Tag: psychedelics

TBI survivors turn to psychedelics for symptom relief

A new study from the University of Victoria (UVic) has identified a segment of traumatic brain injury survivors who are using psychedelics to self-medicate for cognitive, mood and somatic symptoms such as headaches. In a first-of-its-kind study, clinical psychology researchers analyzed more than 6,100 responses collected from the global psychedelic survey. Researchers found that nearly 1,200 respondents reported using psychedelics to treat or manage a physical health condition.

Of these, some 208 participants, or 3.4% of the total sample, reported using psychedelics to manage brain injury-related symptoms.

The paper, Psychedelics for the management of symptoms of traumatic brain injury: Findings from the global psychedelic survey, was published in Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry, co-authored by UVic clinical psychology professors Jill Robinson and Mauricio Garcia-Barrera.

Some 60 million people worldwide experience traumatic brain injuries (TBI) every year. Garcia-Barrera says there isn’t a one-size-fits-all treatment for TBI survivors, and he says some are looking for alternative support, including from psychedelics.

“Although research into using psychedelics to manage TBI symptoms remains quite limited, the field is gaining momentum as awareness grows around how widespread brain injury is globally and its impact on the quality of life of those who experience a TBI,” Garcia-Barrera says.

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Trump’s Embrace of Psychedelic Therapy Leaves Most Users on the Wrong Side of the Law

On Saturday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order aimed at “accelerating medical treatments for serious mental illness” by facilitating regulatory approval of ibogaine and other psychedelics that have shown promise as psychotherapeutic catalysts. Although the case for doing that is compelling, the medical model embraced by the president excludes most psychedelic use, which will remain illegal even if the “historic reforms” that Trump announced work as planned.

Trump takes it for granted that Americans should be allowed to use psychedelics only for reasons that the government recognizes as legitimate. Otherwise, they are criminals rather than patients, subject to arrest, prosecution, and potentially severe penalties for daring to assert sovereignty over their own bodies and minds.

The injustice of that policy is readily apparent when people use psychedelics in ways that manifestly improve their lives. Many combat veterans, for example, have found that ibogaine, which is derived from the root of an African shrub, provides dramatic relief from the constellation of problems known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“It absolutely changed my life for the better,” former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, whose Afghanistan memoir inspired the 2013 movie Lone Survivor, remarked as Trump signed his executive order. “I was reborn,” says Luttrell’s twin brother, Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R–Texas), also a former Navy SEAL. “It is one of the greatest things that ever happened to me.”

Because ibogaine is banned in the United States, the Luttrell brothers had those transformational experiences at a clinic in Mexico. So did the 30 subjects of a recent Nature Mental Health study, which found that ibogaine, combined with magnesium as a safeguard against the drug’s cardiac side effects, “safely and effectively reduces PTSD, anxiety and depression and improves functioning in veterans” with traumatic brain injuries.

Research on ibogaine, which also is reputed to be remarkably useful for people struggling with drug addiction, is relatively limited so far. But the evidence supporting the use of MDMA (for PTSD) and psilocybin (for depression), both of which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated as “breakthrough” therapies, is strong enough that they may soon be approved as prescription medications.

If that happens, some people who could benefit from these drugs will be able to use them legally, provided they can obtain a diagnosis and a prescription. But where does that leave all the psychedelic users who can’t meet those requirements?

In a 2023 survey of psilocybin users, the RAND Corporation found that the most common motivations included “fun” (59 percent), “improved mental health” (49 percent), “personal development” (45 percent), “curiosity” (43 percent), and “spiritual growth” (41 percent). Although very few of those people would qualify for the medical exception that Trump advocates, that does not mean their reasons for using psilocybin should be dismissed as frivolous, let alone that they should be treated as criminals.

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The Least Psychedelic President in History Supports Psychedelic Research More Than Any of His Predecessors

This is the way the drug war starts to end, not with a bang or a whimper, but with an executive order signed by a president who must surely be the least-psychedelic occupant ever of the Oval Office, even when you think about characters as glum and dour as Millard Fillmore and Calvin Coolidge. In recent weeks, Donald Trump has picked figurative and literal fights with everyone from the Pope to Iran’s ayatollah. Last year, he released an animated video of himself in a fighter plane dropping feces on “No Kings” protestors. If there is an American alive over the age of 30 who has never listened to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band all the way through, it’s Trump.

