Where ibogaine law stands right now
As of August 2026 ibogaine is still a Schedule I controlled substance under the United States Controlled Substances Act. No rescheduling has taken place. It cannot be lawfully prescribed, dispensed or administered in the US outside an FDA-authorised research protocol, and there is no licensed ibogaine clinic anywhere in the country. What has changed is momentum: an executive order signed in April 2026 named ibogaine and directed federal agencies to build access and funding pathways, a bipartisan bill would force a rescheduling decision, and state legislatures have appropriated real money for clinical trials. Those are steps toward a legal route. They are not a legal route.
- Federal schedule: Schedule I, unchanged as of August 2026
- Executive order: signed 18 April 2026, directs agencies, does not reschedule
- In Congress: H.R. 9559, introduced 30 June 2026, not enacted
- States with enacted funding or programmes: Texas, Kentucky, Arizona, Mississippi, Louisiana, Ohio
- Available to the public in the US today: no, only via trial enrolment
The federal picture
An executive order that named ibogaine, and a bill that would move it
On 18 April 2026 President Trump signed an executive order titled Accelerating Medical Treatments for Serious Mental Illness. It is a psychedelics order rather than an ibogaine order, but ibogaine is named in it, which is why it drove so much search traffic. According to the White House fact sheet, it directs the FDA to award Commissioner's National Priority Vouchers to psychedelic medicines that hold Breakthrough Therapy designation, directs the FDA and DEA jointly to establish a Right to Try pathway for eligible patients to access investigational psychedelics including ibogaine compounds, allocates at least 50 million dollars through ARPA-H for federal and state research collaboration, and instructs the Attorney General to open a DEA rescheduling review for any Schedule I substance that completes Phase 3 trials and wins FDA approval.
Read that last item carefully, because most coverage did not. The rescheduling trigger is conditional on FDA approval that has not happened. The Right to Try instruction is a direction to build a pathway, not a pathway you can use. Neither the order nor anything since has moved ibogaine out of Schedule I.
On 30 June 2026 Representatives Morgan Luttrell of Texas, Lou Correa of California, Jack Bergman of Michigan and Michael McCaul of Texas introduced H.R. 9559, the IBOGAINE Act. It would require the Attorney General to decide within 60 days whether to move ibogaine from Schedule I to Schedule II, write a federal statutory definition of ibogaine, and clarify Right to Try access for seriously ill patients. It was introduced but not enacted as of August 2026, so at present it is a proposal.
One genuinely new regulatory fact sits alongside the politics. On 22 April 2026 DemeRx announced that the FDA had accepted its Investigational New Drug application for DMX-1001, an oral formulation of noribogaine, ibogaine's long-lasting metabolite, for alcohol use disorder, with Phase 2 work anticipated in 2027. An accepted IND is permission to begin studying a compound in humans. It is not approval, and it is years from being one.
How 2026 unfolded
The sequence, in order
11 June 2025 · Texas signs SB 2308
Governor Greg Abbott signs Senate Bill 2308, committing 50 million dollars of state money to FDA-supervised ibogaine clinical trials. At the time it is the largest state-funded psychedelic research programme on record.
12 December 2025 · The Texas money lands
UTMB Health, in collaboration with UTHealth Houston, is awarded the 50 million dollars to lead the multicentre trials, with a consortium of Texas academic and health institutions attached.
March 2026 · Texas doubles down
After the state does not secure a qualifying private pharmaceutical partner, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows announce an additional 50 million dollars, bringing the Texas commitment to roughly 100 million.
26 March 2026 · Mississippi enacts HB 314
Governor Tate Reeves signs House Bill 314, directing 5 million dollars of opioid settlement funds into an ibogaine research partnership, contingent on a private-sector match of the same amount.
13 to 14 April 2026 · Kentucky overrides a veto
Governor Andy Beshear vetoes Senate Bill 77, which creates an Ibogaine Research and Intellectual Property Fund, objecting that it singles out one drug. The legislature overrides him the next day, 31 to 6 in the Senate and 77 to 18 in the House.
