United States President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered his administration to speed up the review process for certain psychedelic substances, including ibogaine. The drug has recently gained support from combat veterans and some conservative lawmakers, despite being associated with significant safety concerns.
Ibogaine and other psychedelics are currently classified under the federal government’s strictest category of illegal, high-risk substances. But the administration is trying to loosen some restrictions and encourage research into their potential medical use, especially for conditions like major depression.
Ibogaine was originally used in spiritual practices by followers of the Bwiti religion in countries such as Gabon, where it played a role in ceremonial rituals.
“It will have a huge impact”
“Today’s order will ensure that people suffering from debilitating symptoms finally have a chance to reclaim their lives and lead happier lives,” he said during a ceremony in the Oval Office.
Read also | Trump Reveals His Plan to Get Iran’s ‘Nuclear Dust’ and Hints at Cuban Action
According to the AP, the Republican president said his directive would help “dramatically speed up” access to potential treatments, adding, “If they turn out to be as good as people say, that’s going to have a huge impact.”
Veterans advocacy groups and psychedelic advocates have long argued that Ibogaine, produced from a bush native to West Africa, has significant potential for treating difficult conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder and opioid addiction.
Read also | Trump warns naval blockade will continue despite Iran opening Strait of Hormuz
Trump’s announcement follows Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s pledges. and other officials to expand access to psychedelics for medical purposes, an issue that has received unusual bipartisan support.
Trump was joined by senior health officials, conservative podcaster Joe Rogan and Marcus Luttrell, whose memoir inspired the movie Lone Survivor. Rogan said he texted Trump with information about ibogaine, to which the president replied, “Sounds great. You want FDA approval? Let’s do it.”
Read also | Trump Picks Erica Schwartz as CDC Director – All About Former Deputy Surgeon General
Luttrell informed Trump during the ceremony, “You’re going to save a lot of lives. It’s absolutely changed my life for the better.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is set to introduce national priority vouchers for three psychedelic substances next week. According to the agency’s commissioner, Marty Makary, the vouchers will allow some drugs to be approved more quickly “if they are consistent with our national priorities,” according to an AP report.
The program could cut review times from several months to just a few weeks, marking the first time the FDA has extended such fast-track measures to psychedelics. The FDA is also moving forward with efforts to pave the way for the first human trials of ibogaine in the United States.
But Trump’s decision caught many longtime psychedelic advocates and researchers by surprise because ibogaine is known to sometimes cause potentially fatal heart complications. The National Institutes of Health briefly supported research on the drug in the 1990s, but halted its work due to the “cardiovascular toxicity of ibogaine.”
“Ibogaine is hard to study in the US”
Frederick Barrett, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, stated, “It has been incredibly difficult to study ibogaine in the US because of its known cardiotoxicity.” Barrett added, “If the executive order can pave the way for objective scientific research to be done with this compound, it would help us understand whether it really is a better psychedelic therapy than others.”
No psychedelic substance has yet been approved in the United States, although several, including psilocybin, MDMA, and LSD, are currently being evaluated in large clinical trials for a range of mental health conditions. Despite ongoing research, these drugs remain illegal and are classified as Schedule I substances, the same category as heroin. However, two states, Oregon and Colorado, have legalized psychedelic therapy based on psilocybin.
