GOP Sen. Donald Douglas says it’s “imperative” that Kentucky begin investing in research of the powerful psychoactive drug ibogaine.
Ibogaine has gained recognition in recent years for its potential to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and opioid addiction while minimizing withdrawal symptoms. But the drug is still classified as a Schedule I substance and is not approved for distribution by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Texas passed a law earlier this year, granted $50 million in matching funds to help shepherd the drug through clinical trials.
Legislators from more than a dozen states are talking about forming a "legislative consortium" to put together research on ibogaine, Douglas told the committee Wednesday. The senator and physician from Nicholasville said he doesn't believe ibogaine should be federally scheduled in a class of drugs labeled as addictive or lacking medical benefits. Other Schedule I drugs include heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis.
Douglas pointed to the state’s legalization of medical cannabis for certain medical conditions as justification for promoting a drug that does not have federal approval.
“What my bill proposes is much like what the marijuana bill proposed initially, which also is an illegal substance at the federal level,” Douglas said. “In case some here have forgotten that.”
Douglas was one of the most staunch opponents to medical cannabis when it passed the state legislature in 2023. He explicitly criticized the fact that cannabis is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for medical use and the lack of “long-term, double-blind studies to support any of the anecdotal evidence” of benefits.
Dr. Jean Loftus, a Cincinnati plastic surgeon and ambassador for Americans for Ibogaine, told the committee that no blind studies with effective long-term follow-up have been conducted on the effects of ibogaine. She pointed to two studies that assessed the effects on small groups of veterans with traumatic brain injuries which did find improvements, both psychiatric and cognitive.
“We have animal studies, we have anecdotal reports, we have retrospective studies,” Loftus said. “These studies have been done by private, small groups. When the money comes, there will be large studies.”
Ibogaine treatment is not without risks. Ibogaine lengthens the time between heartbeats, and without proper monitoring, a patient could go into cardiac arrest. Loftus also addressed concerns that the treatment could induce psychosis in some patients.
“That is one of the reasons that nobody who has a pre-existing diagnosis of psychosis or schizophrenia, should take any drug in the class associated with hallucinogens, or in the case of ibogaine, a non typical hallucinogen,” Loftus said. “But psychosis itself is not a typical side effect or a long-term consequence of Ibogaine.”
It’s not the first time ibogaine has stirred the pot in Kentucky. A former Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission chair Bryan Hubbard championed a plan to invest $42 million dollar out of $900 million of abatement funds toward ibogaine research in 2023. The plan has since stalled, after Hubbard resigned under pressure. Hubbard now works with Americans for Ibogaine, the same group that joined Douglas to champion the medication.
In his lengthy resignation letter, Hubbard said it was his support of ibogaine that caused the then newly-elected Attorney General Russell Coleman to ask for his resignation.
“The opportunity for Kentucky to pioneer a breakthrough has been thwarted,” Hubbard wrote in his letter. “The movement that has been formed to deliver ibogaine access to suffering individuals throughout the United States will live on and thrive.”
Hubbard has continued to champion ibogaine across different platforms. He wrote in his resignation letter that he feared “for Ibogaine’s future in Kentucky” as he turned in his resignation.
But it appears Douglas has picked up the cause. Earlier this year, he filed legislation setting up a system similar to what passed in Texas. It would have created an “ibogaine research fund” to help cover the costs of research and setting up FDA-approved clinical trials. The bill did not receive a committee hearing, although it picked up two Republican co-sponsors.
“We've been dealing with the same clinical model over and over, for decades. It ain't working, folks, it's not working,” Douglas said. “We simply have got to stop trading one addictive compound, for another addictive compound.”
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
