Kentucky eyes ibogaine, a psychedelic, to treat opioid addiction
BRYAN HUBBARD heard the same story so often as a lawyer in Kentucky. It would come from the same type of person (a middle-aged woman from the Appalachian mountains) who had worked hard her whole life in the same kind of occupation (a low-wage, low-skill job). She would have a work accident (a slip-and-fall or a lifting injury) that sparked debilitating pain, with no observable source for that pain. A doctor would then prescribe the woman opioids, and then she would spiral into addiction.
These women were truly experiencing pain, says Mr Hubbard with a thick southern drawl, “but the nature of their pain was emotional and spiritual”. They had become “completely hopeless about their ability to live a life with autonomy and dignity”, and this workplace accident was “the straw that broke the camel’s back”. Any successful treatment must tackle that specific type of pain—and he says that ibogaine, a little-known psychedelic, is the answer.
Now Mr Hubbard is the executive director of the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission, a group formed to supervise the $842m settlement Kentucky received from opioid companies as compensation for the crisis, but he will not be for much longer. The state’s incoming attorney-general, Russell Coleman, has appointed a former Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent to the role, starting in January. Mr Hubbard has spent the past few months working to convince one of the country’s most conservative states, which only legalised marijuana this year, to spend $42m of that settlement money on ibogaine research. That mission could be in trouble in 2024, especially with a former DEA agent at the helm.
2023-12-30 06:51:06
Original from www.economist.com
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