Hey, it's Flora, and you are listening to Science Friday.

Psychedelic news from the Oval Office.

If these turn out to be as good as people are saying, it's going to have a tremendous impact on this country and other countries too.

This month, Joe Rogan and RFK Jr. stood behind President Trump as he announced

his administration would set aside funding and loosen the bureaucratic process at the FDA to

fast-track psychedelic therapy research. Joe Rogan named-checked one drug in particular, Ibogaine.

Rogan said he sent Trump information about Ibegain's potential promise for addiction, and Trump replied.

The text message came back, sounds great.

Do you want FDA approval?

Let's do it.

It was literally that quick.

So Ibegain comes from the root bark of the Iboga plant found in Central Africa,

and it has psychedelic properties. And besides its potential for curbing opioid addiction, veterans in

the U.S. have been advocates for this treatment because it's shown some promise for treating PTSD and

other conditions. But it also can be risky to take, especially if you have

heart issues. Now, if you have never heard of the drug Ibogaine, you're not alone, compared to

other hallucinogenic drugs like psilocybin or ketamine, Ibogaine has not made it to the medical

mainstream yet. So what is the story with this drug? Here to tell us about

its history is neuroscientist and pharmacologist Dr. Deborah Mash, who's been studying Ibegain since

the 90s, maybe as long as any scientist in the U.S. For full transparency, she's also the founder

and CEO of a company that's developing a therapeutic drug based off of Ibegain.

And here to tell us how Ibegain fits in with this growing interest in medical psychedelics,

...