18 April 2026 · The executive order
The psychedelics executive order is signed, naming ibogaine, directing FDA priority vouchers and a Right to Try pathway, and allocating at least 50 million dollars through ARPA-H. It does not reschedule anything.
22 April 2026 · FDA accepts the DemeRx IND
DemeRx announces FDA acceptance of its IND application for DMX-1001, an oral noribogaine, for alcohol use disorder, with Phase 2 anticipated in 2027.
May 2026 · Veterans organisations formalise support
DAV, the Disabled American Veterans, and Americans for Ibogaine announce a partnership on education, research and policy advocacy focused on brain injury, PTSD and substance use disorder in veterans.
30 June 2026 · The IBOGAINE Act is introduced
H.R. 9559 is introduced with bipartisan sponsorship, seeking a 60-day Attorney General determination on moving ibogaine to Schedule II. Still pending.
1 August 2026 · Louisiana's programme takes effect
Senate Bill 43, creating a psychedelic-assisted therapy pilot funded by opioid settlement dollars and covering psilocybin, ibogaine and MDMA, becomes effective as Act 956, having passed into law without the governor's signature.
State by state
Who has actually appropriated money
Texas · Enacted
SB 2308, signed 11 June 2025, 50 million dollars, expanded by a further 50 million announced in March 2026. Trials led by UTHealth Houston and UTMB Health. The state retains an ownership stake in any resulting approved drug, with a share directed to a veterans fund.
Kentucky · Enacted
SB 77, sponsored by Senator Donald Douglas, creates an Ibogaine Research and Intellectual Property Fund administered by the Department of Agriculture. Vetoed 13 April 2026 and enacted by legislative override the following day.
Arizona · Enacted
HB 2871, sponsored by Representative Justin Wilmeth, appropriates 5 million dollars from the general fund to the Department of Health Services for a certified clinical research study of ibogaine in traumatic brain injury and PTSD.
Mississippi · Enacted
HB 314, sponsored by Representative Sam Creekmore IV, commits 5 million dollars in opioid settlement funds to an ibogaine research consortium. The money is contingent on a private party matching it, so the programme is not yet funded in full.
Louisiana · In effect
SB 43 creates a psychedelic-assisted therapy pilot programme funded by opioid settlement dollars, covering psilocybin, ibogaine and MDMA. It became Act 956 without the governor's signature and took effect 1 August 2026.
Ohio · Study committee
The state operating budget for fiscal years 2026 and 2027 created an Ibogaine Treatment Study Committee to evaluate ibogaine for substance use disorders and for veterans with PTSD, depression and mild traumatic brain injury. It convened in 2026 and is due to report by the end of 2027.
Missouri · Pending
HB 2817, introduced 7 January 2026 by Representative Richard West, would fund FDA-supervised ibogaine trials and create both an Ibogaine Study Fund and an Ibogaine Intellectual Property Fund with revenue directed to veterans and other at-risk populations. Not enacted as of August 2026.
Pennsylvania · Pending
HB 859, introduced in February 2026 by Representative Brian Cina, would direct money from the state's Opioid Abatement Special Fund toward a study committee evaluating ibogaine and related therapies. Referred to committee and still there as of August 2026.
Everywhere else
No other state has enacted ibogaine-specific research funding as of August 2026. State legislation on this moves quickly, so treat any list, including this one, as a snapshot with a date on it rather than a permanent record.
Please read this part
What none of this means
Funding a trial is not a finding. This is the single most common misreading of the last eighteen months of headlines. When a legislature appropriates money for ibogaine research, it is deciding to find out whether ibogaine works. It is not announcing that it does. Ibogaine still has no FDA-approved indication, and the strongest published human evidence remains observational studies and case series rather than randomised controlled trials. Generating that missing controlled evidence is the entire point of the Texas, Arizona and Mississippi programmes.
