The president is directing federal agencies to boost research into the drugs and support clinical trials, moves championed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered new efforts to boost federal research into psychedelics and make the drugs available in controlled therapeutic settings, flanked by military veterans who said the move would save lives.
“We’re taking this decision, this decisive step, to confront one of the most urgent public health challenges facing our nation, the mental health crisis,” Trump said Saturday morning in the Oval Office. The president was joined by federal health officials and Joe Rogan, a popular podcaster who had urged Trump to increase access to psySome attendees characterized Trump’s move as a turning point in the federal “war on drugs” begun by the Nixon administration nearly 60 years ago.
“Federal prohibition of psychedelic medicine in America is over,” said W. Bryan Hubbard, an advocate for access to ibogaine, a psychedelic that is illegal in the United States but available in other countries, such as Mexico.
Under the president’s executive order, the Food and Drug Administration will support new clinical trials for ibogaine, psilocybin and other drugs that are known as serotonin receptors, and move swiftly to approve drugs deemed to be safe and effective. The drugs, which also include LSD and MDMA, can cause hallucinogenic effects and are illegal in the United States. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said the agency would issue priority vouchers next week to accelerate federal reviews of several psychedelic drugs and potentially approve them this summer, although he did not specify which drugs were being examined. Trump said that the federal government had just committed $50 million in additional funding for ibogaine research.
Some drug policy experts criticized Trump’s plan, warning that expanding access to the substances could have unintended public health consequences. Kevin Sabet, who was a White House drug policy adviser across three presidential administrations, said the order will “send the wrong message” by encouraging hasty, potentially dangerous research. chedelics.
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