LA fire suspect had grudge against wealthy: prosecutors

Already reeling from the effects of conflict in the Middle East, Asia is now facing the prospect of strong El Nino conditions that could spike energy demand, sap hydropower, and damage crops.

El Nino is a naturally occurring climate phenomenon that brings worldwide changes in winds, air pressure, and rainfall patterns.

Last week, the United Nations' weather and climate agency said El Nino conditions could develop as soon as May to July.

The World Meteorological Organization, meanwhile, said early signs indicated the event could be particularly strong, with some dubbing the impending event a "super El Nino", although the term is not used by scientists.

That is not good news for Asia, parts of which are traditionally heavily affected by the heatwaves, drought and heavy rains that El Nino can bring.

The phenomenon essentially shifts traditional weather patterns around, for example moving rain that normally falls over Indonesia out to sea, leaving the country vulnerable to drought and wildfires.

El Nino occurs around every two to seven years and is forecast based on sea temperatures.

"The subsurface anomaly that we're seeing so far is pretty strong," said Peter van Rensch, a climate scientist at Australia's Monash University.

"It does look a little bit like what we saw in the 1997/98 event, and that was probably the strongest El Nino," he told AFP.

There are still plenty of uncertainties, and van Rensch cautioned it was possible an El Nino might not develop at all.

- Catastrophic impacts -

But the 1997 El Nino brought catastrophic impacts, including extreme drought and devastating wildfires in Indonesia that burned through millions of hectares and created regional air pollution.

Authorities there have already identified peatlands at risk, and warned the country could see its lowest rainfall in 30 years. 

The warnings come with Asia buckling under the strain of an energy supply crunch and fears over shortages of fertiliser and other industrial and agricultural components which pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has effectively closed the strategic waterway since the United States and Israel launched attacks on the country on February 28, disrupting global fuel supplies.

Hotter weather will strain energy grids already experiencing fuel shortages, as populations seek to cool homes and workplaces, warned Haneea Isaad, energy finance specialist at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

"For countries that are highly dependent on the Strait of Hormuz for oil and gas deliveries and other trade, strained supply will lead to further fuel rationing, demand-side management and a reduction in economic activities... impacting overall GDP growth," she told AFP.

The droughts that El Nino can bring to parts of the region also pose a threat to countries that are highly dependent on hydropower, said Dinita Setyawati, senior energy analyst for Asia at the Ember thinktank.

"Most ASEAN countries use a lot of hydropower," she warned, highlighting Mekong countries, Nepal, and parts of Malaysia as particularly vulnerable because of their dependence on the sector.

The risks were laid bare in 2022, when a heatwave in China saw hydropower generation in Sichuan fall over 50 percent, creating shortages that impacted households and industry alike.

- Agriculture risks -

Hotter, drier conditions will also create fresh risks for agriculture, already under pressure as the ongoing conflict raises the costs of fertiliser and fuel needed for farming equipment.

"If crop prices do not rise enough to offset these higher input and shipping costs, producer margins will be squeezed, raising the likelihood of lower fertiliser application and weaker yields," warned BMI, a unit of the Fitch Solutions research company. 

"This would intensify food price inflation and worsen food insecurity, especially in import-dependent and climate-vulnerable markets."

For some parts of Asia, an El Nino can bring bouts of intense rain and provoke flooding, which could impact sectors like southern China's late-season rice harvest, added Isaad.

How climate change affects the emergence and strength of El Ninos is still not well understood.

But research shows climate change itself will bring more frequent intense heatwaves, as well as sudden heavy rainfall that can cause flooding.

So experts said countries across the region should further insulate energy systems against more frequent disruptive weather events by diversifying and greening their grids.

"Solar and wind, coupled with batteries, provide a more resilient infrastructure than a centralised fossil infrastructure," said Setyawati.

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With snow-capped mountains sweeping down to the turquoise waters of the Caribbean, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta National Park is one of the jewels in Colombia's tourism crown.

But the picture-postcard views mask a more sinister reality.

Armed groups call the shots in this corner of paradise, holding local businesses to ransom and terrorizing Indigenous communities.

The signing of a peace deal ending a half-century of war between the Colombian state and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group in 2016 thrust a country long stalked by drug lords and guerrillas onto the global tourism stage.

Each day thousands of visitors pile into the area to hike through pristine jungle to white-sand beaches or to Colombia's mountaintop Lost City, which predates Peru's Machu Picchu.

