President Trump signed an executive order directing $50 million in federal funding and instructing the Food and Drug Administration to accelerate review of certain psychedelic drugs, including psilocybin and ibogaine, as treatments for mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety. At the Oval Office event he quipped to a laughing crowd, “Can I have some, please?”
The signing was attended by a mix of public officials and public figures: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; Dr. Mehmet Oz, now administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell; and podcast host Joe Rogan. Rogan said he had texted the president about ibogaine, and Trump responded, “Sounds great. Do you want FDA approval? Let’s do it.” Luttrell told the president the treatment had “absolutely changed my life for the better.”
The FDA plans to issue national priority review vouchers next week for three psychedelic compounds, a step FDA Commissioner Mary Makary said could compress review timelines and potentially lead to approvals within weeks. According to the agency, this is the first occasion it has offered fast-track consideration specifically for psychedelics.
Trump framed the measure as part of a response to a growing national mental health crisis, citing figures in the order that point to more than 14 million American adults with serious mental illness and roughly 8 million receiving prescription medication for those conditions. He emphasized early, promising trial results for psychedelic therapies among active-duty military and veterans with PTSD; the Department of Veterans Affairs is involved in at least five such trials across New York, California and Oregon.
Clinical research into psychedelics began in the 1950s but largely stalled in the 1960s amid widespread recreational use and regulatory pushback. Interest and studies have resumed in recent years; a 2025 JAMA paper is cited as finding that a single dose of LSD produced months-long reductions in anxiety and depression for some participants. Despite emerging data, compounds such as psilocybin (the active agent in so-called “magic mushrooms”) and ibogaine (derived from an African shrub and researched for addiction treatment) remain listed as Schedule I substances by the Drug Enforcement Administration, which classifies them as having no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.
The president said his order aims to speed reclassification and he expressed expectation of rapid FDA approvals. The announcement follows a 2024 FDA decision that rejected approval of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD.