#148 - No. 1 Ibogaine Scientist: “Trump’s Decision On Ibogaine Changes EVERYTHING!”

I met Sasha Shulgin.

I said to him straight away, "How does ibogaine work?" He drew four boxes, psilocybin, LSD in one box, short-acting tryptamines in another box, MDMA and the hallucinogenic amphetamines in another box, ibogaine in a box by itself.

Whether it's nicotine, alcohol, cocaine, or opioids, noribogaine will block that drug-taking behavior.

I'm somewhat of a cocaineologist.

We were Miami Vice, cocaine, booze, and coke, the whole thing.

That's what got me to ibogaine in the first place, right, was seeing dead bodies at the medical examiner's department.

[gentle music]

Deborah Mash, ibogaine has been all over the news recently.

People might have heard this drug more in the past couple of months than they had heard their entire life.

Can you sort of set the stage for us on why it's been in the news, and how did you first get interested in this very, very strange, bizarre drug?

Well, that, that is, uh, covering a lot of decades.

But to start where we are today, where is ibogaine today, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on April 18th, 2026.

Specifically, and this is in my lifetime, the first time a president has stood up to say that what we're doing for mental health in our country, what we're doing for our veterans could be better.

And his leadership has fast-tracked clinical research, development, making medicines like ibogaine and other psychedelics available not only to our, our veterans, but also for civilians who are desperately in need.

And the patients have been waiting a very, very long time.

So the president's announcement, I remember it very well, on a Saturday morning in the Oval Office, was an absolute historic moment for me because, in essence, by naming ibogaine, our president validated work that I had done for over thirty years in this space.

Amazing.

So I can't, I, I can't say enough that-- I can't say enough good things about it because my cellphone blew up at that moment.

People were, you know, calling me, texting me, and, and there was a lot of enthusiasm.

So the, America stands at a, at a really important point right now in terms of fast-tracking these molecules.

The work done at Compass Pathways is gonna break ground.

There's no doubt about it, and I am so excited about what, where they are and what we can expect to hear in the not too distant future.

We know that the Veterans Administration is deploying their teams to make these medicines available sooner than later.

You know, oftentimes institutions are slow to the party.

But in this case, again, leadership is pushing ahead to say, "All right, bring these molecules into clinical care." Ibogaine is a method of care therapy, but it has stumbled and, you know, in some ways I feel Like the Sisyphus metaphor that I've been able to push the molecule forward ahead up the mountain, only to have the boulder come back down the mountain and, and eventually fall on me.

I met Sasha Shulgin.

I said to him straight away, "How does ibogaine work?" He drew four boxes, psilocybin, LSD in one box, short-acting tryptamines in another box, MDMA and the hallucinogenic amphetamines in another box, ibogaine in a box by itself.

Whether it's nicotine, alcohol, cocaine, or opioids, noribogaine will block that drug-taking behavior.

I'm somewhat of a cocaineologist.

We were Miami Vice, cocaine, booze, and coke, the whole thing.

That's what got me to ibogaine in the first place, right, was seeing dead bodies at the medical examiner's department.

[gentle music]

Deborah Mash, ibogaine has been all over the news recently.

People might have heard this drug more in the past couple of months than they had heard their entire life.

Can you sort of set the stage for us on why it's been in the news, and how did you first get interested in this very, very strange, bizarre drug?

Well, that, that is, uh, covering a lot of decades.

But to start where we are today, where is ibogaine today, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on April 18th, 2026.

Specifically, and this is in my lifetime, the first time a president has stood up to say that what we're doing for mental health in our country, what we're doing for our veterans could be better.

And his leadership has fast-tracked clinical research, development, making medicines like ibogaine and other psychedelics available not only to our, our veterans, but also for civilians who are desperately in need.

And the patients have been waiting a very, very long time.

So the president's announcement, I remember it very well, on a Saturday morning in the Oval Office, was an absolute historic moment for me because, in essence, by naming ibogaine, our president validated work that I had done for over thirty years in this space.

Amazing.

So I can't, I, I can't say enough that-- I can't say enough good things about it because my cellphone blew up at that moment.

People were, you know, calling me, texting me, and, and there was a lot of enthusiasm.

So the, America stands at a, at a really important point right now in terms of fast-tracking these molecules.

The work done at Compass Pathways is gonna break ground.

There's no doubt about it, and I am so excited about what, where they are and what we can expect to hear in the not too distant future.

We know that the Veterans Administration is deploying their teams to make these medicines available sooner than later.

You know, oftentimes institutions are slow to the party.

But in this case, again, leadership is pushing ahead to say, "All right, bring these molecules into clinical care." Ibogaine is a method of care therapy, but it has stumbled and, you know, in some ways I feel Like the Sisyphus metaphor that I've been able to push the molecule forward ahead up the mountain, only to have the boulder come back down the mountain and, and eventually fall on me.