#179: 📱 How A Text Message Changed US Drug Policy
The Most Unexpected Plot Twist in Psychedelic Regulation
Hey friends,
There are a lot of really cool longevity conferences coming up this year
Life Summit Berlin is giving away 10 free tickets to the Nina’s Notes community in a raffle. Everyone who participates but does not win, receives a 50% discount. Enter here: lifesummit.berlin/giveaway-nina-patrick
Longevity Day at NFC Summit Lisbon — June 4, 2026. Join me as I host a day all about Longevity.
Longevity Summit Dublin — June 24–26 at Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Grab your tickets here.
Longevity Show — June 26 & 27 in London. My podcast co-host Phil will be part of the event! Grab your tickets here.
2060 Longevity Forum — September 2 & 3, 2026, one of the best conferences dedicated to longevity investment. Use code LONGEVITYDAYXYZ for a special discount (valid until May 15) at forum.2060.life
Cheers,
Nina
💬 In this note:
📱 How A Text Message Changed US Drug Policy
📚 New To Reads
⚡️ IKEA Inflatable Furniture, round 2
#179: 📱 How A Text Message Changed US Drug Policy
On April 18th, Bicycle Day weekend, no less, the anniversary of Albert Hofmann’s first LSD trip, US President Donald Trump sat in the Oval Office and signed an executive order to accelerate research into psychedelic drugs and expand patient access.
According to Joe Rogan, who was standing right there in the room, here’s how it happened: he texted Trump some information about ibogaine.
Trump texted back.
“Sounds great. Do you want FDA approval? Let’s do it.”
Rogan described it as “literally that quick.” CNN
Policy by text message.
Welcome to 2026.
What The Executive Order Actually Does
The executive order directs $50M from the Department of Health and Human Services to match state investments in psychedelic research.
It also calls for the FDA to give expedited consideration to certain psychedelics that meet specific criteria.
More specifically: the order directs the FDA Commissioner to provide National Priority Vouchers to psychedelic drugs that have received Breakthrough Therapy designations for treating serious mental illnesses.
The National Priority Vouchers essentially fast-track regulatory review to weeks instead of the standard year-long timeline.
It also instructs the FDA and DEA to establish a pathway for eligible patients to access investigational psychedelics, including ibogaine, under the Right to Try Act.
Trump, for his part, seemed genuinely enthusiastic. Before signing, he pointed to early research on ibogaine’s potential, then joked, “Can I have some, please?” “I’ll take it. Whatever it takes.” to which the audience laughed.
Ibogaine, derived from a shrub native to West Africa, is named explicitly twice in the executive order. It has been championed by veteran organizations and psychedelic advocates as a promising treatment for hard-to-treat conditions including opioid addiction, PTSD, depression, and traumatic brain injury.
Why ibogaine, and why now
Ibogaine has been building momentum, quietly, while the rest of the mainstream psychedelic conversation centered on psilocybin and MDMA.
Ibogaine was classified as a Schedule I substance in the United States in 1970. Due to this illegality, in recent years, US veterans have reported benefiting from ibogaine after travelling to clinics in Mexico to access it.
That grassroots pressure, combined with backing from veterans groups and former Texas Governor Rick Perry, who co-founded a group called Americans for Ibogaine and made the case for reducing federal limits on the drug on Rogan’s podcast, twice in two years, led to a law providing $50 million for ibogaine research in Texas.
Trump’s executive order appears designed in part to match and amplify exactly that kind of state-level momentum.
The clinical trials are preliminary and limited on Ibogaine due to the Schedule I classification, which makes it almost impossible to study the compound domestically in the United States.
One of the only recent studies conducted by US researchers was done by a Stanford research group who enrolled 30 veterans who then received Ibogaine in Mexico. They found that veterans treated with ibogaine showed improvements in PTSD, depression, and anxiety symptoms.
Ibogaine is known to cause irregular heart rhythms and has been linked to more than 30 deaths in the medical literature.
