Tag: ibogaine

Why Is Texas Supporting Psychedelics Research While Criminalizing Cannabis?

Texas just announced it will invest $50 million into studying ibogaine, a powerful psychedelic drug that remains illegal at the federal level. The goal? To develop it into a potential Food and Drug Administration-approved treatment for conditions like opioid use disorder, PTSD and depression; especially among veterans.

On the surface, this might sound like a bold and progressive move. But here’s the irony: at the very same time, Texas continues to criminalize cannabis and might soon even outlaw hemp-derived THC products.

Let’s break this down. Cannabis, a plant with centuries of use, decades of medical data and broad public support remains illegal for adult use in Texas. Despite overwhelming national support for legalization—a staggering 88 percent of Americans now back medical or recreational cannabis use)—the state has chosen to double down on prohibition, with lawmakers sending Gov. Greg Abbott (R) a bill that would outlaw consumable hemp products with any traces of THC. He has until Sunday to decide whether to allow that ban to take effect.

Even worse, prohibition isn’t stopping anything. The black market is thriving in Texas. Cartels and illicit operators flood the state with unregulated, untested cannabis. No taxes are collected, no consumer protections exist and legal hemp retailers are now being threatened. It is a misguided public safety argument deluded by a lack of facts and science, political conservatism, contradictory business objectives and outdated stigmas.

Meanwhile, ibogaine, a hallucinogenic alkaloid that can induce intense psychedelic experiences, is now the subject of a $50 million state-funded research push. The same lawmakers who claim cannabis is too dangerous and not well studied are throwing their support behind a compound with far less research and much more uncertainty with the intent of studying it.

This isn’t a critique of psychedelic medicine. Ibogaine may very well hold incredible therapeutic value. But if Texas is willing to support cutting-edge, controversial treatments for serious mental health and addiction issues, why not start with widely available data and access to cannabis? Cannabis has already been shown to help with chronic pain, anxiety, sleep, seizures and opioid dependency.

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Texas Governor Signs Bill To Create Ibogaine Research Consortium, Aiming To Develop FDA-Approved Psychedelic Drug

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has signed into law a bill to create a state-backed research consortium to conduct clinical trials on ibogaine as a possible treatment for substance use disorders and other mental health conditions. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop the psychedelic into a prescription drug with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, with the state retaining a portion of the profit.

“Texas is now leading the way in the United States for the evaluation of ibogaine as a potential medication that can help improve the lives of so many Americans,” the governor said at a signing event on Wednesday. He called the psychedelic “a therapy that has shown great promise in treating” conditions such as depression, PTSD and opioid use disorder.

“I’m about to sign a law that will lead to an FDA-approved drug development clinical trial that will seek approval of ibogaine as a medication for the treatment of opioid use disorder and other behavioral health conditions, especially those suffered by our veterans,” he added. “Texas will invest $50 million to support this research, and these funds can be matched by grants and private investments.”

Under the new law, approved by the state legislature earlier this month, Texas will retain a commercial interest in “all intellectual property that may be generated over the course of the drug development clinical trials,” the legislation says, with an aim of making Texas a hub for “ibogaine-related biomedical research, development, treatment, manufacturing, and distribution.”

A quarter of revenue taken in by the state from any resulting intellectual property would fund veterans programs.

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Arizona Lawmakers Approve Psychedelics Bills To Create Psilocybin Advisory Board And Fund Ibogaine Research

Arizona lawmakers have approved two different bills focused on psychedelic therapy.

Senate passed a bill to create an advisory board tasked with studying the science of psilocybin, as well as state and federal policies surrounding the psychedelic, while the House separately approved a measure to fund clinical trials on ibogaine.

The Senate legislation from Sen. T. J. Shope (R) cleared the chamber in a 23-4 vote on Tuesday after it was significantly amended in committee, with members removing central provisions to establish licensed psilocybin service centers for adults seeking mental health treatment.

On the House side, the body advanced the ibogaine research legislation, sponsored by Rep. Justin Wilmeth (R), in a 36-22 vote on Monday, sending it to the Senate. It would provide funding for the state Department of Health Services (DHS) to “conduct a certified clinical research study on the use of ibogaine for the treatment of neurological diseases.”

An earlier version of Shope’s Senate psilocybin bill moved through both chambers last year with the regulated access components intact, but it was vetoed by the Democratic governor, who argued that “we do not yet have the evidence needed to support widespread clinical expansion.”

However, the year before, Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) signed into law budget legislation that included provisions to fund research into the medical potential of psilocybin mushrooms for a variety of conditions.

The new Senate-passed bill hopes to leverage some of those appropriated $5 million to create an Arizona Psilocybin Advisory Board, comprised of up to 12 members appointed by the governor and legislative leaders.

Representatives of the attorney general’s office and DHS, as well as military veterans, first responders, scientists with experience with psilocybin and physicians would be among the members.

Under the bill, the board would need to be selected by December 31, 2025, and they’d need to hold their first meeting by March 1, 2026.

