Trump's Embrace of Psychedelic Therapy Could 'Save a Lot of Lives'

As Joe Rogan told it, President Donald Trump jumped at the chance to facilitate regulatory approval of ibogaine and other psychedelics that have shown promise as psychotherapeutic catalysts. After the hugely popular, politically eclectic podcaster texted the president information about ibogaine, Rogan recalled, Trump replied: “Sounds great. Do you want FDA approval? Let’s do it.”

Rogan, who endorsed Trump in the 2024 election, told that story on April 18 as Trump signed an executive order instructing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to accelerate the review process for “appropriate psychedelic drugs,” including ibogaine, and provide “at least $50 million from existing funds” to state programs investigating their potential. The FDA also is supposed to collaborate with the Department of Veterans Affairs on clinical trials.

In addition to Rogan’s role as a popularizer of psychedelic research, the signing ceremony highlighted the experiences of veterans who credit ibogaine-assisted insights with turning around lives derailed by psychological trauma, brain injuries, and addiction. The veteran angle goes a long way toward explaining why this cause has been embraced by the Trump administration and by conservative Republicans such as former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw, the Texas legislators who approved funding for ibogaine studies in 2025, and the Utah legislators who overwhelmingly backed psychedelic research in 2022.

Trump’s order noted an upswing in the U.S. suicide rate during the last two decades, emphasizing that “veterans often suffer in greater measure from this tragedy.” Former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, whose Afghanistan memoir inspired the 2013 movie Lone Survivor, thanked Trump for his executive order, saying, “You’re going to save a lot of lives with it.”

Luttrell, who underwent ibogaine therapy at a clinic in Mexico, said “it absolutely changed my life for the better.” His twin brother, Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R–Texas), also a former Navy SEAL, likewise calls his experience with ibogaine “one of the greatest things that ever happened to me.”

In accordance with Trump’s order, then–FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said his agency had approved the first human trial of ibogaine in the U.S., testing it as “a potential treatment for alcohol use disorder.” Other psychedelics, including psilocybin and MDMA, are further along. And six days after Trump signed his order, the FDA issued “national priority vouchers” for psilocybin as a treatment for depression and methylone, which is similar to MDMA, as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

The FDA had already designated psilocybin and methylone as “breakthrough” therapies, which is supposed to speed up the review process. The vouchers go further, promising an “ultra-fast timeline” of one to two months, rather than six months or more, after the requisite studies are completed.

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