Texas House Approves Senate-Passed Bill To Fund Psychedelics Research In Hopes Of Securing FDA Approval Of Ibogaine
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The Texas House of Representatives has given initial approval to a Senate-passed bill to create a grant program to support research into the therapeutic potential of ibogaine—aiming to encourage the federal government to approve legal access to the psychedelic.
On Monday, the legislation from Sen. Tan Parker (R) cleared the House in a 141-2 vote on second reading, with final approval in the chamber pending. It cleared the Senate last week in a 26-5 vote.
“Ibogaine isn’t just another drug. It’s a whisper of redemption in a single dose,” Rep. Cody Harris (R), sponsor of a House companion version of the measure, said on the floor. “It can silence the screams of withdrawal, quiet cravings that chain people to addiction and mend the broken pieces of a mind ravaged by trauma.”
“This isn’t a distant dream. It’s happening now just beyond our borders and Texas can bring it home,” he said. “We’re a state of big hearts and bold spirits when we see suffering, we don’t turn away. One million Texans wrestle with opioid use disorder. Countless more carry the silent burdens of depression, anxiety and TBI. Ibogaine could be their miracle.”
The measure would create a grant program through the state Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to provide funding for clinical trials exploring ibogaine as a potential treatment option for people suffering from opioid use disorder (OUD) and other serious mental health conditions.
The purpose of the bill is to help secure approval of the psychedelic by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“Traditional treatments often fail,” Parker said on the Senate floor last week. “Veterans are already seeking treatments like this abroad, often in dangerous settings. Texas can offer safer, regulated access here at home.”
Texas is positioned to provide “innovative, evidence-based treatments for serious mental health and addiction challenges,” he said, as Politico reported.
On the floor, Harris acknowledged “there’s a lot of skepticism, so it’s very important that we send a unified message in this body that this bill needs to pass.”
The measure was slightly amended to clarify that the definition of ibogaine that would be studied also includes ibogaine-based therapeutics and analogues. Because the legislation was amended, it would need to go back to the Senate before potentially being enacted into law.
An analysis of the legislation says 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.”
Ibogaine has “shown incredible promise in early research as an effective and fast-acting treatment for OUD and other related or co-occurring conditions,” it says. “However, ibogaine must undergo costly FDA-approved clinical trials before it can become a viable treatment option.”
The proposed public-private partnership program envisioned under the legislation “will pay for the costs of the FDA’s drug development trials with ibogaine to secure FDA approval as a medication for treatment of OUD, co-occurring substance use disorder, and any other neurological or mental health conditions for which ibogaine demonstrates efficacy.”
Organizations eligible for the grant money must be a “for-profit, nonprofit, or public benefit corporate entity” that is capable of conducting clinical trials into ibogaine that could facilitate FDA approval, while also providing a proposal on the financial incentive of developing the psychedelic medicine, third-party insurance coverage of the therapy and credentialing of medical professionals to administer the drug.
“If before implementing any provision of the bill a state agency determines a waiver or authorization from a federal agency is necessary for implementation of that provision, the state agency affected by the provision must request the waiver or authorization and may delay implementing that provision until the waiver or authorization is granted,” the analysis says.
The measure’s passage comes days after the Texas House gave final passage to a pair of bills designed to ensure speedy access to psychedelic-assisted therapy in the event of federal approval from FDA.
One bill—HB 4014, from Rep. John Bucy III (D)—would establish a state-backed study into the use of psilocybin, MDMA and ketamine to treat conditions such as PTSD and depression. The other—HB 4813, from Rep. Tom Oliverson (R)—aims to minimize delay at the state level if and when FDA approves a new drug, such as psilocybin or MDMA.
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Meanwhile, earlier this month, a Texas House committee approved a Senate-passed bill 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 Gov. Greg Abbott (R) 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.
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Photo courtesy of Flickr/Scamperdale.
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