A bill setting up a framework for researching the medical benefits of the powerful psychedelic drug ibogaine is nearing final passage in the Kentucky General Assembly.
GOP sponsor Sen. Donald Douglas of Nicholasville told a House committee ibogaine is the next frontier in confronting Kentucky’s ongoing opioid crisis — 1,410 Kentuckians died from a drug overdose in 2024.
“It may be just the first step, but it has the possibility in the future of producing one of the greatest positive impacts on our society since antibiotics,” said Douglas, who is a pain medicine doctor.
At the moment, ibogaine is classified as Schedule I, which means the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has yet to acknowledge any medical uses of the drug. Other examples of Schedule I drugs include heroin, LSD and cannabis.
Ibogaine has emerged as a potential treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorder and treatment-resistant depression. The drug induces intense and prolonged hallucinations that may support profound shifts in behavior, but also carries heavy risks, including cardiac arrest. Proponents argue the hallucinogen has no recreational uses — its side effects can be far from pleasant.
Senate Bill 77 passed the House committee vote Tuesday, with two of the Democrats voting against the measure. Since it’s already passed through the Senate, it need only get past the full House to make final passage, barring any changes made on the House floor.
Rep. T.J. Roberts, a Republican from Burlington, voted “yes” on the measure, and argued that the dangers of addiction are higher than those associated with the drug.
“I understand the concern about cardiac arrest, but I have a concern about cardiac arrest that are arising out of something else. Drug addiction is what caused my dad's cardiac arrest, the traditional treatments didn't work,” Roberts said. “This is a new hope for people who are going through something that is devastating our communities in the commonwealth.”
Kentucky has previously considered funding ibogaine treatment using opioid abatement funds. A former Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission chair championed a plan to invest $42 million out of the funds into ibogaine research in 2023, but chair Bryan Hubbard resigned under pressure. He said in his resignation letter that it was his support of ibogaine that caused the then newly-elected Attorney General Russell Coleman to ask for his resignation.
Douglas’s original proposal would have also used money from the opioid abatement funds to support ibogaine research. A change in the Senate removed the funding component of the bill, so while the legislation would still create a trust fund, it wouldn’t actually fill it with the $21 million originally proposed. Douglas said he doesn’t want to sidetrack the bill by arguing over funding.
“We can sit and talk about how we're going to fund things all day long. That's not what this bill is about,” Douglas said.
Several lawmakers have shared their own second-hand accounts of the effects of ibogaine. One senator described meeting former Texas governor and former U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, who has emerged as a leading champion of the powerful psychedelic, saying it cured him of long-term insomnia and intense anxiety.
Sen. Brandon Smith, a Republican from Hazard, said on the Senate floor he had granted permission to one of his employees to use the federally outlawed substance in his facility in an attempt to beat his drug addiction.
“It completely changed his life,” Smith said. “What’s so remarkable about this is that it’s a one-time treatment.”
Texas, Indiana, California and Arizona have all funded and/or allowed for the research of ibogaine. Full human studies are lacking on the drug, largely because of its federal status. Ibogaine supporters often point to animal studies that have shown promising effects and a 2025 Stanford study that found ibogaine was effective in treating traumatic brain injury in veterans.
GOP Senate President Robert Stivers of Manchester told reporters after the legislation passed the Senate that he has “no idea” what the research will show, but that it’s worth looking into.
“Let's get some real information out here. Let's do all the things that you would do: the triple blind studies, the placebos,” Stivers said. “Let's bring in all the data from other places that’s looked at that and then figure out, is it worthwhile or not?”
