A bonanza of new state psychedelics bills, including ones to fund ibogaine research and new trigger laws for synthetic psilocybin
Plus: A death and other troubles at ibogaine centers in Mexico, and MAPS releases policy guidebook
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More ibogaine bills in Tennessee, Maryland and Vermont
Another three states are considering ibogaine bills this week. Ibogaine is a psychedelic substance made from a shrub native to Central Africa which researchers and advocates are interested in as a potential treatment for opioid use disorder, other substance use disorders, and other mental health conditions. So far, at least ten states have introduced ibogaine-related bills; many reference Americans for Ibogaine, a national consortium of ibogaine advocates co-founded by former Republican Texas Governor Rick Perry which helped secure $50 million for ibogaine research in Texas last year.
Last week, Tennessee State Senator Page Walley (R) introduced SB 2149, also known as “Helping Open Pathways to Effective (HOPE) Treatment Act,” which would create a state fund called the Tennessee Mental Health Innovation Fund by leveraging public-private partnerships to fund ibogaine research. In Maryland, Democratic State Senator Kevin M. Harris introduced SB 527, which would also establish funding for ibogaine research via $1.5 million from the state’s Opioid Restitution Fund, the $670 million the state will receive from prescription opioid-related legal settlements over the next decade or so. In Vermont, a group of six state representatives introduced H0859, which would establish a psychedelic advisory board. According to the bill, this board would be “a step toward Americans for Ibogaine’s goal of establishing ‘the medicalization of ibogaine in the United States — specifically, the successful completion of Phase 3 clinical trials, and ultimately, FDA approval.”
Colorado and New Mexico introduce psilocybin trigger laws
New Mexico lawmakers introduced HB 336, which would make synthetic psilocybin, or any drug containing it, state-legal should the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approve synthetic psilocybin. While roughly half of U.S. states already have laws on the books that would automatically update state law if the federal government reschedules a drug, many do not; last year, at least ten states considered similar trigger laws. Many of those bills were drafted by Compass Pathways, a British pharmaceutical company developing psychedelics as medicines,
and they contain language specifying “crystalline polymorph psilocybin,” the terms the company uses for its proprietary formulation of synthetic psilocybin. However, New Mexico’s law uses the broader term “synthetic psilocybin.”
Last year, Colorado was one of the states that passed a trigger law for “crystalline polymorph psilocybin,” and legislators have now introduced SB 26-031, a broader bill that changes state law if any Schedule I drug is approved for prescription use.
And more psychedelics legislative updates in Washington and Arizona
Last week, Washington’s Senate Committee on Health & Long-Term Care voted 9-1 to advance Senate Bill 5921, a bill drafted by the national group Coalition for Better Community Health, which proposes a medical psilocybin program overseen by the state’s Department of Health. It is now with the Senate Ways and Means Committee. Washington alternates between longer 105-day sessions during budget years, and short 60-day sessions during non-budget years; this is a non-budget year, so all bills must pass the chamber they originated in by February 17. If the Washington State Senate doesn’t vote to advance the bill by next week, it will effectively be dead.
Earlier this legislative session, Washington state lawmakers were also considering Senate Bill 5201 / House Bill 1433, a bill reintroduced from 2025 that proposed a state-regulated psychedelic services program similar to those in Oregon and Colorado and contained a detailed structure for how the program would operate. That bill was not advanced by a committee by a February 9 deadline, and is therefore dead.
Arizona’s SB 1752 prohibits people from knowingly harvesting, processing, or making mescaline for commercial use or research, but it allows use of the substance if used for “bona fide practice of a religious belief.” Mescaline is a compound found in cacti including peyote and San Pedro. The bill specifies that unpermitted mescaline use would be a class 4 felony, which could mean a prison sentence of between 1 and 4 years.
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A death and other troubles at ibogaine centers in Mexico
On January 21, Ambio, an ibogaine clinic with locations in Baja California and in the Republic of Malta, published a statement explaining that a patient died in Mexico while receiving ibogaine to treat addiction through a program Ambio calls its “Detoxification Program.” While the clinic’s post said the company would not discuss details of the incident publicly, its statement suggests the patient could have died due to complications from other drugs. The clinic mentions “the increasing number of dangerous, unknown, and ever-changing adulterants in the global supply of street fentanyl” as a major risk to ibogaine treatment, and mentions it will implement enhanced screening protocols and a minimum 21-day stay for “anyone consuming fentanyl prior to treatment.”
