President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., in this undated photo. Trump signed an executive order Saturday directing $50 million to expand access to psychedelic drugs for veterans and calling on the Food and Drug Administration to fast-track their review of such substances. (The White House)
President Donald Trump wants a faster federal review process for psychedelic drugs that veterans advocates say can help treat post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and opioid addiction.
Trump signed an executive order Saturday that directs $50 million toward making the powerful substances more accessible as part of efforts to address a suicide crisis among U.S. military veterans.
He also ordered the Food and Drug Administration to fast-track a review of such drugs as psilocybin and ibogaine, the first time the agency has done so with psychedelics, according to The Associated Press.
Expediting research and access to these potentially life-changing drugs will help those struggling with mental illness, particularly veterans, Trump said.
“Today, we’re bringing them new hope,” he said during the signing ceremony in the Oval Office.
Ibogaine and other psychedelics are still classified by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as Schedule I drugs, meaning they have “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”
The executive order is titled “Accelerating Medical Treatments for Serious Mental Illness.”
The drugs could be approved in weeks instead of in a year or more “if they are in line with our national priorities,” said FDA Commissioner Marty Makary.
The FDA and the Health and Human Services Department were also directed to work with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the private sector to increase clinical trial participation in psychedelic therapies.
Ibogaine was the focal point at the signing ceremony, which included top health officials, podcaster Joe Rogan and several former Navy SEALs.
The compound is extracted from the roots of the Tabernanthe iboga, an evergreen rainforest shrub indigenous mainly to Gabon, Cameroon and the Congo in central Africa.
The powerful hallucinogen has been used for centuries in tribal spiritual and healing ceremonies.
“I’ve been hearing about it a little bit over the last year,” Trump said. “I never heard anything about it in the past. It was almost like taboo. It’s not taboo anymore.”
Rogan said he had sent Trump information about ibogaine after hearing how effective it was in treating opioid addiction, which accounts for the majority of the tens of thousands of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ibogaine treatment is available in Mexico, where some U.S. military veterans have sought relief from PTSD and depression, as told in the 2025 Netflix documentary “In Waves and War.”
The film also features Stanford University researchers who studied a group of 30 veterans treated with ibogaine in Mexico. Under medical monitoring, the veterans received oral ibogaine along with magnesium to help prevent heart complications, which have been associated with use of the drug.
Treatment with ibogaine immediately led to significant improvements in functioning and alleviation of PTSD, depression and anxiety, according to the findings.
The effects lasted at least one month after treatment. That time frame marked the endpoint of the study, which was published in January 2024.
Robert O’Neill, one of the former Navy SEALs featured in the documentary, attended the ceremony on Saturday and told Trump that he had taken ibogaine three times over three years.
“It’s not fun,” he said. But “it saved my life, and then it saved my wife,” he added, without elaborating. “This works.”