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New York Bill Would Legalize Psychedelics Like Psilocybin, Mescaline And Ibogaine

Another psychedelics bill has been prefiled in New York for the 2025 session—this one calling for the legalization of certain entheogenic substances such as psilocybin and ibogaine for adults 21 and older.

Sponsored by Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal (D), along with eight cosponsors, the legislation would amend state statute to make legal the “possession, use, cultivation, production, creation, analysis, gifting, exchange, or sharing by or between natural persons of twenty-one years of age or older of a natural plant or fungus-based hallucinogen.”

DMT, ibogaine, mescaline, psilocybin and psilocyn would fall under the definition of “natural plant or fungus-based hallucinogens” that would be legalized by the bill.

Further, the legislation would authorize people to engage in psychedelic services “with or without remuneration,” as well as use the entheogens in religious ceremonies.

State and local law enforcement would be prohibited from cooperating or providing assistance to the federal government for the purpose of enforcing controlled substances laws against activities made legal under the state law.

The measure goes on to outline a series of protections: People couldn’t lose professional licenses, public assistance or be denied mental health or behavioral health services simply for using psychedelics. And their lawful use also couldn’t be the sole basis for a child welfare investigation.

New York localities wouldn’t be allowed to enact laws criminalizing psychedelics, but they could “adopt and implement legislation and policies which bear directly on or are related to natural plant or fungus-based hallucinogens in furtherance” of the bill.

Finally, the proposal would remove psilocybin, psilocyn, DMT, mescaline and ibogaine from the state’s banned substances list.

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Activists Renew Effort To Use Opioid Settlement Funds To Study Ibogaine For Addiction In Ohio After Kentucky Plan Falls Through

Psychedelic medicine proponents are redirecting their efforts to use millions in opioid-related state settlement money for ibogaine research from Kentucky to Ohio.

The original plan to use $42 million from Kentucky’s opioid settlement fund for psychedelics research fell through late last year after the state’s new attorney general replaced then-Kentucky Opioid Commission Chairman Bryan Hubbard, who was spearheading the ibogaine initiative, with a former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official.

Now Hubbard has joined ResultsOHIO, a division of the Ohio Treasurer’s Office, where he will be partnering with the Reaching Everyone in Distress (REID) Foundation in hopes of securing a portion of that state’s opioid settlement funds to promote psychedelics clinical trials for substance misuse treatment.

“I’m honored to work with the REID Foundation and the people of Ohio to bring hope and healing to veterans and families being torn apart by the opioid crisis,” Hubbard said in a press release. “The development of ibogaine as a treatment option for opioid-dependent individuals is a moral imperative.”

A Kentucky commission focused on opioid overdose abatement held several meetings last year to go over the ibogaine initiative that’s since fizzled out in that state under the new attorney general. Members heard testimony from military veterans, parents, psychologists and other advocates—including former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R)—about the therapeutic potential of the psychedelic.

Like Kentucky, Ohio has been hard hit by the opioid overdose crisis. And under the settlement agreement, the state is expected to receive about $1 billion that could be used for various programs and services to help mitigate the public health issue.

The plan for the ibogaine effort is to seek funding for the research through a public-private partnership, while also exploring the creation of a specific program under ResultsOHIO to facilitate the partial settlement distribution, Psychedelic Alpha reported.

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Military Veterans Who Received Psychedelic Ibogaine Treatment Saw ‘Dramatic’ And ‘Life-Changing’ Improvements In PTSD And Depression, Stanford Study Finds

Military combat veterans with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) saw “dramatic” and “life-changing” improvements in their symptoms and cognitive functioning immediately after receiving treatment with the psychedelic ibogaine, new research shows.

Stanford University researchers behind the study, which was published in the journal Nature Medicine last week, followed 30 veterans who were functionally disabled from symptoms of TBI such as post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety and who had a history of repeated blast or combat exposures.

The team, which collaboration with the foundation VETS, Inc., assessed the veterans before and after they visited a clinic in Mexico to receive ibogaine treatment, and they identified profound changes in the participants’ mental health, with minimal side effects.

Prior to the treatment, the veterans each met the criteria for clinically significant levels of disability. Twenty-three had diagnosable PTSD, 14 had anxiety disorder, 15 had alcohol use disorder and 19 had been suicidal at some point in their lifetimes.

After receiving ibogaine, in addition to magnesium to protect against potential heart-related complications, there was an immediate “remarkable reduction” in symptoms, “with large effect sizes” that sustained over time.

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Kentucky’s Risky Million-Dollar Bet to Fight the Opioid Crisis With Psychedelics

On the steps of the state capitol building in Frankfort on May 31, the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission (KYOAAC) announced the launch of a new state-funded program that would aim to help stem the damage and destruction wrought by the ongoing opioid crisis that has devastated the lives of millions and led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands. But the new initiative wasn’t simply to throw more money and resources into tried-and-true public health programs.

