it is
truly a better psychedelic therapy than others.”
No psychedelic has been approved in the United States, but a number of
them are being studied in large trials for various mental health
conditions, including psilocybin, MDMA and LSD. All those drugs remain
illegal, classified as Schedule I substances alongside drugs such as
heroin. Two states — Oregon and Colorado — have legalized psychedelic
therapy with psilocybin.
Ibogaine was first used by members of the Bwiti religion in African
nations like Gabon during their religious ceremonies.
In recent years, U.S. veterans have reported benefiting from the drug
after traveling to clinics in Mexico that administer it.
[to top of second column]
|
Joe Rogan laughs as President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office
of the White House, Saturday, April 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP
Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
 Backing from veterans groups and
former Texas Gov. Rick Perry led to a law last year providing $50
million for ibogaine research in that state. Perry, who co-founded a
group called Americans for Ibogaine, recently appeared on Rogan’s
podcast, making the case for reducing federal limits on the drug. It
was his second time talking about ibogaine on the popular podcast in
the past two years.
Trump's order calls on the Department of Health and Human Services
to direct at least $50 million to states that have enacted or are
developing programs to advance psychedelic drugs for serious mental
illness. It's described as a federal-state partnership to provide
funding, technical assistance and data sharing.
Ibogaine is known to cause irregular heart rhythms and has been
linked to more than 30 deaths in the medical literature, according
to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a
nonprofit that conducted some early studies in patients outside the
U.S.
The group's co-executive director, Ismail Lourido Ali, said Trump's
order might encourage other states to follow the Texas model.
“The stigma around Schedule I drugs is significant,” Ali said. “It
feels like this would give pretty substantial cover for Republican
governors and legislatures to step into the ring in terms of funding
research programs at their universities.”
Owners of ibogaine clinics said the impact of the order will not be
immediate.
“There will be no insurance coverage, it will still be considered
unapproved and non-covered care,” said Tom Feegel of Beond Ibogaine,
which operates a clinic in Cancun, Mexico. “But what it does mean is
that ibogaine shifts from being fringe and underground to being
federally acknowledged.”
Feegel says his clinic treated 2,000 people with ibogaine last year
for between $15,000 and $20,000 per person. The company also gave
free treatment to about 100 veterans.
Clinics that use the drug typically monitor patients’ heart readings
and have emergency medical equipment on hand.
One of the only recent studies conducted by U.S. researchers found
that veterans treated with ibogaine showed improvements in symptoms
of traumatic brain injury, including PTSD, depression and anxiety.
The Stanford University study was small — enrolling 30 veterans who
received the drug in Mexico. It did not include a placebo group for
comparison, an essential feature of rigorous medical research.
Patients in the study received a combination of ibogaine mixed with
magnesium intended to reduce heart risks.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support
from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science
Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely
responsible for all content.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
