“For many veterans, the battle does not end when they come home. Too many carry the invisible wounds of service.”
By Ben Solis, Michigan Advance
Can a psychedelic drug with heavy side-effects and anecdotal evidence as a treatment for addiction become a wonder drug for veterans facing opioid substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorders?
House Republican state Rep. Jaime Green of Richmond wants to find out, and she wants to use opioid settlement dollars to fund necessary clinical trials—a proposal that might meet some resistance from her Democratic colleagues.
Members of the House Families and Veterans Committee discussed Greene’s House Bill 6020 on Tuesday. The committee included testimony from proponents of ibogaine as a therapeutic addiction and trauma drug.
The committee took testimony only and did vote on Greene’s bill.
Ibogaine is currently outlawed in the United States and is considered a Schedule I controlled substance. It is a potent psychedelic with a prolonged experience sometimes lasting more than 12 hours.
Those who testified on Tuesday said the drug is physically and mentally intense, as an ibogaine experience has been likened to Indigenous ancient spirit journeys with waking visions. It also carries heavy cardiovascular risks, and requires attentive medical monitoring by licensed professionals when used in a clinical setting.
Much of the research being conducted into ibogaine as a therapeutic drug has been done in other nations that have allowed trials, like Mexico.
Greene, a former U.S. Navy cryptologist, said she has not tried the therapy, but has heard of its potential at conferences.
“For many veterans, the battle does not end when they come home. Too many carry the invisible wounds of service, post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury, depression, chronic pain, substance abuse disorder,” Greene told the committee. “In some cases opioid dependence begins with an injury, a prescription to manage the pain or the trauma. So, Michigan has a responsibility to stand with the men and women who serve this country, and that means honoring their service with more than words.”
Greene’s bill would create an ibogaine grant program supporting research to see if the psychedelic is effective in treating substance use disorders and other conditions, like trauma-related mental illnesses.
If approved as written, HB 6020 would give the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services authority to establish a consortium of other states, drug manufacturers, health facilities and research-focused universities to conduct the research.
An ibogaine research fund would be established to drive dollars to the program with a proposed $50 million appropriation.
The House Fiscal Agency notes that the fund would be created by the state Department of Treasury. The $50 million appropriation would come from the Michigan Opioid Healing and Recovery Fund—the state’s restricted account that holds a portion of the $1.8 billion received by Michigan from the national opioid settlement of a class-action lawsuit.
That last bit could prove controversial and might make some of Greene’s colleagues on the committee wary of advancing the legislation.
She was adamant that the bills would not legalize ibogaine for recreational use, nor would it impact current projects being funded by the opioid settlement fund.
State. Rep. Mai Xiong (D-Warren) noted that the state has barely, if ever, funded clinical trials on experimental drugs, and that the funding would largely come from dollars set aside to not only treat opioid addiction using proven methods, but to also heal the wounds communities have endured due to rampant opioid use and damage caused by the pharmaceutical industry pushing those drugs on vulnerable populations, much like veterans.
Xiong argued that the funds should be used for those more proven methods and not clinical trials.
Greene responded that there hasn’t been a substance like this with so much promise, and that Michigan has state of the art research facilities that have the capacity to embark necessary trials to learn if ibogaine can be put to good use.
“University of Michigan is a great example of that. That is a top global research facility that we should be having here in Michigan to not just help our veterans, but also those who are addicted to opioids,” Greene said. “Why wouldn’t we want to do that? We have a fund that is supposed to be used to help people with opioid addiction. This is actually, instead of just handing out pamphlets, this actually gives them an opportunity to be able to receive healing.”
Kevin Boehnke, an assistant professor in anesthesiology and the associated director of the Michigan Psychedelic Center, spoke in support of the legislation. Boehnke said the center’s mission is to advance education and research on psychedelics as medical treatments, and is currently conducting trials on cannabis among veterans with chronic pain.
Boehnke added that ibogaine, which originates in West and Central Africa, has been used for centuries by native tribes, and that interest in the drug for therapies came about in the last few decades.
“Unlike conventional medicines that require daily dosing, some evidence suggests that a single ibogaine administration may improve symptoms for an extended amount of time,” he said. “Despite these known restrictions, there is some scientific literature that shows some potentially compelling benefits, especially for our veteran community.”
Boehnke went on to say that veterans face disproportionately higher rates of traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, opioid and other substance use disorders, as well as battles with chronic pain and suicide.
“While current treatment options are useful for some individuals, they leave too many service members without adequate relief,” Boehnke said.
Still, state Rep. Carrie Rheingans (D-Ann Arbor) remained skeptical.
In a separate interview with Michigan Advance, Rheingans said she was unsure that the parameters of the opioid settlement fund allowed for clinical trials on addiction treatment drugs. She also said that most legislators have no experience doing clinical research and that they often don’t understand what goes into it.
“They don’t know how much it is to do it right, and to get scientific evidence,” Rheingans said. “It may sound like a good idea to spend some opioid settlement dollars to try and learn more about treating veteran PTSD. … I think that the anecdotes that we heard and the personal stories demonstrate that ibogaine can be a miracle for some people with their conditions. I’m not saying that that’s not true, but in order to prove it scientifically, we need multiple years of clinical trials, and those are best financed through federal funding sources.”
Rheingans said it would be more appropriate for the federal National Institute of Health or the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to step up and fund the research. She also criticized her Republican colleagues for suggesting that the state fund the research, considering federal sources could have been an option if they didn’t see recent massive cuts under the administration of President Donald Trump.
As to whether the settlement funds could be used for clinical trials, Rheingans said she believes that would be less a question for Michigan’s lawmakers and more so for Attorney General Dana Nessel. She also noted that the Legislature created a legislative opioid advisory council to weigh in on appropriations of settlement dollars.
“They have published multiple reports with multiple recommendations. None of their recommendations include clinical trials for a new drug, but they do include things like recovery housing or legalizing syringe access programs…or decriminalizing fentanyl test stripes,” Rheingans said, emphasizing that she has separate bills introduced to address those areas. “If we’re going to spend $50 million of opioid settlement funds, we should spend it on recovery housing or other allowable uses, such as paying for clinicians to go get education to learn how to treat opioid use disorder.”
This story was first published by Michigan Advance.
Photo courtesy of Scamperdale.
