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Rick Perry: I'm dedicating my life to fighting for a psychedelic drug
This root of an African shrub can help heal trauma, substance use disorder and brain injury.Ive spent most of my adult life in public service as governor of Texas, U.S. secretary of energy and a proud veteran. And few things have moved me like what Ive witnessed with a psychedelic drug made from a shrub in Africa.
This month, Texas became the first state in the nation to allocate public funding for FDA-approved clinical trials of ibogaine, committing $50 million, the largest psychedelic research investment ever made by a government. Its a bold, bipartisan move rooted in science and urgency. Ibogaine is a naturally occurring plant medicine derived from a shrub native to Gabon and surrounding countries in West Africa. It is quite literally a plant root, yet its changing the way we think about healing trauma, substance use disorder and brain injury.
Clinical data shows that ibogaine has the potential to interrupt substance dependence, reduce trauma symptoms and promote neurological repair. I first heard about the drug from Morgan Luttrell, a Navy SEAL and combat veteran who was elected to Congress in 2022. He learned about other SEALs traveling to Mexico to undergo an alternative treatment for trauma and addiction something called ibogaine.
When he told me about it, I cautioned him. Like many people, I thought I knew what psychedelics were that they were dangerous, something to stay far away from. I grew up during the Nixon era, when the message was clear: Drugs are bad, psychedelics will ruin your life, and the only responsible path is total avoidance. But Ive come to realize how wrong that narrative was. That fear-based messaging kept us from exploring treatments that could have saved countless lives.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/06/27/rick-perry-psychedelic-drug-ibogaine/
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Rick Perry: I'm dedicating my life to fighting for a psychedelic drug (Original Post)
Zorro
Friday
OP
EYESORE 9001
(28,497 posts)1. I would volunteer for a study
but I dont see any in my area. I have no qualms about psychoactive substances.
bucolic_frolic
(51,115 posts)2. Tripped: Nazi Germany, the CIA, and the Dawn of the Psychedelic Age
Tripped: Nazi Germany, the CIA, and the Dawn of the Psychedelic Age
https://www.amazon.com/Tripped-Nazi-Germany-Dawn-Psychedelic/dp/0358646502
"Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany" by Norman Ohler
https://www.amazon.com/Blitzed-Drugs-Third-Norman-Ohler/dp/1328663795
__________
They were on the trail of cures for dementia in the 1950s, but government policies make it illegal to do research on them. Thanks Nixon.
Response to Zorro (Original post)
Ponietz This message was self-deleted by its author.
Paladin
(30,875 posts)4. If you had fuckwits like Rick Perry and Dan Patrick and Ken Paxton running your state...
...you'd want an ample supply of psychedelics, as well...