But there he was this past Saturday, flanked by, among others, a pumped-up podcast host known for smoking weed on the air (Joe Rogan), an ibogaine evangelist (Bryan Hubbard), and a Cabinet member who has bragged about snorting cocaine off toilet seats (Robert F. Kennedy Jr.). The president was eagerly putting his John Hancock on “Accelerating Medical Treatments for Serious Mental Illness,” an executive order that fast-tracks “innovative research models and…drug approvals to increase access to psychedelic drugs that could save lives and reverse the crisis of serious mental illness in America.” The order calls for expedited approval of “psychedelic drugs, including ibogaine compounds,” that “show potential in clinical studies to address serious mental illnesses for patients whose conditions persist after completing standard therapy.” A president who famously ingests nothing more psychoactive than Diet Coke is now pushing ibogaine—dubbed the “Mount Everest of psychedelics” because of the intensity of the trips it induces and its immense potential to reverse brain damage—into respectability. What’s next? Ayahuasca in juice boxes for K-12 cafeterias?

The people present at the signing show how drug policy reform springs from a mix of popular-culture discussion and hardcore, in-the-trenches policy work. Trump himself thanked Rogan for calling his attention to psychedelics and ibogaine, and RFK Jr. wrote on Instagram, “Thank you, [Joe Rogan] for helping bring national attention to these potentially life-saving treatments for veterans and others living with mental illness, and for pushing this conversation into the mainstream.” Rogan has used his immensely popular podcast for years to tout psychedelics and a wide array of conventional and unconventional therapies, supplements, and protocols (some more credible than others). Without him and his show, Saturday’s signing just doesn’t happen. Whatever else one might think of him, Rogan embodies better living through chemistry and self-directed experimentation with all sorts of drugs, exercise programs, and ways of creating a personalized life plan.

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Trump Signs Order To Accelerate Legal Access To Psychedelics For Patients With Mental Health Conditions

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at expanding and expediting research on the potential therapeutic benefits of psychedelics, a move aimed at making substances such as psilocybin, ibogaine, LSD and MDMA more readily available to patients in clinical settings.

The move will “dramatically accelerate access to new medical research and treatments based on psychedelic drugs,” Trump said.

The order, which the president signed in the Oval Office on Saturday alongside federal health officials, advocates and the podcaster Joe Rogan, directs the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue new guidance for researchers on conducting clinical trials on psychedelics.

“In many cases, these experimental treatments have shown life-changing potential for those suffering from severe mental illness and depression—including our cherished veterans,” Trump said.

Steps taken under the order will “clear away unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles, improve data sharing among the FDA and the Department of Veterans Affairs, and facilitate fast rescheduling of any psychedelic drugs that become FDA approved,” the president said.

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Scientists Engineered a Plant to Produce 5 Different Psychedelics at Once

What do plants, toads, and mushrooms have in common? They can all produce psychedelic substances – and now their powers have been combined in one plant, like a trippier Captain Planet.

In a wild first, scientists have taken the genes these organisms use to make five natural psychedelics and introduced them into a tobacco plant (Nicotiana benthamiana), which then produced all five compounds simultaneously.

As interest grows in psychedelics as potential treatments for illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD, the newly developed system could offer scientists a new way to produce these compounds for research purposes.

“[Our] strategy established a heterologous plant system for the production of five prominent therapeutically valuable compounds, their derivatives, and nonnatural plant analogs, providing a starting point for their production in plants,” writes a team led by researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

Tryptamine psychedelics are a class of compounds that includes psilocin, psilocybin, and a number of dimethyltryptamine (DMT) compounds. The ability to produce these substances has emerged in diverse organisms across the tree of life – plants, fungi, and animals.

In recent years, a number of studies have shown that tryptamine psychedelics may represent an untapped resource when it comes to mental health treatments.

However, progress in this field remains limited, in part due to regulatory restrictions, underscoring the need for more research. This creates practical challenges for scientists.

“Traditionally, the supply of psychedelics relies on natural producers, mainly plants, fungi, and the Sonoran Desert toad,” the researchers write.

“Harvesting these organisms for their psychoactive compounds raises ecological and ethical concerns, being increasingly threatened by habitat loss and overexploitation.”

In an effort to tackle this, plant scientists Paula Berman and Janka Höfer and their team set out to map and rebuild the biochemical pathways behind these compounds.

They identified the key genes used by two plants – Psychotria viridis and Acacia acuminata – to make DMT, and the step-by-step chemical pathways involved in producing the compound.

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AOC Slams Federal Drug Laws That Restrict Marijuana And Psychedelics Despite Their Medical Value

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tore into the current U.S. drug scheduling system on Thursday—making the case that placing substances like marijuana and LSD in the most restrictive category runs counter to evidence showing their medical potential, hinders research and is associated with criminal penalties that haven’t effectively prevented harms from substance misuse.

In some cases, the congresswoman said during a hearing before the House Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee, classifying drugs as Schedule I under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) can exacerbate the overdose crisis, leading to the introduction of new, sometimes more dangerous drugs into the illicit marketplace.

The panel on Thursday took testimony on a variety of bills aimed at curbing overdose deaths and responding to emerging public health threats posed by illegal drugs such as xylazine and other opioid-like synthetics that are often more potent than the analogues that came before them.

