DEA maintains restrictive research-exemption posture on ibogaine; any veteran pilot proceeds only under Schedule I research registration with no expanded-access carve-out this year.

The DEA (the US agency that controls which drugs can be studied or used) is keeping ibogaine — a powerful plant-based substance showing promise for addiction and PTSD — locked under its strictest research rules. Any study involving veterans must go through a lengthy, formal approval process called a Schedule I research registration. There's no special fast-track or emergency-access pathway being created in 2026, even though some politicians have cheered the idea.

Presidential applause doesn't change diversion-control law. Ibogaine's cardiac risk profile makes any loosening a liability nightmare I'll be asked to justify to communities.