Few of them notice the men in camouflage watching from a distance.

These are the Self-Defense Forces of the Sierra Nevada (ACSN), a group of former paramilitaries who control cocaine trafficking routes in the region and also illegally mine for gold.

Extortion is also a big revenue spinner for the "Conquistadores," as ACSN members are often dubbed, who demand a percentage of the earnings of hotels, tour bus companies and local Indigenous groups, whose hand-woven hammocks and bags are snapped up by visitors.

"We are afraid and anxious about the future," Atanasio Moscote, governor of the Kogui Indigenous people, told AFP high up in Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta National Park, which the Kogui consider "the heart of the world."

- Endangered forests, corals -

In February, the government closed Tayrona National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site overlooking the Caribbean, for more than two weeks following threats against park rangers, allegedly by the ACSN.

The authorities accused the ACSN of pressuring the Indigenous Wayuu people living in the park to rebel against a clampdown on illegal activities such as logging.

AFP accompanied one of the park rangers on a tour of the reserve, home to the best-preserved dry forest in Colombia and some of its most biodiverse coral reefs.

"Our presence in every corner, in every area, is vital to conserve, maintain and monitor the resources we have," 31-year-old Yeiner Hernandez explained.

Tayrona Park and Sierra Nevada National Park together received more than 873,000 visitors last year.

The influx marks a dramatic change from the 1980s and 1990s, when the region was the scene of brutal fighting between the paramilitaries and the Marxist former FARC rebels.

Ten years after FARC agreed to disarm, the ACSN, founded by a paramilitary leader who was extradited to the United States, holds sway here.

Colombia's biggest drug cartel, the Gulf Clan, has attempted to grab a slice of the action in recent months, triggering clashes with the ACSN.

Indigenous people "who don't speak Spanish, and who live off their crops and their traditional knowledge," are being caught in the middle, Luis Salcedo, governor of the Arhuaco people, who live in the Sierra Nevada, told AFP.

- Image problem -

Gustavo Petro, Colombia's first left-wing president in modern times, included the ACSN in his failed policy of trying to negotiate the disarmament of all the country's armed groups.

Four years after he launched his "Paz Total" (total peace) campaign, the ACSN still rules supreme in the Santa Marta area, researcher Norma Vera told AFP.

Extortion has emerged as a key theme in the current campaign to elect a successor to Petro in elections starting May 31.

The Ministry of Defense reports having received more than 46,000 complaints of extortion since 2022.

Omar Garcia, president of the hotel association of the city of Santa Marta, a gateway to the Sierra Nevada, said he was worried about the impact on Colombia's nascent tourism trade.

"Any news affecting the image (of a destination) and visitor safety makes tourists think twice," he said.

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Three people died and two others were injured Monday after a small plane crashed into a residential building in the major Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte.

The pilot and copilot died on impact, while three other occupants were rushed to the hospital, the Minas Gerais state fire department said.

One of the injured succumbed to his injuries, while the other two remained hospitalized in stable condition, according to the local hospital foundation.

Despite the direct impact, no one inside the building was injured and the structure shows no "apparent risk" of collapse, firefighters said.

Broadcaster TV Globo's helicopter was in the area captured footage of the aircraft's final moments as it lost altitude, banked left to avoid taller buildings, and then slammed into the three-story building and fell to a parking lot.

Firefighters said it hit the building's stairwell, potentially avoiding more casualties.

"If it had hit the sides of the building, it could have struck an occupied apartment," a fire department officer told the G1 news website.

Images released by firefighters show rescuers helping residents evacuate the building.

According to data from the Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center, Brazil recorded 153 air accidents in 2025, with a death toll of 62.

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Peruvian police on Monday captured one of the killers of four Indigenous Amazon land defenders who were murdered protecting their territories from illegal loggers, police sources said.

The four leaders of the Ashaninka people -- a group from a remote area along the border between Brazil and Peru -- were killed in front of members of their community on September 1, 2014.

Edwin Chota, Jorge Rios, Leoncio Quintisima and Francisco Pinedo were "murdered by presumed illegal loggers for defending their land," Peru's main Indigenous organization, AIDESEP, said at the time.

In 2024, Jose Carlos Estrada, Hugo Soria and brothers Josimar and Segundo Atachi were sentenced to 28 years and three months in prison for the murders, but all four were fugitives at the time of the ruling.

