Rick Perry & W. Bryan Hubbard — Rick Perry is the former Republican Governor of Texas and U.S. Secretary of Energy, now an outspoken advocate for plant-medicine treatment of veterans. W. Bryan Hubbard is a Kentucky attorney who chaired the state's Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission and championed ibogaine research funding.
The gist
Rick Perry and Bryan Hubbard explain how a hardline conservative governor and a Kentucky lawyer both became champions of ibogaine, a Schedule I psychoactive plant medicine. They walk through the science: a Stanford study led by Dr. Nolan Williams showed dramatic reversal of PTSD symptoms and measurable brain regeneration in 30 veterans, and ibogaine's near-unique ability to reset the brain's dopamine/serotonin production and end opioid and meth dependence. Hubbard recounts his years inside Kentucky's disability, child-support, and opioid systems, and how he nearly secured $42 million for ibogaine trials before being forced to resign. The conversation turns to Perry's push to pass a Texas Ibogaine Initiative, the cardiac risks and safety protocols, and the spiritual dimension both men say the medicine delivers.
Big reveals
- Perry, a self-described 'conservative right-wing knuckle-dragging Republican,' admits he became a public ibogaine 'spokesperson' and 'Johnny Appleseed.'
- Stanford study of 30 veterans found 88% had zero PTSD symptoms six months after ibogaine treatment, with effects holding past a year.
- Brain scans showed an average 1.5-year reversal of brain age, with the top five veterans reversing nearly 5 years.
- Hubbard claims ibogaine resolves physiological opioid dependence in 36-48 hours versus the brain's normal 18-month recovery.
- Activist Juliana Mulligan went into cardiac arrest six times from an overdose at a bad Guatemalan clinic, then woke up feeling the best of her life.
- Hubbard says he was 'ambushed' and forced to resign on the cusp of approving $42 million for Kentucky ibogaine trials after a 2023 election.
- Hubbard reveals he and his wife took ibogaine in Tijuana; she came off Celexa after 21 years and hasn't taken it since.
- The men trace ibogaine's bad reputation to Hunter S. Thompson, who invented a fake rumor that candidate Ed Muskie was addicted to it.
Things worth remembering
- Ibogaine has no recreational use and no addiction potential, yet sits on Schedule I alongside drugs with no medical purpose.
- Perry argues Nixon swept these compounds onto Schedule I in the early '70s largely to target political enemies.
- Opioids spike dopamine to 925 ng/dL and meth to 1100 ng/dL, versus the body's natural max of about 125 ng/dL.
- Hubbard claims ibogaine is the only known substance that successfully treats methamphetamine dependence.
- Ibogaine carries serious cardiac risk (prolonged QT / torsades) but clinics mitigate it with co-administered magnesium.
- A Parkinson's patient who was bedfast reportedly regained the ability to walk and ride a bike after a low-dose ibogaine protocol in Switzerland.
- George Strait gives away a veteran's home from the Military Heroes Support Foundation at every one of his concerts.
- Kentucky's disability-program enrollment grew 249% from 1980-2015 while population grew only 20%.
- Suboxone's base compound was created with a $2.5 million federal giveaway, after which industry reaped 100% of the returns.
- Perry got the wife of a guest to safely come off her SSRI for five days using a supplementation regimen before treatment.