Trump order could fast-track review of psychedelic ibogaine. What is it?

(NewsNation) — President Trump signed an executive order Saturday for a speedy review of psychedelic drugs, including ibogaine.

Psychedelics like ibogaine are banned under the federal government’s most restrictive category for illegal, high-risk drugs. But the executive order could pave the way for restrictions to ease and research on using the drugs for medical purposes to move forward.

Podcaster Joe Rogan joined the president in the Oval Office alongside his top health officials 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 Trump responded: “Sounds great. Do you want FDA [Food and Drug Administration] approval? Let’s do it.”

Ibogaine is a psychoactive compound from the African Tabernanthe iboga shrub.

Veteran organizations and psychedelic advocates have long contended that ibogaine has great promise for hard-to-treat conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), and opioid addiction.

“A 2024 Stanford-led open-label trial (n=30 US special operations veterans with TBI) found magnesium-ibogaine treatment led to 88% average reduction in PTSD symptoms (e.g., CAPS-5 scores), 87% in depression, and 81% in anxiety one month post-treatment,” Rogan wrote in a post to Instagram over the weekend, citing the findings from the study.

“One dose of ibogaine has an 80% rate of freeing these people from addiction, and with two doses it’s over 90%. And that’s just addiction,” he further claimed. “It also has fantastic results for treating PTSD and traumatic brain injuries in veterans.”

“It was not fun, it was not recreational,” former U.S. Navy F/A-18 fighter pilot Matthew “Whiz” Buckley told NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas, recounting his experience of traveling to Mexico to undergo ibogaine treatment. “I’ve done some challenging things in my life. This was, without a doubt, one of the most challenging. But I got about 40 years of therapy in about 14 hours.”

Ibogaine: Known effects of the psychedelic drug

Ibogaine is used in other countries, including Mexico, to treat the effects of PTSD. A 2024 Stanford Medicine study found ibogaine, when combined with magnesium, “safely led to improvements in depression, anxiety and functioning among veterans with traumatic brain injuries.”

According to the Cleveland Clinic, ibogaine “appears to pose a particularly high risk of cardiac problems because of its propensity to prolong the heart’s QT interval.” The National Institutes of Health briefly funded research on the drug in the 1990s, but discontinued the work due to ibogaine’s “cardiovascular toxicity.”

In animals, ibogaine has been found to cause hypotension, or low blood pressure, and bradycardia, a condition marked by a slow heart rate, the University of Virginia’s Division of Medical Toxicology reported last year.

In some cases, seizures have been reported, even when the dosage is relatively low, UVA explained. However, nausea, vomiting and “bad trips” are among the most common adverse effects with the hallucinogenic substance.

Ibogaine has been linked to more than 30 deaths, according to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a nonprofit that conducted some early studies in patients outside the U.S.

Trump administration ‘opening the pathway’ for psychedelic drugs

Trump said the “order will ensure that people suffering from debilitating symptoms might finally have a chance to reclaim their lives and lead a happier life.”

“If these turn out to be as good as people are saying, it’s going to have a tremendous impact,” he said.

Media personality Joe Rogan and Bryan Hubbard, chief executive officer of Americans for Ibogaine, embrace during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Saturday, April 18, 2026. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to expedite research and access to psychedelics used outside the US to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. Photographer: Allison Robbert/The Washington Post/Bloomberg via Getty Images

(L/R) FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., US media personality Joe Rogan, W. Bryan Hubbard, CEO of Americans for Ibogaine, and former Navy SEAL Marcus Lutrell applaud after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on April 18, 2026. The executive order aims to further US federal medical research and clinical trials for certain psychedelic drugs.certain psychedelic drugs. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty Images)

(L/R) US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and US media personality Joe Rogan look on as US President Donald Trump shakes hands with W. Bryan Hubbard, CEO of Americans for Ibogaine, during an executive order signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on April 18, 2026. The executive order aims to further US federal medical research and clinical trials for certain psychedelic drugs.certain psychedelic drugs. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty Images)

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.

Trump added that the administration will be “opening the pathway” for the drug to be included under the Right to Try Act. The law allows terminally ill patients to participate in clinical trials for treatments that are still under FDA review.

“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.

Earlier this year, officials in Texas said the state would fully fund clinical trials into the medical effects of ibogaine, Nexstar’s KXAN reported.

NewsNation partner The Hill and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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