A White House executive order on psychedelics, signed by President Donald Trump on Saturday, aims to speed up research on drugs like psilocybin, MDMA and ibogaine, helping to legitimize an industry that’s long lived largely underground.

But it also raises a broader question: Will psychedelics fall victim, like cannabis has, to a slow-moving federal process?

The latest executive order comes roughly four months after an effort by President Trump to reschedule cannabis, opening the door to greater research and investment opportunities. But since that directive, progress to reclassify cannabis has largely stalled, with the Drug Enforcement Administration review still ongoing and no final decision on moving marijuana from Schedule I to the lesser Schedule III.

The delay reflects how drug policy often slows once it enters interagency review, where scientific evaluation, legal standards and politics meet.

“The process has certainly been slow and frustrating for stakeholders when you consider they have spent decades fighting marijuana’s outrageous 1970s-era misclassification,” said Shawn Hauser, partner at cannabis law firm Vicente LLP.

Vicente LLP also serves as legal counsel for the National Compassionate Care Council, or NCCC, a coalition of health-care stakeholders focused on evidence-based cannabis policy.

The psychedelics order, however, focuses on research acceleration rather than legalization. It directs agencies like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to expand clinical trials and “Right to Try” access for patients with serious mental health conditions, while leaving drug scheduling unchanged.

AtaiBeckley is among a number of psychedelics-focused drug developers whose stock is rallying since the order was signed over the weekend, up roughly 25% Monday. Several smaller-market cap stocks also jumped, including Compass Pathways, Definium Therapeutics and U.S.-listed shares of Cybin.

Hauser said the recent psychedelics order reflects a broader shift in Washington toward a medical-first framework and could mark a path forward for cannabis rescheduling.

“The science-, patient-, health-care-first approach is winning in Washington right now,” she said.

“The psychedelic pathway — built on physician-led protocols, clinical research and compassionate use frameworks — is actually a model cannabis advocates should be studying and adopting more aggressively,” Hauser said.

The drug is being studied for its applications with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and addiction, but cardiac risks flagged by Nora Volkow of the National Institute on Drug Abuse remain a major barrier.

That tension is heightened by the expansion of “Right to Try” access, a federal law allowing patients diagnosed with life-threatening diseases or conditions to try experimental drugs when no other treatments work. This distinction typically applies only after Phase I trials are successful.

Ibogaine has struggled to meet that criteria, since most of the research into the drug has been conducted outside the U.S.

Psychedelic industry leaders say the order is meaningful, but the full impacts are still unknown until implementation catches up to prove scientific value.

“The opportunity now is not hype, it’s execution: rigorous science, disciplined safety standards, physician-led protocols and real-world outcome data,” said Tom Feegel, CEO of clinical neurohealth center Beond.

Beond, based in Cancun, Mexico, specializes in ibogaine therapy.

Feegel added that while the executive order signals legitimacy at the highest level of government, the next phase is critical.

Psychedelics still lack a commercial market, though clinical-stage developers, like AtaiBeckley, Compass and GH Research, are emerging. Many prioritize research around less controversial psychedelics like psilocybin and MDMA derivatives for mental health treatment.

U.S. states have been weighing the space, too. Colorado advanced regulated psychedelic access for its residents in 2022, while a Massachusetts ballot measure failed in 2024 with 56% of voters rejecting the access.

Cannabis, by contract, already has a multibillion-dollar adult-use industry across dozens of states, giving it a significant head start even as federal rescheduling remains unresolved.

Hauser argued the two industries are ultimately reinforcing one another.

“The two regulatory tracks aren’t in conflict,” she said. “Both are advancing the broader legitimacy of plant-based alternative medicines, and the infrastructure being built for one will inevitably support the other.”

Christmas is still eight months away, but artificial tree maker Lou Liping is already worried about a bad holiday season due to the Iran war.

Lou’s company, Kitty Christmas Factory, has been making artificial trees for the U.S. and European markets for nearly three decades. Her facility is based in the city of Yiwu, known as China’s Christmas capital.

“Many customers … are holding off on orders,” she told CNBC last Friday at her showroom in the city’s international expo center. The center houses hundreds of manufacturers that contribute to the country’s vast production of the world’s artificial trees, tinsel, ornaments and other decorations.

An estimated 87% of Christmas decor sold in the U.S. is sourced from China, according to the American Christmas Tree Association, with much of it from Yiwu.

Lou said the disrupted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and high oil prices due to the Iran conflict have raised her costs per tree by 10%. The base material of her trees is PET plastic derived from oil. The price of the PET in her artificial pine needles is up 5%, and the cost of the plastic used as packaging for shipments is up 15%, she said.

Lou said her revenue is down roughly 12% because of the lost orders.

Yiwu’s factories normally gear up in the spring to make sure that their products are on store shelves for the Christmas shopping season.

“The war happened at a bad time — right when we need to get our shipments out,” tinsel maker Yun Zhuomei told CNBC from her booth at the expo center. “It’s very painful for us manufacturers.”

Yun said plastic prices for her tinsel are up as much as 40%. 

Chen Lian, who makes Christmas lights, said she fears further price increases, with suppliers all moving up delivery schedules to accommodate customers worried about transport delays.

“Everyone needs to deliver between May and August so demand is concentrated,” Chen said. “Material prices are bound to go up.”

To adjust, artificial tree maker Lou said she has accelerated shipments. And when her contracts with customers allow, she passes on some cost. For next year, she said she aims to design a wider variety of lower-end trees so more people can afford her products.

But for this season, Lou said American shoppers will likely be stuck paying at least 15% more.

“The price of Christmas trees in the U.S. will definitely go up,” she said. “It is unavoidable.”