President Donald Trump and Joe Rogan briefly set aside their differences in the name of psychedelics.
Rogan, 58, stood dutifully behind Trump, 79, in the Oval Office on Saturday as the president signed an executive order to fast-track the review of psychedelic drugs.
The executive order directs the Food and Drug Administration to boost research into the use of psychedelics such as LSD, MDMA, and ibogaine to treat mental illness. They are classified as Schedule I drugs, which means they have no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.
Rogan took a particular interest in ibogaine, a compound found in the roots of the African shrub iboga, which has stirred interest in the medical community for its potential to treat opioid and cocaine addiction despite risks of seizures and cardiotoxicity.
“I wanna tell everybody how this happened. I sent President Trump some information. We have a gigantic opiate problem in this country, obviously,” the podcast host said, referring to data he had sent Trump about the benefits of ibogaine in combatting opiate addiction.
“I sent him that information. The text message came back, ‘Sounds great. Do you want FDA approval? Let’s do it,’” he continued, drawing laughter from the room.
Trump said he immediately ordered Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to look into the matter.
“We all respect Joe and he’s a little bit more liberal than I am,” the president quipped. “That’s okay. I have a lot of friends that are liberal. But Joe is an amazing guy and he wrote me a little note about this and I had it checked out.”
“This thing, everybody thought it was incredible. And I told Bobby, I said, ‘Bobby, let’s just do it and get Oz involved and it’s gonna get done so quickly’ and you guys did a great job,” he added.
As he read prepared remarks touting the benefits of ibogaine in treating anxiety and depression, Trump jokingly asked, “Can I have some please?”
“I’ll take it. I’ll take whatever it takes. I don’t have time to be depressed. You know, if you stay busy enough, maybe that works too. That’s what I do,” he said.
Rogan got an invite to the Oval Office even after publicly breaking from Trump on a number of issues, from the war with Iran to the president’s bizarre AI posting spree.
“It’s f---ing terrifying. All of it’s terrifying,” Rogan said of the Iran war on his Thursday podcast. “Anytime you’re involved with you’re shooting missiles into towns and blowing things up, blowing up infrastructure, blowing up bridges, you know, and Israel’s blowing up Lebanon. Now, it’s like, what the f--k are we doing? How is this still going on?”