Money is not access. Texas has funded trials led by UTHealth Houston and UTMB Health, which means ibogaine can be administered in Texas inside an FDA-authorised protocol to enrolled participants who meet the study criteria. Trial enrolment is limited, selective, and not a treatment service. If you are in the United States and looking for care rather than for a study, none of the 2026 legislation has opened a door for you yet.
An executive order is a direction to agencies, not a change in the law. The Right to Try language in the April order instructs the FDA and DEA to establish a pathway. Until those agencies actually build and publish one, there is nothing for a patient or a physician to use. The rescheduling language is conditional on an FDA approval that does not exist.
And the risk profile has not moved either way. Ibogaine prolongs the cardiac QT interval and deaths have been documented, overwhelmingly in unscreened, unsupervised settings. Legislative enthusiasm does not change the pharmacology. Whatever the law does next, cardiac screening stays non-negotiable.
Who is driving this
The people and organisations behind the bills
Rick Perry
Former governor of Texas and former US Secretary of Energy, co-founder of Americans for Ibogaine, and the most visible advocate behind the Texas legislation. Reporting on the June 2025 signing credited his involvement as central to it passing. He is an advocate, not a clinician or researcher.
Americans for Ibogaine
A nonprofit advocacy organisation co-founded by Perry. W. Bryan Hubbard, formerly chair of the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission, became its chief executive in June 2025. It lobbies for state and federal research funding and maintains a legislative tracker.
DAV
The Disabled American Veterans announced a partnership with Americans for Ibogaine in May 2026 covering education, awareness, research and advocacy on emerging psychedelic therapies for veterans. It is the first formal alignment between a major veterans organisation and ibogaine advocacy.
Rep. Morgan Luttrell
A Texas congressman and former Navy SEAL, the lead sponsor of H.R. 9559 and the most active federal legislator on ibogaine policy. Veteran brain injury and PTSD are the stated motivation for most of the congressional interest.
UTHealth Houston and UTMB
The academic centres awarded the Texas money in December 2025, leading a consortium of Texas institutions. They are the ones who will actually have to produce the controlled evidence the legislation was written to buy.
Where we stand
We run a supervised programme in Mexico and we have no role in US legislation. We track it because our patients ask about it constantly, and because a lot of the coverage they arrive with overstates what has changed.
Why people travel
A legal difference, not a loophole
The reason supervised ibogaine programmes operate in Mexico is straightforward and worth stating plainly: Mexico does not schedule ibogaine. It is not a grey market or a legal workaround. It is a different country making a different regulatory decision, and physicians there can administer it lawfully under Mexican health regulation.
That is the practical situation US patients face in August 2026. The domestic route is trial enrolment, which is narrow and selective by design. The international route is a supervised clinical programme in a jurisdiction where the compound is not controlled. Both are legitimate. Neither is a shortcut around the screening that keeps people alive.
If the federal picture changes, and there is now a plausible sequence by which it could, the medicine will not have changed. The cardiac risk, the CYP2D6 metabolism, the need for a 12-lead EKG and electrolyte correction and a full medication review, all of that is the same on either side of a rescheduling decision.
Common questions
Ibogaine policy, answered directly
Primary References
Our protocols align with the primary scientific literature, including the MAPS Ibogaine Investigator's Brochure (July 2026), NIDA's psychedelic & dissociative drugs research, and registered trials on ClinicalTrials.gov, H.R. 9559, the IBOGAINE Act (Congress.gov, 2026), UTMB Health awarded $50 million to lead Texas ibogaine trials (UTMB, December 2025), Texas ibogaine funding and Rick Perry's role (Texas Tribune, June 2025), Arizona HB 2871, ibogaine clinical research appropriation (LegiScan, 2025), DAV and Americans for Ibogaine partnership (DAV, May 2026). Ibogaine remains investigational; we pair published evidence with measured, real-world outcome tracking.
Related reading: what ibogaine actually is · legal status country by country · ibogaine clinical trials now recruiting · what the evidence actually shows · cardiac screening and why it is required · where treatment is lawfully available