Colorado Psychedelics Board Votes To Recommend Adding Ibogaine To Regulated Healing Centers

A Colorado government advisory board is recommending that the state expand
its novel regulated psychedelics market by providing access to ibogaine in
addition to psilocybin and psilocin, which are currently allowed.

At a meeting of the Natural Medicine Program Advisory Board on Thursday,
members discussed the future of Colorado’s psychedelics program, which
launched after voters approved a legalization initiative at the ballot. In
a 5-2 vote, with two abstentions, the panel agreed to recommend therapeutic
access to ibogaine.

The program already permits the clinical use of the components of so-called
“magic mushrooms,” and Colorado state law also allows adults to possess and
cultivate for personal use a wider range of psychedelics. But now the board
is moving to add ibogaine as a substance that could be administered to
adults at licensed healing centers.

“There is a lot of work to be done by the board and both agencies [that
administer the program] if the plan is to implement ibogaine as one of the
approved natural medicines in the regulated market,” Colorado Assistant
Attorney General Ashley Moller said at the meeting.

She also stressed that, if the board is moving forward with the ibogaine
recommendation to the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA), “statute
will require this board to consider whether any of the existing rules
should be different for ibogaine administrations, training and the like” as
compared to regulations governing psilocybin.

At the meeting, there was also discussion about the importance of ensuring
that any supply of ibogaine that’s offered through the regulated access
program is sourced from sustainable cultivators in a way that doesn’t
exploit communities, particularly tribal entities, that have historically
used the psychedelic for cultural and spiritual purposes.

To that end, the recommendation from the advisory board stipulates that, if
ultimately approved, the addition of ibogaine to the list of permitted
psychedelics under state law must comply with what’s called the Nagoya
Protocol, an international treaty meant to provide for sustainability and
cultural protection.

While the U.S. is not a party to that treaty, the board at an earlier
meeting last month also urged Colorado officials to “write a letter of
intent to start and follow Nagoya Protocol,” advising that they should
“request a waiver to the Controlled Substance Act from the Federal
Government to import Iboga or Ibogaine extract/powder from existing Gabon
infrastructure that is Nagoya protocol compliant.”

“The concern is to not take sellable resources away from a resource-rich
group or nation,” Clarissa Pinkola Estés Reyes, one of the board members,
said.

Last month, meanwhile, the governor of Colorado invited people to attend a “listening
session” about the state’s legal psychedelics program.

The development came about two months after the first psilocybin and
psilocin sessions took place in state-licensed “healing centers” under
Colorado’s voter-approved psychedelics legalization law.

In June, Polis announced first-ever round of mass pardons for people with
psilocybin-related convictions shortly after signing a bill into law
empowering him and future governors to issue clemency for psychedelics
offenses—which he described as a step “towards a fairer future.”

“Colorado has been a national leader in breaking through outdated laws
around cannabis, and now we are doing the same for natural medicine,” Polis
said in a press release at the time. “This action eliminates past
state-level convictions for psilocybin and psilocin possession that would
be legal today. With these pardons, we are fulfilling the will of Colorado
voters and moving away from ineffective drug policy and encouraging local
municipalities to follow suit.”


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In May, Polis touted the fact that Colorado’s legal psychedelics program is
“fully launched” now that regulators have issued licenses for each part of
the psilocybin supply chain.

The governor’s psilocybin clemency move came several years after Polis
issued mass pardons for people with prior marijuana convictions.

Earlier this session, the governor signed into law a bill that would allow
a form of psilocybin to be prescribed as a medication if the federal
government authorizes its use.

While Colorado already legalized psilocybin and several other psychedelics
for adults 21 and older through the voter-approved ballot initiative, the
newly enacted reform will make it so drugs containing an isolated
crystalized version synthesized from psilocybin can become available under
physician prescription.

Polis signed a bill to create the regulatory framework for legal
psychedelics in 2023.

Separately in Colorado, a bill that would have limited THC in marijuana and
outlawed a variety of psilocybin products died following the lead sponsor’s
move to withdraw the legislation.

*Photo courtesy of Flickr/Scamperdale.*

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Regulated Healing Centers appeared first on Marijuana Moment.