Psychedelic Policy Briefing: Week of July 6th, 2026

Produced in partnership with our friends at Psychedelics Today

By Jack Gorsline

In this week’s Psychedelic Policy Briefing, PSA Founder and Investigative Journalist Jack Gorsline breaks down the newly filed federal IBOGAINE Act, which would write key provisions of President Trump’s April executive order on psychedelic research into law. In Oregon, proposed licensing fee increases could push more of the state’s psilocybin service centers toward closure. In Washington, a New York Times investigation into Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s financial stake in a kratom company raises questions about the administration’s recent move against 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH). And at a House hearing on government secrecy, a former CIA officer testified about Project MKUltra, saying, “I don’t believe that the research stopped.”

As first reported by Marijuana Moment, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced H.R. 9559, the Initiating Biomedical Outcomes to Garner Advancements into Innovative Neuroplastogen Efficacy (IBOGAINE) Act, on June 30 to codify President Trump’s April 18 executive order on psychedelic therapies. Sponsored by Reps. Morgan Luttrell (R-TX), Lou Correa (D-CA), Jack Bergman (R-MI), and Michael McCaul (R-TX), the bill directs the attorney general to determine within 60 days whether to transfer ibogaine from Schedule I to Schedule II of the Controlled Substances Act. Correa had signaled in an interview with CBS News in late May that a codification bill was coming.

The legislation would establish a federal statutory definition for ibogaine that explicitly includes all parts of the plant Tabernanthe iboga, as well as similar compounds acting on neuroplasticity, opioid receptors, or serotonergic pathways. It also clarifies Right to Try exemptions for seriously ill patients, requires the Drug Enforcement Administration to revise production quotas for rescheduled compounds, and creates frameworks for federal research collaboration with state agencies and the private sector. The bill directs the attorney general and the secretary of Health and Human Services to initiate rescheduling proceedings for any other Schedule I substance that completes Phase 3 clinical trials.

The full text of the bill has not yet been posted on congress.gov. The legislation has been referred to the House Committees on Energy and Commerce, the Judiciary, and Veterans’ Affairs.

Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, Marijuana Moment also reported last week that a key congressional committee advanced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2027 that would extend funding for a military psychedelic research program through September 30, 2033. Originally authorized under the 2024 NDAA, the program facilitates clinical trials involving substances such as psilocybin, MDMA, ibogaine, and 5-MeO-DMT for active-duty service members with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or traumatic brain injury. The amendment replaces the original three-year reporting requirement, keeping the research under Department of Defense funding through 2033.

On June 26, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) proposed fee increases for Oregon’s psilocybin therapy program and announced plans to merge the program with the state’s medical cannabis program, effective September 1. Angela Allbee, section manager of the Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) program, wrote in a recent email to industry stakeholders that both OPS and the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP) are experiencing budget shortfalls.

“After taking steps to reduce costs (e.g., not filling vacant positions, reducing non-personnel costs),” Allbee wrote, “the next step in our resource-limited environment is to look for other impactful ways to increase efficiency and cost-effectiveness.”

The Healing Advocacy Fund (HAF), a key industry stakeholder organization, urged supporters in a recent email to appeal directly to Governor Tina Kotek’s office.

“The state is facing the worst budget situation in recent memory,” wrote HAF Oregon State Director Heidi Pendergast, “and policymakers are required to balance a $1B shortfall due to federal Medicaid (OHP) cuts.”

“That means cuts in almost every direction, including cuts to essential services like schools, roads and health care,” Pendergast continued.

“These increases for psilocybin service centers are far beyond anything comparable in Oregon’s health care licensing landscape,” she added, “and are damaging for a program that is still finding its footing.”

Since opening in 2023, the first legal psilocybin program in the U.S. has not generated a profit for the state, and a number of licensed service centers have already closed, citing financial difficulties. Oregon’s experience is the closest thing the country has to a preview of what state-regulated psychedelic programs cost to run, and other states building similar systems will face the same math.

During the third day of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s ongoing cannabis rescheduling hearings at DEA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, the agency announced on July 1 its intent to temporarily place 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) and three related synthetic substances (mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15, and MGM-16) into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., recommended the action, citing a “high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use for the synthetic compounds” as defined under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.

The temporary scheduling targets commercial, semi-synthetic 7-OH products, such as tablets, gummies, and dissolvable strips, that contain elevated concentrations of the compound. The rule explicitly does not apply to traditional botanical kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) products containing naturally occurring 7-OH below a threshold that has not yet been specified. DEA Administrator Terrance Cole said the move targets highly concentrated synthetics with unpredictable effects while leaving traditional plant access intact.

The crackdown on 7-OH arrives in the context of a June investigation by The New York Times that found Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin holds a financial stake worth as much as $1 million in Botanic Tonics, a kratom company whose products are sold in gas stations and smoke shops nationwide. According to the Times, Mullin played a key role in a kratom industry influence campaign, and while still a senator he endorsed proposed federal restrictions on the more potent synthetic products that compete with traditional kratom for shelf space. The Times also reported that the FDA in 2025 deleted links on its kratom webpage detailing a then-pending federal legal case against Botanic Tonics after the company’s allies pushed for the change. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Mullin “follows all ethics and conflict of interest standards and has not lobbied for any individual or company.” Restrictions on synthetic 7-OH products stand to benefit sellers of traditional kratom, including Botanic Tonics.

On June 30, the House Oversight Committee’s Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets held a public hearing on the CIA’s MKUltra program, focusing on the agency’s history of covert human experimentation and its reluctance to declassify related documents. Chaired by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), the panel examined how the intelligence community operated the Cold War-era mind control initiative, which subjected unwitting Americans to LSD and psychological abuse between 1953 and 1973.

Lawmakers heard testimony from authors Stephen Kinzer and Tom O’Neill, whose books have detailed the CIA’s efforts to conceal the program’s scope and destroy records upon its termination. A former CIA officer told the panel, “I don’t believe that the research stopped,” a claim that drew wide attention but was not accompanied by documentary evidence. Luna condemned the historical experiments as crimes against humanity and argued that the federal government’s continued secrecy surrounding the files fuels public distrust. Some national security analysts criticized the hearing’s focus, arguing that it prioritized speculation over a concrete effort to release the remaining classified archives.

Note: This article was originally published by Psychedelics Today, and was produced in partnership with Psychedelic State(s) of America, a nonprofit-sponsored news organization dedicated to rigorous independent psychedelic journalism. Learn more about PSA’s Media Partnerships Program and donate to PSA’s Psychedelic Writers Guild Media Fund.