Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), has signed a law creating a research consortium backed by the state to run clinical trials of ibogaine for treatment of substance abuse disorders and mental illnesses. The project’s goal is the development of ibogaine as a prescription medication with FDA approval and a state-retained portion of profit.
At a Wednesday signing, the Governor said that Texas was now leading in the United States when it comes to the evaluation and potential use of ibogaine. This medication can be used by so many Americans. The governor called the psychedelic a “therapy that has demonstrated great promise” in treating conditions like depression, PTSD and addiction to opioids.
He added, “I am about to sign legislation that will result in an FDA-approved clinical trial to test ibogaine for treatment of addiction to opioids and behavioral disorders. This will be especially beneficial to our veteran population.” Texas will spend $50 million on this research. This money can also be matched with grants or private investment.
According to the law passed by the Texas state legislature in early April, Texas retains a commercial stake in “all intellectual properties that are generated through the process of clinical drug trials,” with the aim of establishing Texas as a center for biomedical research and development relating to ibogaine, including treatment, manufacture, and distribution.
Veteran programs could be funded with a quarter the amount of money that would otherwise come to the government from intellectual property.
House Speaker Dustin Burroughs said that he had little knowledge of ibogaine prior to the start of the legislative session, but “heard stories after stories” about how the treatment improved people’s lives.
It made a difference,” he stated, “and as sessions went by, more and more members of Texas House of Representatives, Senate began to realize that the investment was worthwhile. It was worth investing in and…seeing if we could do something to bring this to more people.”
Tan Parker, the sponsor of the bill (R), said that the new law is about “the opportunity to restore so many lives who have sacrificed their lives for us all.”
We’re thrilled to be taking this next step. Parker stated that protecting veterans and the public is of paramount importance. The clinical trial will prove beneficial to everyone, if it is a success as we think.
In terms of what will happen next, the minister said “within 60days” the state should start receiving offers from institutions and organisations to become part of the consortium.
The money Texas will invest is only based upon a match. It’s based solely on contributions from people who have excellent expertise. “So we’re looking forward to that consortium…coming forward, and again, we’ll be receiving those proposals 60 days from now.”
Along with the legislation’s goal of winning FDA approval as a clinical treatment, the bill says it also seeks “a breakthrough therapy designation for ibogaine”—a designation FDA gives to emerging treatment options that haven’t yet secured agency approval to treat a particular condition.
A bipartisan conference committee amended the bill after the House of Representatives and Senate had passed their own versions. The compromise legislation passed the Senate on a 26–5 vote and the House 134–4.
Rather than create a state grant program to support research on the psychedelic, as previous forms of the bill would have done, the compromise version of the bill establishes a “consortium”—including an institution of higher education, a hospital and a drug developer—to develop and test ibogaine drugs in an effort to secure FDA approval.
The educational institution would serve as the consortium’s leader, representing the group to the state Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) and handling administrative functions. The educational institution would also be required to submit “a request and proposal for funding for the consortium in order to conduct ibogaine clinical trials according this chapter.”
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A conference committee report on SB 1, a large state budget proposal, states that the $50 million will come from the general fund of the state and be disbursed to HHSC. The money is to go towards the development trials. Gifts, grants, and donations from private sources will be considered.
Parker told colleagues that “initialy, there was no state funding allocated to the initiative” earlier in this month. The situation has since changed.
The final bill of the conference committee states that HHSC must appropriate funds “to finance the consortium’s trials but at the moment the costs are unknown.”
According to the analysis, revenue from intellectual properties resulting from research and drug development is indeterminate. It would depend on the trials for drug development.
From the general fund of Texas, 25 percent will be earmarked for programs to assist veterans within this state.
Rep. Greg Bonnen, (R), said in the House before voting on the proposed that “the state would have negotiated royalties of at least 20 percent.”
The reformers applauded this legislation. Bryan Hubbard – executive director of American Ibogaine Initiative, and architect of the legislation – said that he had to “give the legislature an A in all areas” for the final bill.
After the passage of the bill in the Legislature, he spoke with MEDCAN24 and thanked in particular the sponsors Parker, Rep. Cody Harris and House Speaker Burroughs. Dan Patrick (R), the Senate’s president, is a Republican.
Hubbard described the four men as “courageous and visionary” individuals. He added that he was “forever grateful to Texas Leadership for making it, according to my estimation, the most significant single achievement in the American history of psychedelics.”