Instead, the commission announced it was going to explore allocating tens of millions of dollars toward studying and promoting the use of the controversial, plant-based hallucinogen ibogaine in psychedelic-assisted therapy to combat the opioid crisis, as well as treat a host of other mental health issues. The goal is to make Kentucky the first state in the nation to pursue a clinical program around ibogaine—currently legal only in Mexico and New Zealand.

“This administration recognizes that the opioid epidemic is one of the most tragic and visible symptoms of spiritual affliction which pervades our society,” Bryan Hubbard, chairman and executive director of KYOCC, told The Daily Beast. “We must do better. We must explore every possible avenue which holds the potential for improvement.”

The news was lauded by advocates of psychedelic-assisted therapy, an increasingly popular form of mental health treatment.

“With yesterday’s announcement, Kentucky is taking a bold leadership role to addressing the opioid epidemic,” Jesse MacLachalan, state policy and advocacy coordinator for Reason For Hope, a psychedelic therapy advocacy nonprofit, told The Daily Beast. “This is a prudent and measured approach to explore innovative solutions to the greatest addiction crisis our country has experienced in its history. We applaud the Bluegrass State for the example they are setting for states across the country.”

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How a Psychedelic 12-Step Program Is Saving Lives

In 2002, Dimitri M. was ready to die. He’d been addicted to heroin for over 20 years, and his once-promising artistic life had collapsed into a series of banal pit stops: from the methadone clinic, to the valet parking gig, to the coke dealer, to the dope dealer, to the bed, and over and over again. Eventually, his longtime partner succumbed to intravenous drug use, and, though they were married by common law, he was barred from attending her funeral.

Dimitri was ready to finally let the drugs carry him away, like an undertow. He planned to take a trip to Greece as a last goodbye to his ancestral homeland, but while researching his farewell voyage, he was reminded of a conversation with an old friend about a hallucinogenic plant with the purported power to heal opioid addiction. He embarked on his trip as planned, but scheduled a brief detour in the Netherlands to be treated with this so-called miracle drug: Ibogaine. Though the alkaloid extract of the Tabernanthe iboga plant with psychoactive effects is illegal in the United States, Ibogaine has been used for decades by the Bwiti people of Gabon as a sacrament in a coming-of-age ritual, akin to a Bar Mitzvah.

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Hunter S. Thompson once spread a rumor of a presidential candidate’s drug addiction and it was taken seriously

After spending a few tedious months on the 1972 campaign trail, Ed Muskie—the Democrat favored to win the party’s nomination—had been putting his entire press corps to sleep with hopelessly repetitive stump speeches.

“I didn’t get a quote worth filing out of the whole goddamn trip,” a New York reporter told Hunter S Thompson about the senator’s tour of Florida.

So on May 11, 1972, Thompson gave the campaign a jolt, filing a speculative story through a primitive version of a fax machine he called the Mojo Wire. Describing Muskie as a competitive political animal who would never back away from a challenge, Thompson couldn’t understand why the senator had suddenly become rigid and unresponsive—seeming to read directly from a script—but he took one hilarious shot at figuring it out.

“Not much has been written about the Ibogaine Effect as a serious factor in the presidential campaign,” Thompson wrote in an article he later claimed was never meant to be taken at face value. In it, he declares, “word leaked out that some of Muskie’s top advisers called in a Brazilian doctor who was said to be treating the candidate with ‘some kind of strange drug.”

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Ibogaine May Help Us Better Understand Substance Use Disorders, but Will it Solve the Opioid Crisis?

Among the drugs used in withdrawal treatments, ibogaine is unique. Most substances administered to patients in rehab are intended to temporarily allay withdrawal pains. The name of the practice, “substitution therapy,” already implies its flaws (ones with which Juliana was well acquainted). Ibogaine treatment, in contrast, goes after the addiction itself. It puts people into what’s often described as a “waking dream” state, with effects lasting for more than 10 hours.

“It’s not a hallucinogen like LSD. It’s not like you’re sitting there awake watching the trails on the wall,” describes Dana Beal, one of the world’s leading ibogaine activists who has experienced the effects of ibogaine firsthand. “You close your eyes and go into a waking dream. You’re paralyzed because you can’t summon the will to move. You just want to lie in a quiet room, left alone to review your lifetime of memories.”

In one small study, published in The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse in 2018, 50 percent of patients reported not using opioids in the previous 30 days at the three-month check-up following their ibogaine treatment. In comparison, says Ken Alper, associate professor of psychiatry and neurology at NYU School of Medicine, one-third to half of patients fail to even complete detoxification treatment using methadone, buprenorphine, and klonopin, today’s three most common drugs for opioid withdrawal symptoms. Among the people who do complete detoxification with these drugs, roughly half are still sober after four to five months.

“[Ibogaine] is the anti-drug,” says Beal, who along with researchers Howard Lotsof and Norma Alexander, studied ibogaine’s therapeutic effects. “You come out and you don’t want to do any more ibogaine, and you don’t want to do a lot of drugs after taking ibogaine.”

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