Trump Embraces Psychedelic Therapy

From a post on alt.buddha.short.fat.guy by Julian:
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Joe Rogan and military veterans advocating for suicide prevention
apparently swayed the president.

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.

Jacob Sullum

-- 
https://www.nfld.com/~dalton/dtales.html Salmon on the Thorns (mystic page)
“Early morning, jubilators, up to no good, instigators... Sons of long
forgotten races, that the darkest night embraces” (Ron Hynes & D.O’D)