Hubbard stated at that time that he believed the state’s interest in the intellectual property created by the research would ensure Texans “a perpetual return” on their investment.
“I think most Americans are tired of their tax dollars being funneled into private corporation’s pockets with little or no return to the taxpayer,” said he. “With the way in which Texas has set this project up, Texas taxpayers are going to be fully vested partners in this endeavor, and the people of Texas will see—if we are successful—perpetual return on their investment that will hopefully be used to assure universal treatment access through a top-notch, ibogaine-based treatment and recovery system as time and circumstances evolve.”
An earlier analysis of the legislation said that opioid use disorder (OUD) “continues to be one of the most insidious threats to public health of our time, devastating individuals, families, and communities across Texas and our nation,” and “current treatment options are often unsuccessful in treating OUD and lives are lost as a result.”
Hubbard noted that the new Texas plan is similar to an ibogaine research proposal a few years ago in Kentucky that he also helped design. This bill was intended to distribute at least 42 million dollars in funding towards research on ibogaine as a potential treatment for opioid addiction.
It was abandoned in 2023 when the newly appointed attorney general of Kentucky replaced Hubbard with a former Drug Enforcement Administration Official (DEA).
Last year advocates tried to enact a similar plan in Ohio.
Hubbard stated that “the legislation which you see, is Kentucky’s plan implemented by Texas.” The consortium has been set up in a way to establish a framework of cooperation on the front-end that I always imagined occurring at the back-end.
“When I created this program, for Kentucky, it was with the idea that we would send out a RFP [request for proposals] Send out an RFP to a potential trial site and pick the most suitable. He explained that the goal was to match the drug developers with the trial scientists on the other end.
Hubbard added, “In Texas this will be a collaborative partnership which must be created by the people who are interested in pursuing this opportunity.” Both universities and hospitals have a significant role to play, Hubbard said.
HHSC retains control over the Consortium, he explained. “And the reason why that legal authority is needed, it’s because you are looking for the very best drug developers and you need the most efficient and effective aggregation within Texas of sites that will ensure these trials can be done efficiently, safely and effectively.”
A new poll in Texas shows that Republican voters are opposed to a different proposal by lawmakers to ban THC-containing hemp products.
While Abbott has declined to say how he’ll act on SB 3—which advocates and stakeholders say would decimate the state’s hemp industry—the policy change evidently isn’t being embraced by voters, including a plurality of Republicans (47 percent) who voiced opposition, said the survey, from Ragnar Research Partners and commissioned the Texas Hemp Business Council (THBC).
Military veterans advocates, including Texas Veterans of Foreign Wars, have called on the governor to veto the hemp ban, saying it “would cause irreversible harm to communities across the state.”
Farmers have also said the prohibition would devastate a key sector of the state’s agriculture industry.
Last month, the Texas House also passed a pair of bills designed to ensure speedy access to psychedelic-assisted therapy in the event of FDA approval, but they did not clear the Senate by the end of the session.
More recently, lawmakers passed a bill to significantly expand the state’s medical marijuana program, sending it to the governor.
This measure will expand the list of qualifying medical conditions for cannabis to include chronic back pain, TBI, Crohn’s and other inflammatory diseases. It also allows patients receiving palliative care or hospice to use marijuana.
Separately, a House committee approved a Senate-passed bill last month that would prohibit cities from putting any citizen initiative on local ballots that would decriminalize marijuana or other controlled substances—as several localities have already done despite lawsuits from the state attorney general.
Under the proposal, state law would be amended to say that local entities “may not place an item on a ballot, including a municipal charter or charter amendment, that would provide that the local entity will not fully enforce” state drug laws.
While several courts have previously upheld local cannabis decriminalization laws, an appellate court comprised of three conservative justices appointed by the governor has recently pushed back against two of those rulings, siding with the state in its legal challenge to the marijuana policy in Austin and San Marcos.
Despite the ongoing litigation and advancement of the House and Senate bills, Texas activists have their targets set on yet another city, Kyle, where they hope put an initiative before voters to enact local marijuana reform at the ballot this coming November.
A recent poll found that four in five Texas voters want to see marijuana legalized in some form, and most also want to see regulations around cannabis relaxed.
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Photos courtesy Flickr/Scamperdale
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