Estrada, 61, was arrested in the eastern Ucayali region on Monday, a local police spokesperson told AFP.

The murders unleashed a wave of criticism against Peruvian authorities, who were accused of not doing enough to protect Indigenous leaders and anti-deforestation activists.

Chota's defense of the Amazon rainforests -- the most biodiverse region in the world -- earned international recognition.

According to the NGO Global Witness, at least 54 land and environmental defenders have been killed in Peru since 2012, of whom more than half belonged to Indigenous groups.

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© Agence France-Presse

After a successful rookie minicamp in Kansas City, Xavier Loyd was one of three players signed from the event this past weekend. He made several impressive plays during the camp that led to his signing, according to Kansas City Star reporter PJ Green.

Loyd played his final season at Mizzou after transferring in from Southern Illinois. In 2025, he recorded two catches for 21 yards as a Tiger. He is originally from the Kansas City area, playing football at Blue Springs High School.

He is the second-former Tiger joining the Chiefs roster alongside Nick Bolton, who is entering his sixth season in Kansas City.

Loyd was one of 104 players invited to the camp, including fellow former Tiger Tristan Newson, who was not signed following the event. He will compete at the Falcons’ rookie minicamp in Atlanta starting on Friday.

Sterling Webb and Connor Tollison are the other former Tigers who will be competing in rookie minicamps with Buffalo and San Francisco, respectively, which also begin Friday.

China's Wu Yize won the World Snooker Championship for the first time with a dramatic 18-17 victory over Shaun Murphy in the final on Monday.

Wu held his nerve to seal his thrilling triumph in a tense last frame shoot-out at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre.

The 22-year-old is the second Chinese player to win the world title after Zhao Xintong beat Mark Williams to make history as the first Asian to lift the trophy last year.

Wu is also the second youngest player to be crowned world champion at the Crucible after Stephen Hendry, who was 21 when he won in 1990.

"I have been trying to go for this for ages. For the past few months, I have been living the same life. I'm so happy that I could play well today," Wu said.

Wu's father and mother wiped away tears of joy before joining him for the trophy presentation.

"My parents are the true champions. Since I made the decision to drop out of school, my dad has been by my side," Wu said. 

"My mum has also been going through a lot over the years, they are the source of my strength, I love them so much."

Asked how he will celebrate, Wu said: "I just want to have a good sleep. I have been feeling nerves all the time since before the match, so now I just want to go to bed!"

Murphy, who has lost four World Championship finals since winning in 2005, added: "I hate being right, but we had a great game in China earlier this season. I came out afterwards and said he would be world champion one day. 

"It's just a real shame that it was today, but I couldn't have given it any more. I played the best shots I could. I just didn't get my chance."

- Wu's title march -

Wu led 10-7 after Sunday's play and was 13-12 up following the first session on Monday.

But England's Murphy pushed Wu all the way to the finish line, levelling at 16-16 with a gritty century break.

Wu recovered from 45-0 down to record a brilliant 91 clearance to go 17-16 ahead.

He moved 43-0 up with the title in his sights, but a missed black gave Murphy the chance to draw level again with a 75 break.

The balance of power in the final frame tipped Wu's way when Murphy left a difficult red that the Chinese player stroked into the middle pocket, kick-starting a break of 85 that took him to the title.

It was the first World Championship final to go to the deciding frame since Peter Ebdon beat Hendry 18-17 in 2002.

From Lanzhou in the north-west of China, Wu turned professional aged 17 and made a transformative move to England three years ago to join the growing stable of Chinese players based in Sheffield.

Initially living in a windowless flat and sleeping on the same bed as his father, Wu's switch eventually paid dividends.

Runners-up finishes at the English Open and Scottish Open in 2024 laid the foundations for the emerging star's march to the world title.

He beat John Higgins in the International Championship last year to clinch his first ranking title.

The youngest player in the world's top 16, his run at this year's World Championship included eye-catching wins against Mark Selby and Mark Allen.

Ronnie O'Sullivan once labelled Wu a "more dynamic" version of the legendary Steve Davis.

Like O'Sullivan and Davis, Wu can now call himself a world champion.

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Jeremy Doku's stoppage-time strike salvaged Manchester City a 3-3 draw at Everton, but a second half collapse handed the destiny of the Premier League title back to Arsenal on Monday.

