The Colorado House Health and Human Services Committee advanced a bill that would create a $150,000 research pilot program to study the safety and effectiveness of ibogaine, a psychoactive compound that claims to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, opioid addiction, and other mental health conditions.
The bill ultimately passed on a 12-1 committee vote, with Rep. Brandi Bradley, R-Roxborough Park, saying she still has concerns about the lack of research on ibogaine but hoped to be a ‘yes’ vote in the future.
The bill now moves on to the House Appropriations Committee, as it carries a fiscal note of $150,000, which sponsors said Gov. Jared Polis has accounted for in his annual budget.
Derived from the iboga plant native to Central Africa, ibogaine is a naturally occurring psychoactive alkaloid that targets the brain’s neurotransmitter systems. Some research showed it has the potential to successfully treat post-traumatic stress disorder, opioid addiction, and treatment-resistant depression and anxiety. Other studies have found that it can increase the risk for cardiac arrhythmias and heart attacks.
As a Schedule 1 drug, ibogaine is illegal at the federal level, but the U.S. government is approving waivers for states to research the drug’s effectiveness in treating some mental health conditions.
Last fall, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration sentenced Ameen Alai of Broomfield to four years in prison for distributing ibogaine. According to a DEA report, Alai provided unlicensed ibogaine therapy, telling patients it would “reset” the body’s “receptors” to break addictions.
In 2021, Alai provided a man named Andy Haman with a dose of ibogaine and left him unsupervised. When Alai returned, Haman was unresponsive and later died. A court found that the ibogaine caused Haman’s death.
Over the summer, Arizona and Texas became the first states to appropriate funds toward clinical ibogaine trials.
Colorado hopes to become the third state to do so with House Bill 1325, sponsored by House Minority Leader Jarvis Caldwell, R-Colorado Springs, Rep. Lisa Feret, D-Arvada, and Sen. Matt Ball, D-Denver.
The bill establishes an ibogaine research pilot program within the state’s Behavioral Health Administration and allows the Natural Medicine Division and the Department of Regulatory Agencies to establish rules governing the administration, manufacturing, and use of ibogaine.
Additionally, the bill establishes a benefit-sharing plan with communities in Africa that grow iboga.
Voters approved the decriminalization of ibogaine through the passage of Proposition 122 in 2022, which also decriminalized the regulated use of psilocybin and DMT. The state’s first psilocybin centers opened last summer.
According to House Minority Leader Jarvis Caldwell, R-Colorado Springs, ibogaine therapy would be administered in a similar way to psilocybin therapy, in a highly-regulated, supervised environment with pre-screening and continuous monitoring.
Unlike psilocybin, ibogaine is very rarely used recreationally, Caldwell said. A session can last up to 12 hours, and participants have said the drug completely rewired their brains.
Caldwell said research has found that just one medically supervised ibogaine dosage can interrupt opioid dependence and “dramatically reduce” the risk of relapse for individuals with opioid use disorder.
“Colorado is facing a severe and worsening mental health crisis,” Caldwell told the committee. “Existing treatments too often fall short of delivering long-term remission and recovery, and that is why we must responsibly explore innovative, evidence-based options.”
While the research seems promising, in-depth studies on ibogaine have been “severely limited” in the United States due to its status as a Schedule 1 substance. Allowing for more studies could save lives, Caldwell said.
“This is not about rushing a new treatment to market; this is about responsible, science-driven exploration of one of the most promising therapies emerging anywhere in the world,” he said. “Every day we delay, more Coloradans lose their lives to overdose, more veterans struggle in silence, and more families bear the cost of adequate care.”
Cindy Brown struggled with anxiety, depression, and trauma for years, trying everything from residential and outpatient therapy to cutting-edge treatments to no avail.
She eventually booked a trip to Mexico to receive ibogaine therapy, and she said the effects were almost immediate.
Brown said her mental health drastically improved following the treatment, and many of her physical ailments dissipated as well.
“I would have never been able to go into this deep insight, no matter how many pills, no matter how much drugs, alcohol, or coaching I did,” she said. “Ibogaine was able to show me things in a new light and provide me ways to face it with a new lens. After ibogaine, I had no use for any medications that the doctors had to give to me.”
Brown said she wants her fellow Coloradans to stop suffering in silence and find relief, as she did.
“I want them to be happy, smile each day, and know that there is hope,” she said.
Claire Durst, a former director of an ibogaine clinic in Mexico and member of Americans for Ibogaine, said she was told the effects of her traumatic brain injury would never be cured. Durst became dependent on benzodiazepenes and sedatives, she said, and felt like the medical community had given up on her.
However, when she tried ibogaine therapy, things changed.
“I’ve seen war, I’ve seen suicide, and I’ve seen addiction devastate even the strongest among us, and I’ve never seen a treatment that works as effectively as ibogaine,” she said.
Traditional rehabilitation efforts for addiction often fail because the brain puts up walls to defend itself from addressing underlying pain and trauma, Durst said. However, because ibogaine increases neuroplasticity and disarms the brain’s defenses, patients can “see the root of their suffering clearly and begin to heal it,” she said.
Durst acknowledged that there are risks associated with ibogaine use, but argued the risk is often inherent in medicine.
“We do it with chemotherapy, we do it with surgery, and we can do it here with ibogaine too,” she said.
‘Significant concerns’
Lundi Ramos, a professional counselor and appointee to the state’s Natural Medicine Advisory Board, said he has “significant concerns” with the bill.
Colorado already has a “structurally sound” framework for psilocybin therapy, Ramos said, but the ibogaine framework would shift oversight to BHA.
“If ibogaine requires greater caution, and I believe it does, that is an argument for stronger integration, not less,” he said.
The bill allows for a pilot program cash fund without any donor transparency requirements or limits on influence, argued Ramos, who raised worries about private influence and accountability.
Ramos also believed liability protections for ibogaine therapy providers should be expanded to go beyond cases of intentional misconduct or gross negligence in order to strengthen patient protections.