About a week later, Americans for Ibogaine posted a statement saying it was “aware of a serious incident reported by an ibogaine clinic in Mexico involving alleged misconduct by an individual practitioner.” Americans for Ibogaine did not name the clinic, but Transcend Clinic Cancún posted a statement on January 26 saying its staff “detected an irregular situation,” transferred a patient to the hospital, and that the clinic “maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward any form of misconduct.” No details have been made publicly available by the clinic about the nature of the situation or alleged misconduct.
MAPS releases policy guidebook
Last week, MAPS released a policy guide laying out the organization’s priorities and goals amidst a shifting landscape for psychedelics. Founded in 1986, the non-profit has seen — and pioneered — some of the field’s most radical changes. Traditionally, the group was known for its grassroots, anti-establishment approach, bootstrapping funding and researchers to run the world’s first-ever MDMA clinical trials, and supporting people working in the underground.
More recently, the group spun out a for-profit arm of the organization to seek federal approval for MDMA-assisted therapy. After the Food and Drug Administration rejected their New Drug Application in the summer of 2024, the non-profit laid off a third of its employees, and its for-profit arm Resilient (formerly Lykos) also laid off 75% of its employees. At MAPS’s Psychedelic Science conference last summer, the mood was more subdued than in 2023, and panelists and attendees asked: what’s next?
MAPS’s new guide shows the organization wants to take a big-tent approach. It takes care not to alienate psychedelic pharmaceutical companies and those in favor of the medicalization of psychedelics, though it also acknowledges the “practical and cultural limitations of the current healthcare system” and “the need to design, develop, and implement other regulatory approaches.” It notes protecting consumers as a core principle, highlighting the need to limit marketing of psychedelics, and to regulate claims about psychedelic use as “therapy.” “Over the last few years, a tension has emerged in the use of the word “therapy” as a catch-all for any facilitated use,” they write. “It is vital to watch out when lines blur between medical, therapeutic, or other (like adult-use, community or “recreational”) frameworks to ensure people know what they are getting into.”
The organization also weighs in on trigger laws, pointing out that even in states with existing drug rescheduling trigger laws, those laws often only apply to the FDA-approved version of the drug. This is called bifurcated scheduling; for instance, if Compass’s synthetic psilocybin formulation COMP360 were to be approved by the FDA, the DEA would move to reschedule COMP360, but that rescheduling will not apply to all forms of psilocybin, such as the psilocybin found in mushrooms. (For more on bifurcated scheduling, read our interview with regulatory attorney Kim Chew.)
The MAPS policy guide recommends using the broadest language possible in any trigger law — for instance, “any compound, mixture or preparation containing any Schedule I substance upon federal rescheduling or descheduling,” instead of a specific formulation. “By utilizing broad language, states can avoid favoring certain drug producers, as well as the need for additional substance-specific legislation,” they write.
NFL players are trying psilocybin to recover from traumatic brain injuries, reports The New York Times.
Psychedelic Alpha’s Josh Hardman interviews Michael Cola, the new CEO of Helus (formerly Cybin) about the regulatory environment for psychedelics and Helus’s priorities in the coming months.
Harvard’s Psychedelics and Spirituality program lead Jeffrey Breau tells The Harvard Gazette that psychedelic chaplaincy is crucial to supporting people who try the substances. “Patients are having these experiences, and if there is no awareness and specific training on the part of the clinicians or others who are supporting them, then patient outcomes can be harmed,” he told the Gazette. Harvard’s program is studying how psychedelic facilitators are trained and leading workshops for facilitators and clinicians on “spiritually responsive care.”
The government of Australia has just earmarked $739 million AUD (nearly $524 million USD) to fund well-being activities for veterans, including MDMA and psilocybin for PTSD, according to Australia’s ABC.
Forbes profiles billionaire financial advisor Ron Carson, whose personal life “frayed” as his business grew. Carson says his psychedelic use (according to Forbes, “he won’t say which one”) helped him reshape his business and to feel more centered. “In 2022, after he hosted indigenous leaders from around the world at his remote hunting lodge–turned–healing ranch, a Lakota chief bestowed on him the name Ta Te Omani, meaning “walking into a stiff wind.” He legally changed his name. Ron would now go by Omani. He gave away all his neckties. He started taking psychedelics and fasting as part of what he describes as a broader effort to heal himself,” Forbes reports.
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