Trump signs order to speed access to psychedelic-based treatments

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Saturday signed an executive order intended to speed up access to medical research and treatment based on psychedelic drugs.

The order instructs the US Food and Drug Administration to expedite review of drugs such as ibogaine, a drug that US military veteran groups have said can help treat post-traumatic stress disorder. At an event in the Oval Office, US federal officials said that the reforms would pave the way for the drugs, which can cause hallucinations and are largely illegal, to be reclassified after successful clinical trials. Trump also said the US would dedicate $50 million to federal research into ibogaine.

Flanked by US military veterans such as Marcus Luttrell and Rep. Morgan Luttrell, a Texas Repub­lican, and with podcaster Joe Rogan standing dir­ec­tly behind him, Trump said that ibogaine had come to his attention partly through the efforts of Rogan, who devoted an episode of his show to advocates for the drug’s use in treating veterans.

Officials on Saturday said there is now enough scientific evidence to justify the potential use of ibogaine as a mental health treatment.

“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.”