The Gunners now just need to win their final three games to end a 22-year wait to become the champions of England.

City remain five points adrift of Mikel Arteta's team, with a game in hand, and will struggle to recover from the manner of their implosion at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.

Pep Guardiola's side appeared to be cruising to victory when Doku opened the scoring at the end of a dominant first half.

However, an error-strewn second period was punished as Thierno Barry scored twice for the Toffees, either side of Jake O'Brien's header.

Erling Haaland and then a sensational effort from Doku in the 97th minute did however rescue a point which could ultimately keep City in the race.

"It's better than losing, It shows what type of team they are," said Guardiola on City's fightback.

"It's not in our hands. Before it was, now it's not. We have games left. We will see what happens."

Arsenal visit relegation-threatened West Ham on Sunday before hosting Burnley and visiting Crystal Palace on the final day of the campaign.

- Keane escapes red -

Two Arsenal victories since City last played in the league had ramped up the pressure on Guardiola's side.

City's first team had gone the best part of two weeks without a proper outing after Guardiola heavily rotated for last weekend's FA Cup semi-final win over Southampton.

The visitors looked fresh rather than rusty as Everton were penned back inside their own box for practically the entire first half.

City's pressure finally found its reward two minutes before half-time when Rayan Cherki found Doku, who curled a shot into Jordan Pickford's top right-hand corner.

Things could have been even worse for the Toffees before the break as Michael Keane escaped with just a yellow card for a wild lunge on Doku.

That decision proved to be vital as City paid a heavy price for a serious of basic defensive errors.

Twice Guardiola's men did not heed a warning that an Everton equaliser was coming.

Gianluigi Donnarumma parried Iliman Ndiaye's effort back into the danger area but Merlin Rohl was not alive to the rebound.

Ndiaye then had a glorious chance after an error from Matheus Nunes but again could not beat the giant Italian in the City goal.

When the equaliser finally arrived, City were again architects of their own downfall.

Marc Guehi's underhit passback handed Barry the simple task of slotting past the stranded Donnarumma.

Another casual City mistake moments later led to Everton's second.

This time Abdukodir Khusanov was caught in possession by Ndiaye and bailed out by a last-ditch challenge from Guehi.

But from the resulting corner, O'Brien rose highest to power home a header.

Barry prodded home a third for Everton from Rohl's deflected cross with City all at sea from a rapid counter-attack.

Within seconds they had a lifeline, though, as straight from kick-off Mateo Kovacic played in Haaland to halve the arrears.

Doku delivered a dagger to Everton's hopes of European football next season right at the death.

But it may have come too little, too late to rescue City's chances of a seventh title in nine years.

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(The Center Square) – Roughly one week after the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals handed Texas a win on its border security law, SB 4, the law is facing a second legal challenge. 

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Texas, and the Texas Civil Rights Project filed a class-action lawsuit on Monday seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to block the law from going into effect. 

The law, which makes illegal entry into Texas a state crime, is set to go into effect May 15. It gives Texas law enforcement the authority to return illegal foreign nationals to a port of entry and/or arrest them for unlawful entry, among other provisions. 

After the bill was signed into law in 2023, multiple groups sued, arguing the law is unconstitutional. A district court and panel of Fifth Circuit judges agreed. 

The full Fifth Circuit disagreed and reversed the lower court’s ruling – but solely on procedural grounds. The court held the plaintiffs didn’t have standing to sue, enabling a door to remain open challenging the law on its merits. As expected, another lawsuit was filed.  

The class action lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas Austin Division and names the Texas Department of Public Safety and its director as defendants.  

SB 4 “is one of the most extreme anti-immigrant laws ever passed by any state legislature in the country” and will “separate families and directly lead to racial profiling,” the ACLU argues. 

It will also “transform our police and judges into immigration agents – threatening neighbors who have families here, who have lived here for years, even those who have legal status,” ACLU of Texas legal director Adriana Piñon said. “Immigration enforcement is exclusively the federal government's arena, and no state has ever claimed the power Texas threatens to wield here. We are taking this back to court to defend our Texas communities.”

The groups said they “seek to represent thousands of people across the state who may be held liable for violating the reentry provision” of SB 4. They currently represent a lawful permanent resident and visa holder they say would be impacted by the law if it were go to into effect. 

