Then vs. Now comparison · thenVsNow/tnv-food-07

The Ibogaine-Veterans Coalition: McKenna's Afterlife in Policy

Education, not medical advice. Drafts and study material from an independent research library. Citations on this page were checked on Oct 13, 2026; claims in the body text and organizational sources are still under review. What was checked.

Then (1992), Food of the Gods

The Ibogaine-Veterans Coalition: McKenna's Afterlife in Policy

McKenna discussed ibogaine in Food of the Gods as one of the most pharmacologically significant compounds in the African plant tradition, its anti-addictive properties documented anecdotally since Howard Lotsof's discovery in 1962. McKenna saw ibogaine as part of the broader argument about suppressed plant medicines; he didn't specifically predict a veterans' advocacy movement.
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Ibogaine has become the primary vehicle for bipartisan psychedelic policy. The mechanism: American veterans with PTSD and traumatic brain injury traveled to Mexico and Costa Rica for ibogaine treatment (not available in the US) and returned reporting dramatic improvement, reduction in suicidal ideation, elimination of opioid withdrawal, restoration of cognitive function. Amber Capone's VETS Foundation, Marcus Capone's public advocacy, and Stanford's MAPS-adjacent research produced the political conditions for Texas SB 2308 (2025): $50 million for ibogaine research, the largest state investment in psychedelic research in US history. Mississippi passed an ibogaine research bill in March 2026. Republican governor support, Rick Perry, Greg Abbott, made ibogaine the first psychedelic with genuine conservative political backing.

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