The Bipartisan Moment: Veterans, Ibogaine, and the New Political Map

“Texas signed $50M in ibogaine research funding. Colorado pardoned psychedelic convictions. Utah signed veteran psychedelic therapy research. The political map has become genuinely bipartisan.”

Jay Stevens closed Storming Heaven in 1968 with the Schedule I classification as a politically driven suppression of clinical research. The political context was clear: the Nixon administration's drug war explicitly targeted anti-war protesters and Black communities.

The political context of the current psychedelic policy moment is substantially different. In 2025, Rick Perry, former Republican Governor of Texas, Secretary of Energy under Trump, became chairman of Americans for Ibogaine and advocated for ibogaine research funding to treat veterans. Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed legislation directing $50 million toward ibogaine clinical trials. Mississippi's Republican-led legislature passed an ibogaine research bill in March 2026.

Utah, with conservative political culture and a large veteran population, signed a veteran-focused psychedelic therapy research bill in March 2026. On the other side: Colorado Governor Polis (Democrat) pardoned people convicted of state psychedelic possession charges. Oregon's Democratic-led legislature passed technical fixes to the psilocybin services program.

Psychedelic reform is no longer a left-right issue. The patient population of veterans with PTSD has created a coalition including conservative military veterans, Republican governors, and libertarian advocacy organizations alongside progressive harm reduction advocates.

The drug war was built on political polarization. Psychedelic reform is, unexpectedly, being built on political convergence.

Sources

• Cannabis magazine report, Psychedelic Reform (April 2026)
• Colorado Sun Colorado Psychedelic Policy (2025)
• Wikipedia Psilocybin Decriminalization in the United States