Texas has authorized what supporters call the nation's largest state-funded research initiative on psychedelics, joining a handful of states that are embracing the substances as a possible treatment for drug addiction and other health issues, especially among military veterans.
In June, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott signed legislation that will provide up to $50 million dollars to research ibogaine, a psychoactive compound derived from the iboga shrub native to Central West Africa.
"Texas is home to more veterans than any other state in the U.S. Many struggle with things like depression, PTSD, and opioid use disorder. A therapy that has shown great promise in treating those conditions is ibogaine," Abbott said at the bill signing ceremony, surrounded by lawmakers, advocates, and researchers.
Like most psychedelics, ibogaine is classified as a Schedule I drug and is illegal to use or possess in the U.S. In legislative hearings, many veterans who underwent ibogaine therapy in countries where the treatment is legal or unregulated spoke in support of the legislation.
"I went to Mexico for ibogaine treatment. Immediately, the night sweats and terrors I had suffered from for years stopped," said Brandon Bryan, a Navy veteran who endured traumatic brain injuries, PTSD, depression, and other health issues.
Bryan said antidepressants and weekly talk therapy did not effectively treat his conditions, and he considered suicide before undergoing ibogaine therapy.
"Ibogaine therapy is not a magic pill, but it is an opportunity to shift my perceptions and work on becoming the best version of myself," he said.
Government funding for psychedelic therapy research had been frozen for decades, but that is changing as research continues to garner bipartisan support.
In recent years, several Republican and Democratic-led states, as well as the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense, have funded psychedelic therapy research as treatments for mental health conditions. Last year, the VA announced that it will fund its first psychedelic therapy study since the 1960s.
Dozens of clinical trials are studying psychedelic compounds in combination with therapy. Psilocybin and MDMA already have received Breakthrough Therapy designation, which the Food and Drug Administration gives to experimental drugs that treat serious conditions and have demonstrated a substantial improvement over available treatments.
Many researchers say the long-term healing effects of psychedelics could be due to their ability to stimulate new neural connections in the brain. This may be one way people are able to break destructive thought patterns and create new ways of thinking to process their traumas and end their substance use disorders.
"Psychedelics give you that experience of kind of starting anew," said Lynnette Averill, a researcher at Baylor College of Medicine and the Menninger Clinic who leads a clinical trial studying the effects of psilocybin for veterans with PTSD.
Averill has witnessed positive changes in people who have undergone psychedelic therapy. She said that she is excited about the potential to save lives and help people "actually build the life they truly want to be living."
But Averill said psychedelic therapies are not for everyone. They are associated with cardiac and other health risks, so participants are medically evaluated to qualify for clinical studies and also undergo therapy to prepare for and process what they learn during their psychedelic experiences.
Author Jules Evans, who directs the Challenging Psychedelic Experiences Project, collaborates on research about psychedelic difficulties. He said building a psychedelic safety infrastructure is essential before these treatments are rolled out to the public.
"Psychedelics can lead to terrifying trips, and sometimes the negative effects can lead to destabilization, increased anxiety, and lingering feelings of trauma," Evans said.
Earlier this year, Evans and a team of 30 researchers published a study in a peer-reviewed journal on minimizing risks and harms of psychedelics. Evans and collaborators also surveyed hundreds of people who used psychedelics both in the underground for recreation and in controlled settings, like retreats and clinical trials, as part of therapeutic treatments.
Evans notes that adverse events seem to be lower in clinical settings with optimal conditions, but when psychedelic therapies get rolled out to the public, conditions may not always be optimal.
"We need to have good public health information about the risks, learn what helps people recover as quickly as possible, and make sure that there is evidence-based support for people who are going to experience psychedelic difficulties," said Evans.
There have been roadblocks on the road to approval. Last August, the Food and Drug Administration did not approve MDMA therapy as a treatment for PTSD. But change may be on the horizon. The FDA is considering whether to approve certain psychedelic therapies as medically-supervised treatments, and MDMA and psilocybin therapies, which have completed Phase III clinical trials, are frontrunner candidates.
While it is unclear when a roll-out might happen, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., told Congress at a House hearing June 24 that the agency is working to expand access.
"This line of therapeutics has tremendous advantage if given in a clinical setting," Kennedy said. "And we are working very hard to make sure that that happens within 12 months."
This story was produced by The American Homefront Project, a public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veterans. To learn more about the history and science of psychedelics, listen to Texas Public Radio’s three-part podcast series, Psychedelics and the Texas Trip.