That is a significant safety concern that has stalled research for decades. The FDA has resisted ibogaine research partly due to concerns about heart-related risks, and most research has been conducted abroad.
What the executive order does is create the conditions to finally study it properly, in the USA.
Frederick Barrett, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, says: “It’s been incredibly difficult to study ibogaine in the US because of its known cardiotoxicity. If the executive order can pave the way for doing objective, scientific research with this compound, it would help us understand whether it is truly a better psychedelic therapy than others.”
While the executive order is a symbolic act signalling unusual openness to scheduled substances as potential treatments, it doesn’t fundamentally change the evidence on safety and efficacy the FDA would need to see.
There’s also a real risk of moving too fast. And, then there’s the access question.
Even if ibogaine clears FDA approval someday, clinic owners note there will be no insurance coverage, and it will still be considered unapproved, non-covered care.
Access will initially remain a privilege of the wealthy.
The people who need it most, veterans, people with treatment-resistant depression, those without the means to fly to Mexico for treatment, will still be waiting.
Whatever you think of the currently political circumstances, and I have thoughts, the framing shift on psychedelics matters.
The stigma around Schedule I drugs is significant, and this gives political cover for Republican governors and legislatures to step into the ring and fund research programs at their universities. States that might have been fence-sitting may now feel safer moving forward.
For those of us who have spent years watching rigorous psychedelic science get dismissed, defunded, or simply ignored, the idea that ibogaine is being discussed by name in the Oval Office is genuinely surreal.
📘 Thinking of diving deeper? Check out my guidebooks.
Over the past three and a half years of writing Nina’s Notes, I’ve turned the research I trust most into free, downloadable guidebooks, no fluff, no supplement brand agenda, just the science and the protocols.
Age-Fighting Drugs Guidebook
Breathwork for Longevity Guidebook
Exercise for Longevity Guidebook
Men’s Health After 40 Guidebook
Nutrition for Longevity Guidebook
Sleep for Longevity Guidebook
Stretching for Longevity Guidebook
Supplements for Longevity Guidebook
Thermal Therapy for Longevity Guidebook
You can download all 9 and more at ninapatrick.xyz/guidebooks.
Or if you want everything in one place, the guidebooks, the full deep dives, and early access to events, just upgrade to a paid subscription. Paid subscribers get the complete guidebook library included.
📚 Book of the Week
Alright readers, I’m a bit behind on my reading, but I bought two new books from the bookstore this weekend and can’t wait to read them.
Have you read Big Swiss by Jen Beagin or The Deserters by Mathias Enard?
What did you think?
Drop it in the comments - but, no spoilers please!
⚡️ Check This Out
IKEA is trying inflatable furniture again.
Yes, really.
After their famous 90’s fail - where their inflatable range turned out prone to dust, delation and being destroyed by a passing vacuum cleaning.
Now they’re back, and apparently they’ve cracked it.
The new easy chair, designed with Mikael Axelsson, has a foam cover, a carbon steel frame, and it is…full of air.
But the textile cover means no squeaking, no sliding and actual back support. It looks surprisingly solid.
And honestly, I have to admit, it’s kind of cute.
🗣️ Looking for the Nina’s Notes Podcast?
You can also find the Nina’s Notes podcast on 🔴YouTube 🟢 Spotify, 🟣 Apple Podcasts, 🟠 Substack Podcasts where I interview entrepreneurs and have an archive of 100+ voiceovers of previous Nina’s Notes.
I also co-host Longevity.Technology UNLOCKED!
🎙️ Mondays: LT UNLOCKED interviews with leading longevity innovators, clinicians, and scientists
📰 Wednesdays: Nina’s Notes in your inbox with interviews, deep dives on longevity & neuroscience
🎙️ Fridays: LT UNLOCKED News, a weekly news roundup of the latest in longevity
Find Longevity Technology UNLOCKED on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.