Texas invests $50M in psychedelic PTSD research

Texas Invests $50 Million in Ibogaine Research

Texas is set to invest $50 million in a natural psychedelic, ibogaine, which advocates claim could be a life-saving treatment for post-traumatic stress and opioid addiction.
Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law Senate Bill 2308, which will jump-start clinical trials for ibogaine, a psychoactive compound found in the roots of an African shrub called Iboga.
According to a 2024 study by Stanford Medicine, ibogaine "has been used for centuries in spiritual and healing ceremonies."
The legislation has been embraced by organizations promoting mental health for military veterans and first responders.

Governor Abbott's Statement

"Texas is home to more veterans than any other state of the United States of America," said Abbott, a three-term Republican.
"Many of those veterans suffer from so many different types of injuries, both seen and unseen, many struggle with things like depression, PTSD and opioid use disorder.
The same is true for some of our first responders."

Advocate Testimony

One of the veterans who has become a leading advocate for ibogaine as an alternative to conventional drug therapies is former Navy Seal Marcus Luttrell, a Texas native who lives in Magnolia, northwest of Houston.
During emotional testimony before the Texas Senate Health and Human Services Committee this spring, Luttrell talked about his addiction to opioids and alcohol to numb the crippling stress and anxiety related to his military service and the physical and mental wounds he suffered.
"In all my workups and all my deployments, the injuries that I sustained through all of those, the Seals were taught to compartmentalize all that," said Luttrell, 49, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"We just throw it on the back and we just keep going."

Ibogaine's Potential

Ibogaine is not currently approved for use in the United States but it's legally available in Mexico and Canada.
Luttrell, whose identical twin brother, Morgan Luttrell, is a second-term Republican member of Congress from Houston, said taking ibogaine squelched his cravings for drugs and alcohol, and even helped him quit his smokeless tobacco habit.
"I'm going to tell you something — I took that medication," Luttrell told the Senate panel.
"I laid down that night and I woke up the next morning.
I had no appetite for opioids.
I had no appetite for alcohol.
I chewed Copenhagen.
I had no appetite for that at all.
Period."

Stanford Study

The Stanford study included detailed examinations of 30 U.S. Special Forces veterans who experienced traumatic brain injury and most had "severe psychiatric symptoms and functional disabilities."
Of the participants, 19 had been suicidal and seven had attempted suicide.
All of them sought ibogaine treatment in Mexico, the study said.
"No other drug has ever been able to alleviate the functional and neuropsychiatric symptoms of traumatic brain injury," said Nolan Williams, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford.
"The results are dramatic, and we intend to study this compound further."

Risks and Next Steps

Still, the use of ibogaine is not without risk.
A 2021 study by the National Institute of Health found that the compound has been linked to cardiac-related deaths in some users.
State Sen. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, who authored SB 2308, said he expects private research investments to join the state's effort in short order.
"Within 60 days, you will see (the Texas Department of) Health and Human Services working, kind of our quarterback, if you will, for the effort, to be able to start receiving proposals from consortiums that can come forward," Parker said.
"A consortium being a Texas Medical School, a hospital and a drug developer that will bring private money to the table."