A Kentucky lawmaker wants to revisit a previously abandoned idea for the state to fund research of an illegal psychedelic drug for its potential to treat drug addiction.

Calling addiction a “scourge” in Kentucky, Nicholasville Republican state Sen. Donald Douglas told the Interim Joint Committee on Health Services Aug. 27 in Frankfort, “we can’t — and we shouldn’t — continue in this same cycle.”

Douglas, who is also a doctor, said an alternative to medication-assisted treatment drugs like Suboxone, a low-grade opioid prescribed to treat opioid use disorder, is needed.

“We’ve been dealing with the same clinical model for decades,” Douglas said. “It ain’t working, folks.”

Douglas proposed investing state resources to research ibogaine, a psychedelic, as a possible therapeutic to curb drug addiction and other mental health diagnoses, like post-traumatic stress disorder, with the goal of helping it get formal Food and Drug Administration approval as a widely-available medication.

Currently a Schedule I drug that’s illegal in the United States — the same category as heroin, LSD and ecstasy — ibogaine is derived from the bark of an iboga tree native to Africa.

Douglas’ idea is a repackaged proposal dating back to 2023, when the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission first floated investing $42 million into clinical trials of ibogaine as a treatment for addiction. But incoming Attorney General Russell Coleman all but shut the idea down as he prepared to take office at the beginning of 2024.

Since then, investment in the research of psychoactive drugs has gained traction nationally, at least in the Republican Party. Rooted at least partially in a distrust of historically trustworthy medical and research institutions like the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, what has emerged in recent years is a push for alternatives to mainstream medication across the board. That includes psychedelics.

Members of the GOP are embracing, even championing, alternative methods for treating sickness and disease. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., appointed by Republican President Donald Trump, explicitly champions investing in the clinical study of psychedelics.

Texas, a Republican-controlled state, just agreed to invest $50 million in ibogaine research.

Though he didn’t provide specifics, Douglas said he plans to file a bill in the 2026 regular legislative session that compliments this new Texas law, to “create an avenue or pathway where we can start doing some research on this compound.” Douglas also said he’s been in talks with lawmakers in roughly 15 other states about forming a “legislative consortium” that pools money for ibogaine research. He also suggested adjusting the scheduling classification of ibogaine so it’s no longer illegal in Kentucky.

No other lawmakers on the committee signaled whether they would co-sponsor Douglas’ bill in the next session. But chairman Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield, asked whether either the University of Kentucky or the University of Louisville had given input on the proposal, since both are possible venues for future clinical trials, should they occur.

“Have either of our research universities expressed an interest in doing this research, or have you reached out to them?” Meredith, a former hospital CEO, asked.

“I haven’t reached out to them,” Douglas said. He then alluded to creating more “public-private sector partnerships” and “develop other areas” where the state can “share the wealth.”

‘Kentucky has a second chance’ with ibogaine

The original effort to bring ibogaine to Kentucky originated with Bryan Hubbard, former head of the Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission.

At the time, no state had done anything similar. Hubbard, who spoke with several people who credited ibogaine with their long-term sobriety, suggested investing $42 million in opioid lawsuit settlement funds to research ibogaine as an alternative to the FDA drugs on the market.

His pitch was similar to Douglas’ on Wednesday in Frankfort: In a state decimated by opioids, where generations of Kentuckians are still struggling with addiction, what if there was an alternative to the currently available, FDA-approved medication-assisted treatment options that could help people achieve long-term sobriety?

But in December 2023, just weeks before Hubbard was slated to call it for a vote before the commission, he was asked to resign by incoming Republican Attorney General Russell Coleman, who did not share Hubbard’s enthusiasm for investing in the experimental psychedelic. Any possibility of ibogaine research in Kentucky was effectively halted, with no promises it would be revived.

Over the next year, Hubbard shopped the idea around to other states.

In June, Hubbard — with help from former Texas Gov. Rick Perry — found major success in Texas. The Lone Star state elected to invest $50 million in researching the psychedelic by way of clinical trials, an amount to be matched by private sector investments.

Hubbard, now head of Americans for Ibogaine, hopes that with Texas breaking the mold, Kentucky and other states are more likely to consider following suit.

Hubbard didn’t attend Wednesday’s meeting with Kentucky lawmakers because he was traveling to Jackson, Mississippi, to attend the first of two public hearings on Aug. 28 to consider a near-identical proposal in that state legislature to invest in ibogaine research.

“Texas has provided the people of Kentucky with the social, political, and cultural leverage necessary to break the institutional capture of our government by the opioid maintenance industry forever,” Hubbard wrote in a text Wednesday. “The leadership of the Kentucky legislature have my gratitude for restoring this opportunity for us.”

Still, there is limited peer-reviewed research across the country into the impact of ibogaine on the body. Research from clinical trials that have mostly taken place in other countries notes the drug’s risk of cardiac arrest.

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear noted this risk Thursday when he was asked about the proposal.

“A lot more research needs to be done on ibogaine. It can also cause really significant reactions,” he said. “You don’t tread lightly into something that can be that powerful or potentially be that damaging. This is what the FDA is for, this is what they ought to be researching.”

Beshear then said the system of combating opioid addiction that’s currently in place, and the medication available through the FDA, is a “system that works.”

“Let’s make sure that we’re not just looking at the next bright, shiny object, but that we’re recognizing the hard work with the structure we have in place, (which) has done so much to help our people.”

Ibogaine blocks certain channels of the heart, prolonging the time between heartbeats and increasing the chance for cardiac arrhythmia, which spikes the likelihood of a heart attack. Ibogaine has caused fatal heart attacks, according to the National Institute of Health. A handful of medical researchers in 2023 told the Herald-Leader this side effect is likely part of the reason why the FDA has not given the greenlight for ibogaine to be studied in a clinical setting.

Rep. Adrielle Camuel, a Lexington Democrat, raised this question Wednesday.

“It may occur naturally, but it seems to cause cardiotoxicity, psychosis, neurotoxicity. Where’s the urgency to study this when we do have medications, therapies to help people who are struggling with addiction?” Camuel said.

“We do not have studies with long-term follow-up,” said Dr. Jean Loftus, a volunteer with Americans for Ibogaine and a plastic surgeon in Northern Kentucky. “That’s the whole reason we’re here: the drug is not yet FDA approved. It needs to get FDA approved.”

Jessica Blackburn offered the only personal history with ibogaine Wednesday, explaining that, in her experience, years of relying on FDA-approved medication didn’t work to curb her addiction to heroin and OxyContin, which began when she was a teenager.

Blackburn previously shared her story with the Herald-Leader in 2023. She traveled to Mexico in 2008 at age 22 to take ibogaine, and she says it saved her life. Blackburn has been sober for a decade.

During that multi-hour experience, she hallucinated vividly and attended her own funeral through her mother’s eyes, watching her family and friends grieve her death. When she came to, she said her withdrawals and cravings had been nipped entirely.

“Because of ibogaine, I was able to reclaim my autonomy and make the conscious decision to make healthier choices and allow myself to heal and grow,” Blackburn said. “Every person who suffers should be afforded the same opportunity.

“Kentucky has a second chance to bring our state out of the despair from the opioid epidemic and into a place of healing and innovation and mental health care and treatment.”

_____

©2025 Lexington Herald-Leader. Visit kentucky.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.