Ibogaine programs for veterans

Veterans are the reason ibogaine is in the news. A Stanford study of 30 special-operations veterans treated in Mexico, the foundations that paid for them, and a former Texas governor turned the drug from an underground detox into a $50 million state program and an executive order. This page separates what has been shown from what has been promised.

Checked October 20, 2026. Sources at the end.

The Stanford study

Cherian and colleagues, Nature Medicine, January 5, 2024. Thirty male US special-operations veterans, most with mild traumatic brain injury from repeated blast exposure, were treated at Ambio near Tijuana with oral ibogaine at about 12 mg/kg, given as a 2 to 3 mg/kg test dose and then the rest within two hours, with 1 gram of IV magnesium before and again about 12 hours after, and continuous 5-lead ECG for 12 to 16 hours.

Results at one month: disability scores (WHODAS 2.0) fell from 30.2 to 5.1; PTSD, depression and anxiety ratings fell by at least 81% (Stanford's release gives 88%, 87% and 81%); suicidal ideation went from 47% at baseline to 7% at one month. There was no bradycardia, no clinically meaningful QT prolongation and no serious adverse event; every participant had transient ataxia that resolved within 24 hours; 40% had headache and 23% nausea during the session.

What it did not have: a control group, a placebo, randomisation, or any follow-up beyond one month. The authors say the retreat package (coaching, group activities, travel, wellness therapies) cannot be separated from the drug, that the sample was small and homogeneous, and that some symptoms had already begun to return by the one-month endpoint. The study was funded by philanthropic gifts from Steve and Genevieve Jurvetson; Stanford states it received no funding from VETS or Ambio, while VETS supported the veterans' access to treatment. A follow-on EEG paper in Nature Mental Health (July 2025) reported brain-rhythm changes that tracked the symptom changes in the same 30 men. NIDA's director raised cardiac toxicity concerns about ibogaine in 2024.

Who pays

VETS (Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions): "healing grants" for veterans and their spouses covering treatment plus preparation and integration coaching; ibogaine, ketamine, psilocybin, MDMA and 5-MeO-DMT are supported; grantees choose their own program and book their own travel; more than 1,200 veterans and spouses funded since 2019; all recipients take part in research. New applications were "temporarily paused" with an interest list when checked. VETS also sponsored California's AB 1103.
The Mission Within: Dr. Martín Polanco's six-week program with a five-day retreat in Mexico using ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT; "over 1,500 veterans" since 2017 by one count on its site, 1,200 by another; scholarships through the Mission to Live Foundation; partner logos include the Special Operations Care Fund, Heroic Hearts Project, SEAL Future Foundation and The Hope Project. Mission Within and Ambio together say they have treated about 3,000 US veterans in a decade.
Heroic Hearts Project: "more than 1,500 veterans and their families" served through partner providers in the US and abroad; its 2023 annual report describes psilocybin and ayahuasca work and does not mention ibogaine.
Clinic discounts: Ambio takes $1,000 off for veterans and first responders; IbogaQuest $1,000; MindScape $750; Beond's CEO has said the clinic treated about 100 veterans free, and Beond offers its 9-week "Beond Service" program free to veterans, first responders and spouses.
Warrior Angels Foundation is often named in this space; its domain currently serves unrelated content and its programs could not be verified.

Scale: clinic owners estimate a few thousand American veterans a year travel to Mexico. Active-duty troops risk court-martial if caught. One veteran was quoted a nine-month wait at a Baja clinic.

Texas and the veterans' lobby

Senate Bill 2308 passed the Texas Senate 31 to 0 and the House 138 to 2 and was signed on June 11, 2025: $50 million for FDA drug-development trials of ibogaine, conditional on a matching non-state contribution. Rick Perry, the former governor and Air Force veteran, was its most visible backer and said the Legislature "might not have been as willing to get on board" for other populations; at SXSW in March 2026 he called veterans "a very sellable population to go to the legislature with", alongside Marcus Luttrell and Bryan Hubbard of Americans for Ibogaine. Hubbard had proposed a $42 million program in Kentucky in 2023 that was shelved after the election.

On December 12, 2025 Texas awarded the $50 million to UTHealth Houston and UTMB Health to co-lead the IMPACT consortium, with UT Austin and Baylor on TBI "particularly in veterans". Because the statute blocks disbursement until the match arrives, and no drug company's proposal met the terms, state leaders said in March 2026 that Texas would fully fund the program; as of October 8, 2026 the state had not confirmed a contract or any spending, and ARPA-H's matching federal money was also unspent. The trials are not enrolling. See the program entry and the legal guide.

The VA

The VA has no ibogaine trial that we could find. VA researchers are involved in more than 20 trials of psychedelics such as MDMA and psilocybin; on July 13, 2026 the VA and HHS signed a memorandum to coordinate psychedelic research and the VA signed a separate agreement with the FDA. Executive Order 14401 directs HHS and the FDA to collaborate with the VA and to sign data-sharing agreements. In December 2024 the VA said it would fund psychedelic research for the first time in over 50 years, while noting that treatments "will remain inaccessible to most veterans, perhaps for years". A Mississippi sponsor said in March 2026 that the VA had been supportive but, asked whether the VA had used the drug, answered "They have not."

Programs that market to veterans

The programs below say on their sites that they treat veterans, TBI or PTSD. The profile for each states who is in the room and what screening it publishes; for a veteran with a cardiac history those two columns matter more than the veteran discount.

Program	Location	Physician during dosing	Cardiac screening	Published price
The Mission Within	Tijuana, Mexico	Yes	Yes	Not stated
Ambio Life Sciences	Tijuana area, Mexico	Yes	Yes	$7,350 to $30,000
Beond	Cancún, Mexico	Yes	Yes	From $9,500
New Path Ibogaine	Tijuana / Rosarito, Mexico	Yes	Yes	From $7,500
Bassé Ibogaine	Tulum, Mexico	Yes	Yes	$13,500 signature week
IbogaQuest	Tepoztlán, Mexico	Not stated	Yes	$6,500 to $8,500
Transcend Clinic	Cancún, Mexico	Yes	Yes	$12,000 to $36,000
Avante Ibogaine Institute	Nassau, Bahamas	Not stated	Not stated	$2,000 a day (recovery.com)
Iboga Wellness Institute	Cozumel, Mexico	Yes	Yes	From $7,500 (recovery.com)
Baja Ibogaine Center	Rosarito Beach, Mexico	Yes	Not stated	From $6,500 a week (recovery.com)
Iboga Treatment Center	Ensenada, Mexico	Yes	Yes	Not stated
Tabula Rasa Retreat	Vidigueira, Alentejo, Portugal	Yes	Yes	EUR 6,621.60 incl. VAT
Inner Realms Center	Cuernavaca, Mexico	Not stated	Not stated	$750 to $850 a day (recovery.com)
MindScape Retreat	Cozumel, Mexico	Yes	Yes	From $7,500; $13,500 full protocol

A note on TBI versus opioid dependence

The Stanford results are for TBI, PTSD, depression and anxiety in veterans who were not being detoxed. The opioid evidence is a different and weaker body of work, and the deaths in the 2026 clinic cohort were all in opioid patients. A veteran going for TBI symptoms and a veteran going to get off fentanyl are taking different risks at the same clinic; the opioid guide and the safety record cover the second case.

Sources

Program statements are quoted from their sites as read on October 20, 2026. Not medical advice.