“Every court to have reached the merits of laws like S.B. 4 has found them to be unconstitutional,” Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said. “The en banc Fifth Circuit did not reach the constitutional questions at the heart of this case: whether S.B. 4 violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution and unconstitutionally strips the federal government of its exclusive authority over immigration enforcement,” the ACLU added.

The lawsuit was filed as Texas DPS is implementing Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security plan, Operation Lone Star 2.0. Since Abbott launched OLS five years ago, from March 2021 through February 2026, OLS officers have apprehended 538,141 illegal foreign nationals, including those referred to Border Patrol. They’ve also deterred 157,112 illegal entries, according to OLS data obtained by The Center Square. 

OLS officers have made 63,659 criminal arrests and 12,392 criminal trespass arrests. These include arrests of U.S. citizens and illegal border crossers.

Human smuggling arrests total 10,552 with 23,717 human smuggling charges reported, according to the data. 

Total felony charges were 51,091 with 11,950 federal or other charges, with some arrests involving multiple felony charges, according to the data. 

“OLS is more critical now than ever because we face more threats than we've ever faced before especially from Special Interest Aliens and suspected terrorists who are still coming across the border,” DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez told The Center Square. DPS troopers are arresting illegal foreign nationals with potential ties to terrorism, including Special Interest Aliens from Afghanistan, Egypt, the Congo, Mali, Pakistan, Syria, Turkey, Iran and other countries, The Center Square reported. 

OLS officers are also targeting South American Theft Groups and criminal actors designated as foreign terrorist organizations like Tren de Aragua, among other violent criminals, The Center Square reported.

Abbott maintains the position he held several years ago as to why SB 4 is necessary. Former President Joe Biden’s "deliberate inaction … left Texas to fend for itself." He also maintains that Article 1 Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution empowers states "to take action to defend themselves and that is exactly what Texas is doing." 

His press secretary, Andrew Mahaleris, told The Center Square, “Governor Abbott signed SB 4 into law to protect Texas and America from President Biden’s open border policies, the effects of which did not disappear overnight. Texas will not back down from its constitutional right to self-defense.”

The man accused of deliberately setting a deadly fire that torched an upmarket swathe of Los Angeles last year harbored a grudge against the wealthy and admired Luigi Mangione, the man accused of shooting dead an insurance company CEO, federal prosecutors said.

Jonathan Rinderknecht is set to stand trial on June 8 for starting the "Palisades Fire," which claimed the lives of 12 of the 31 people who perished as blazes tore through the Los Angeles area in January 2025. 

In court documents filed last week, prosecutors portray him as an Uber driver outraged by capitalism, who allegedly set fire to the Pacific Palisades neighborhood -- a celebrity enclave where ocean-view villas are worth millions -- as an act of revenge. 

Two weeks before the act, the suspect's internet search history listed queries such as "let's take down all the billionaires."

He also searched using the slogan "Free Luigi Mangione" —- the man federal prosecutors say gunned down the chief executive of United Healthcare. 

Mangione has been hailed in some quarters of the internet as a latter-day Robin Hood, fighting against a rigged system on behalf of working people.

"Many of defendant’s Uber passengers on December 31, 2024 and January 1, 2025, described defendant as angry, intense, driving erratically, and ranting about being 'pissed off at the world' and Luigi Mangione, capitalism, and vigilantism," documents said.

Rinderknecht has denied all charges.

Prosecution documents say that during an interrogation in late January 2025, investigators asked him why someone might commit arson in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood. 

The suspect allegedly replied that a potential arsonist might be motivated by resentment toward the wealthy, given that "we’re basically being enslaved by them."

Rinderknecht was arrested in Florida in early October.

He is a former resident of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood who grew up in France. 

He is accused of starting a fire on New Year's Eve 2025 in the mountains overlooking the ritzy neighborhood.

It was this initial fire -- which firefighters believed they had extinguished -- that subsequently reignited on January 7, devastating the neighborhood and parts of the city of Malibu, according to federal prosecutors. 

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(The Center Square) - Psychedelic drugs are experiencing an unprecedented wave of support across the U.S. for their potential therapeutic benefits.

President Donald Trump’s recent executive order to research ibogaine, used in opiate and substance abuse treatment, is the latest move to explore the once taboo hallucinogenic effects of psychedelic drugs. In Colorado, a bipartisan group of state legislators, who are veterans, is looking to squeeze an ibogaine pilot program into the already tight $46.8 billion state budget.