Ocasio-Cortez said it was time to “take a step back” and “really explore and examine the scheduling system in the United States as a whole and really how we think about this,” directing her questions to Nabarun Dasgupta, a senior scientist at the University of North Carolina who served as an expert witness for the hearing.

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New Mexico Will Fund Psychedelic Treatment for Patients on Low Incomes

On March 11, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) signed the budget for the upcoming fiscal year into law, and in doing so, underlined the state’s position at the vanguard of alternative mental health treatments.

Embedded within the finalized appropriation is a late addition: a pioneering directive to allocate $630,000 to the state’s Psilocybin Treatment Equity Fund, newly established under New Mexico’s Medical Psilocybin Act.

Confirmation of the funding represents a big step forward in the state’s efforts to integrate psychedelic-assisted therapies into its broader behavioral health infrastructure. And the formal allocation of state funds to pay for psychedelic treatments for patients on low incomes is seen as a world first. 

State Senator Jeff Steinborn (D) was one of the legislative champions of the 2025 legalization of psilocybin for medical purposes. He emphasized that the state’s financial support is what will ultimately dictate the efficacy and fairness of the entire enterprise.

“I’m excited that New Mexico has taken the next step in support of our Medical Psilocybin Treatment Program,” Sen. Steinborn told Filter following the budget’s approval. “An important part of our state law was the creation of an equity fund, to ensure all New Mexicans who qualify for the program would have access to it, not just those with financial resources. Through this funding provided by the legislature and governor, as well as additional investment in research into end-of-life anxiety, we are working to launch the best evidence-based program possible.”

In addition to the equity fund allocation, the budget authorizes a supplementary $300,000 earmarked for clinical research at the University of New Mexico into treating end-of-life anxiety with psilocybin—the hallucinogenic compound found in certain mushrooms. 

New Mexico will be a critical testing ground for medical access to psychedelics as it navigates the challenges of implementation.

Its schedule is ambitious. In December 2025, state health officials announced concrete plans to launch the program by the end of r 2026. This means rolling out the regulatory and clinical framework a full year ahead of the initially imposed legislative deadline.

When the program opens its doors to patients, New Mexico will become the third state to launch a state-regulated psilocybin program after Oregon and Colorado. However, while Oregon and Colorado have adopted models that allow for supported adult use and broader therapeutic access outside of strict medical confines, New Mexico’s program will be fundamentally clinical and medicalized.It’s designed to provide highly supervised treatment for specific, severe qualifying medical conditions—including major treatment-resistant depression, severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), chronic substance use disorders, and specialized end-of-life care.

But in the United States, a medicalized model immediately raises questions around whether people will be able to access it on the basis of need, rather than ability to pay. That’s what the Psilocybin Treatment Equity Fund is intended to address.

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New analysis shows ideology, not science, drove the global prohibition of psychedelics

A recent study published in Contemporary Drug Problems argues that the strict global prohibition of psychedelic drugs was driven more by political ideology and media panic than by scientific evidence of medical harm. The historical analysis reveals that the 1971 United Nations decision to heavily restrict these substances relied on cultural anxieties rather than genuine public health risks. These findings suggest that current international drug laws may need to be reevaluated to remove unnecessary barriers to modern medical research.

Psychedelics are a diverse class of substances that alter a person’s perception, mood, and cognitive processes. This category includes naturally occurring compounds found in certain plants and mushrooms, like psilocybin and mescaline, as well as synthetic drugs like lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD. Medical professionals generally consider these substances to be physiologically safe, and they tend to have a very low risk of causing addiction.

The United Nations is an international organization founded to maintain global peace, security, and cooperation, which includes creating treaties to regulate the global trade of various drugs. In 1971, the United Nations adopted the Convention on Psychotropic Substances. This international treaty classified psychedelics under the strictest possible level of legal control, lumping them together with highly addictive substances.

A psychotropic substance is simply any chemical that alters how the brain functions, causing changes in mood or awareness. In recent years, medical interest in psychedelics has returned. Early research suggests they could help treat severe mental health conditions.

However, the strict international laws established in 1971 continue to make modern medical research very difficult. The scientists conducted this study to understand exactly how international diplomats originally decided to place psychedelics under such extreme restrictions. They wanted to uncover the historical and political forces that shaped these long-standing global drug policies.

“My legal background, an interest in history, and involvement in an organisation that promotes research into the risks and potential benefits of psychedelic compounds coalesced into my wanting to conduct this research,” explained study author Måns Bergkvist of Uppsala University.

To reconstruct the history of UN drug policy, the researchers examined primary historical documents spanning from 1963 to 1971. They gathered archival records from three specific locations: the United Nations Archives, the Swedish National Archives, and the United States National Archives. The scientists analyzed a vast collection of meeting minutes, official negotiation records, internal reports, and diplomatic resolutions.

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