(This article by Lt. Col. Nick Barringer, USA (Ret), originally appeared in the July 2026 issue of Military Officer, a magazine available to all MOAA Premium and Life members who can log in to access our digital version and archive. Basic members can save on a membership upgrade and access the magazine.)

Editor’s note: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Ibogaine is a Schedule I controlled substance in the U.S. Consult a qualified health care provider before making any decisions regarding mental health treatment.

Asher Schuler had tried everything. Twenty-three years in law enforcement. Twenty-two in the Army and Army Reserve. Multiple combat tours. By the time he found himself mixing sleeping pills with alcohol at night and swallowing stimulants to get through the day, he knew where things were heading.

“I began considering taking my life because my problems felt inescapable,” the retired master sergeant said, noting he was suffering from PTSD.

Schuler, who now hosts The Vanguard Wall podcast, is not an outlier — he is the pattern.

[ON YOUTUBE: The Vanguard Wall Podcast]

The VA reported in 2025 that from 2001 through 2023, more  than 6,000 veterans have died by suicide annually, with the rate more than double that of civilian adults.

What finally worked for Schuler was something the U.S. government classifies alongside heroin: ibogaine. He heard about it on a podcast during the worst stretch of his life. He had already burned through the standard menu of counseling, SSRIs (a class of antidepressants), breath work, yoga, exercise, and holistic approaches.

His alcohol abuse had damaged his marriage, his relationships with his kids, and his job. Ibogaine, a psychoactive compound from the Tabernanthe iboga shrub indigenous to equatorial Africa, was not on any American doctor’s prescription pad. Veterans who want it sometimes travel to clinics in Mexico, and that’s where Schuler went.

[RELATED: Trump Clears Path for Expanded Psychedelic Research to Treat Veterans’ PTSD]

What he found was not the melted-wall psychedelic stereotype baked into American culture since the 1960s.

“It was almost like a vivid dream of your own life, in 4K, and you wake up remembering 90% of it,” he said. “I also had the opportunity to ask the medicine questions and then watch the answers play out in front of my eyes. I know how that sounds, but it is the actual reality.”

He came home different.

He got off the SSRIs without the vertigo that had wrecked his previous two attempts. He stopped drinking for nearly nine months. He also stopped being the man his wife had been quietly enduring.

“I didn’t just apologize — I changed my habits, my negativity, my speech, my selfishness, and I became present in my family’s life,” he said.

[RELATED: VA Drops Appeal in Key Court Case, Ending a Threat to Veterans’ Benefits]

He also walked away from law enforcement. “I would have rotted away miserably in a career that had used me up and taken so much from me.”

While American doctors still aren’t prescribing ibogaine, there is movement toward that potential future.

On April 18, President Donald Trump signed an executive order telling the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Drug Enforcement Administration to open a pathway for patients to access “psychedelic drugs, including ibogaine,” under the Right to Try Act. The move commits at least $50 million through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to partner with states “that have enacted or are developing programs to advance psychedelic drugs for serious mental illnesses.” It also orders HHS, the FDA, and the VA to share clinical data and fast-track so-called breakthrough therapy designations.

Schuler’s message to anyone still on the fence about ibogaine?

“The real risk is staying the same,” he said, “cycling through endless medications that slowly rob you mentally and physically, never getting a genuine breakthrough.

“We always say things like ‘I would do anything for my family’ or ‘I would die for my kids’ — but would you change?”

Lt. Col. Nick Barringer, USA (Ret), is chief academic officer and dean of graduate studies at Lionel University.