Trump Signs Psychedelics Order
Plus: ship seizures, the best free bread in America, and more...
Trump issues psychedelics order. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to allow more access to certain psychedelic drugs to treat mental health disorders.
"Psychedelic drugs, including ibogaine compounds, show potential in clinical studies to address serious mental illnesses for patients whose conditions persist after completing standard therapy," reads the executive order.
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The order directs the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to provide expedited review of qualifying psychedelics through the Trump administration's National Priority Voucher program, which promises a one- to two-month review timeline. According to FDA Commissioner Mary Makary, three psychedelic compounds would be reviewed under the program.
The White House order also directs the FDA and the Drug Enforcement Administration to allow patients to access psychedelics through the federal Right To Try Act, which allows people with life-threatening conditions to access "investigational treatment options."
The attorney general is directed to expeditiously reschedule psychedelics that have completed stage three clinical trials.
Expanding minds, expanding Overton windows. "Can I have some, please? I'll take some," the president joked when signing the psychedelics order at an Oval Office ceremony.
Podcaster Joe Rogan, who has pressed Trump to approve the use of ibogaine, attended the ceremony. Former Navy SEAL and psychedelics advocate Marcus Luttrell was also there.
To have a president, and a Republican president no less, joke about taking psychedelics while signing an order that expands access to those substances illustrates a remarkable shift in the Overton Window. If you predicted this scene to someone in 2015, they might have asked if you're tripping.
When voters in Denver, Colorado, narrowly voted to effectively decriminalize possession of psilocybin mushrooms in 2019, it was the first city to do so.
Since then, three states—Colorado, Oregon, and New Mexico—have passed policies that allowed limited access to some psychedelics. A handful of localities, including the District of Columbia, have passed Denver-like laws deprioritizing arrests and prosecution of people who merely possess some psychedelics.
Other states, such as Massachusetts and California, have considered and rejected liberalizing their laws controlling psychedelics.
At the federal level, psychedelics reform has similarly advanced in fits and starts. In 2018, the first Trump administration recognized psilocybin as a "breakthrough therapy," a milestone that nevertheless did little practically to increase legal access to the drug. In 2024, the FDA declined to approve MDMA as a PTSD treatment.
Many veterans have argued that psychedelics can be a powerful treatment for the traumas of war, making psychedelics reform a more mainstream cause.
Trump's order is both good policy and an encouraging sign of prospects for the movement for psychedelic freedom. Hopefully, we'll see a similar cascade of support for legalization, similar to dam-breaking that's happened with marijuana legalization in the states.
On the more pessimistic side of things, the executive order shows that one can support one form of drug legalization while eagerly prosecuting the drug war in other circumstances.
Even as Trump jokes about dropping acid in the Oval Office, his administration is using the U.S. military to blow up suspected drug trafficking in Caribbean and Pacific on the pretext that illegal drug importation is a de facto armed assault on the U.S.
Clearly the president is not sold on the general libertarian principle that you should be allowed to do as you wish with your own body, provided you're not harming anyone else.
Blockade enforced. Trump claimed in a Truth Social post that U.S. Marines have captured an Iranian vessel near the Strait of Hormuz. This was the first interception of a vessel since the U.S. blockade began last week, says the Associated Press.
The seizure puts even more strain on the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran, which is set to expire on Wednesday. The Iranian government has promised swift retaliation for the seizure.
U.S. negotiators are scheduled to arrive in Pakistan today for renewed peace talks, but it is unclear if Iran will now send a delegation.
Scenes from D.C.:Caity Weaver of The Atlantic has determined, after a long nationwide search, that the best free bread in America is the cherry walnut loaf at D.C.'s Le Diplomate.
I was going to say "I had so much fun reporting this story!" but actually I think I was stressed out the whole time, sprinting in a blind panic, trying to figure out why the hell I pitched this. I think that comes across in the text. Hope you enjoy! https://t.co/6IOIejQjme pic.twitter.com/EzjeE9p8M5
— Caity Weaver (@caityweaver) April 18, 2026
Perhaps that's true, but I assume my other nut allergy sufferers will agree with me that the bread is not literally to die for.
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