“As a veteran myself, I have a lot of friends and former colleagues in the military who have dealt with mental health issues, have dealt with PTSD,” Colorado House Minority Leader Jarvis Caldwell, R-El Paso County, told The Center Square. “They've tried different treatments and sometimes those treatments work, and sometimes they don't. I really believe in an all-of-the-above approach.”

But at the moment, the all-of-the-above approach does not include ibogaine, which is listed as a schedule 1 drug in the U.S. That means the Food and Drug Administration finds it has no medicinal benefit and a high potential for abuse, making it illegal to sell or possess, with any potential research tied up behind layers of red tape.

Despite ibogaine’s illicit status, Caldwell, along with two Democratic state legislators who also served in the military, are looking to work an ibogaine research bill into the Colorado budget ahead of next week's deadline for the end of the regular session. House Bill 26-1325 would create a pilot program to research ibogaine’s potential to treat mental health conditions and substance abuse.

HB 1325 has already found bipartisan support and backing from Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat who last year said he wanted ibogaine treatment in healing centers, “as efficiently as possible.” The Center Square reached out to Polis Monday for an interview, but did not hear back by press time.

The ibogaine legislation, with a $150,000 price tag, is stalled in the session amid a financial shortfall in the state’s $46.8 billion budget that has seen deep cuts to Medicaid and other programs.

“The state of Colorado is in a $1.5 billion budget deficit, so right now where we're at is that the bill is held up in the Appropriations Committee,” said Caldwell. “We’re trying to work with the governor's office to find the $150,000 in order to get this through the Appropriations Committee.”

The past year has been a renaissance for ibogaine research, with legislation introduced in 19 states across the political spectrum since the beginning of 2025, according to Americans for Ibogaine.

The most significant support for ibogaine may have come in April when Trump issued an executive order aimed at loosening regulations around psychedelic drugs. 

The executive order, which comes after widespread support for the drug within the Make America Healthy Again movement, called for a review of the substance schedule status of ibogaine and other psychedelic drugs, and for the FDA and DEA to “establish a pathway for eligible patients to access psychedelic drugs, including ibogaine compounds.”

One ibogaine rehab clinic said the president’s announcement was a game changer.

“He’s got his scrutiny, but we’re very pleased with Trump’s latest policy,” Gavriel Dardashti, a data scientist for his father’s rehab center, Ibogaine by David Dardashti, told The Center Square. “It’s bringing us a lot of business.”

Along with dozens of other rehab and therapy centers, David Dardashti operates the ibogaine clinic in Mexico to avoid the U.S. prohibition. Gavriel Dardashti said the center started because his mother had been overprescribed opiates and took ibogaine to treat the addiction.

Ibogaine is a psychedelic drug that comes from the iboga shrub in Gabon and Central Africa, where it is used by the Fang ethnic group for ritual and spiritual purposes. A 2022 report by the Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment found that ibogaine can treat opioid addiction. 

Gavriel Dardashti said that while their treatment program is not cheap at anywhere from $5,000 to $25,000 per person, it is often a welcome change for people who have been unable to escape their opioid addiction. “Most people have tried every other option, and it's failed.”

Still, ibogaine treatment has not been without scrutiny. A 2021 death by a Colorado man was found to have been caused by ibogaine, resulting in a four-year prison sentence for the distributor who left him alone while using the substance. Gavriel Dardashti said the worst symptom patients show at their clinic is “excessive vomiting.”

Gavriel Dardashti also said that his excitement for Trump’s executive order was tampered.

“One of the things that is a big concern is that Trump's administration is going to be over soon,” he said. “So by the time all of that comes into play with the policies and whatnot, I think once he's out of office, there might prove to be a lot of technical difficulties.”

While the president’s executive order can be quickly repealed by the next administration, laws in Colorado and other states have a chance for more lasting change. According to Caldwell, support among veterans groups has been a significant boost toward the lasting impact of ibogaine. 

“Just recently the Disabled American Veterans national organization reached out, and they're fully in support of it [HB 1325],” said Caldwell.

Veterans face higher rates of mental illness and are more than twice as likely to die by suicide than the general U.S. population, according to RAND.

“I think you're really starting to see more and more state and national veterans groups coming together to support legislation like this," Caldwell said.