Kentucky has among the nation's highest opioid overdose rates.

As we first reported yesterday.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order over the weekend that he says will help accelerate access to potential treatments for drug addiction and PTSD.

One of the possible treatments includes ibogaine, a powerful psychedelic that advocates say has shown promising results.

Today, our Emily Sisk sat down with Brian Hubbard, former chairman and executive director of the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission, who has been advocating for ibogaine research for years.

Well, Brian, thank you so much for being here in the studio with us.

It's a true pleasure to be here, especially this day in my life.

Absolutely.

Well, we want to start out with the big news, the latest development on Saturday.

You were in the white House standing behind President Trump as he signed an executive order related to the research of psychedelic treatments like ibogaine.

So I want to start out with that.

Tell me more about that.

And how did you end up there at the white House?

Oh my goodness, what a spectacular and completely unforeseeable development that occurred on Saturday.

Former Texas Governor Rick Perry and I had the privilege of sitting down for a second time for an interview with Joe Rogan on March the 31st.

And the purpose of that interview was to essentially update him and his audience on everything which had happened after Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law the Texas Ibogaine Initiative, which began as the Kentucky Ibogaine Initiative, appropriating $50 million in Texas general funds to fund one FDA drug development trial with ibogaine as a breakthrough therapeutic for addiction and trauma.

So when we went into Mr.

Rogan, we explained what was going on and we said the federal government must align with what the states are doing unless we receive enlightenment.

We're not going to be successful.

And within the interview, we articulated the need for the president of the United States to exercise his executive authority to direct the government to get behind this initiative.

When the camera was off and the earphones came down, I said, Mr.

Grogan.

Governor Perry and I need a favor.

Would you be willing to ask the president of the United States to have a discussion with us about ibogaine and what they can do to deliver breakthrough therapeutic results, not just for addiction, but for any number of traumas, many of much of which is rooted in our veteran community.

He said, I think I can do that.

So, between April 1st and April 17th, there was just a phenomenal chain of events initiated by Mr.

Rogan's contact with the president that produced an executive order signed by President Trump on Sunday.

On Saturday.

I'm sorry.

April the 18th.

Got to stand right there beside President Trump and say, president, federal prohibition of psychedelic medicine in America is over.

And what's important to know is that that executive order ceremony and the impact that that order delivers for what is going to be a fundamental change in the trajectory of this country over the long term, began in the fabulous Commonwealth of Kentucky.

And we will certainly talk more about what's going on in Kentucky and Senate Bill 77, like you mentioned.

So that was the latest update with what happened on Saturday.

But I want to take a step back for folks who maybe are not as in the loop and are saying, okay, what is ibogaine?

I'm hearing about this so much, especially, you know, 2026 with what happened in the legislative session.

So I know you have the expertise on this, but, you know, in layman's terms, what is ibogaine?

How does it work?

What is it able to treat.

I'm again is one alkaloid out of 100, which is derived from the Ebola tree that grows indigenously in Gabon and in the central Congo Basin.

In the late in the early 60s.

A gentleman by the name of Howard, myself had been a long term heroin addict.

He was also in the counterculture drug scene in California, and somehow he came into contact with ibogaine.

He took it.

He went through this very unpleasant 12 hour experience where he was in a state of semi paralysis.

We threw up repeatedly, but on the other side of it, he had no desire to use heroin.

Not only did he not have any desire to use heroin, he did not experience any form of withdrawal.

And as we know, the most difficult challenge for an individual who is opioid dependent to overcome is acute withdrawal, followed by the months and sometimes years of persistent craving and depression that go from the neurochemical impairment caused by long term opioid dependency.

This dramatic discovery suggests that ibogaine has a dramatic neuro regenerative impact on the brain that is unparalleled in the history of Western medicine.

You brought up one of the things I wanted to ask you about was just how ibogaine is different from other treatments that are out there.

When you talk about PTSD or opioid addiction.

And one thing that really stuck out to me is that from what we understand from the studies, it typically only takes one dosage, right, of ibogaine to be effective.

Tell me about that.

And and how is that different from the other treatments that are out there.

Now I want to be very careful as I describe this and be very precise.

And let me start with ibogaine is not a cure.

It is not a now and forever more cure.

Ibogaine provides a beginning, a restorative beginning to individuals whose brains are chemically impaired by opioid dependency.

For 80% of individuals who take one treatment, ibogaine appears to essentially resolve all symptoms of opioid withdrawal syndrome within 36 to 48 hours by returning the brain's remaining serotonin production to that which existed before the person ever took the first pill.

This is a process that otherwise takes at least 18 months to begin on its own.

If a person goes into an abstinence program.

Programs that have about a 7% success rate now, that 80% number seems to go up to about 97% with a second dose.

Now keep in mad.

This is not a now and forevermore cure.

The individual who gets to navigate treatment is still going to walk out of that clinic and go back to the life that they were living at the time that they were in use.

It provides an opportunity, for neurochemical restoration.

And I want to ask you, you know, we've we've heard about many of the benefits of AB again, but I want to ask you about some of the risks and some of the studies have shown, you know, possible serious heart problems after taking up a game, even fatal in some cases in the studies.

How do you assess that risk and what's your response when people say, you know, I know there were some Democrats in the state legislature that said, we don't want to move forward with this because we've seen cardiac problems.

What is your response there?

Well, I would encourage those members of the legislature to do their homework as to the purpose in the line of Andy Beshear, who was opposed to this from the very beginning in, in terms of cardiac risk?

There is a cardiac risk.

Ibogaine is a very serious medication.

And if a person receives too much, it can and will stop their heart.

Ibogaine must be administered in a clinically controlled medical setting.

Now, what is that?

Cardiac risk?

If you give an individual too much.

It can prolong the time between heartbeats and lead to a condition card called Ards, which is essentially a cardiac arrhythmia that can stop the heart.

But what we know through the administration of what are now thousands of treatments and clinics in Mexico, is that the Co administration of magnesium mitigates that cardiac risk.

And in those cases where hard arrhythmia occurs, even with the Co administration of magnesium, the administration of atropine to stabilize the heart's rhythm is the solution.

It is a it is a treacherous environment through which to seek treatment.

And the fact that people have to flee this country in order to save their lives, as I have again can do to me, is is criminal.

And the entire point of this project is to make sure that you can bring a medication that is very serious, that has risk, as many do, into the United States, so that it can be made available safely and efficacious without a person having to roll the dice.

On the randomness of a Mexican clinic whose operators may or may not know what they're doing.

Tomorrow, Emily, we'll have more from Brian Hubbard, including his work to advance ibogaine legislation right here in Kentucky.