Another natural psychedelic medicine could join psilocybin as a licensed substance for therapeutic use in Colorado.
Last Thursday, September 18, members of the state’s Natural Medicine Program Advisory Board voted five-to-two in favor of recommending therapeutic access to ibogaine, a psychedelic extract harvested from the root bark of the iboga shrub, which is native to Central Africa. However, the recommendation is subject to compliance with an international agreement called the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing, which sets standards for equitable benefit sharing from the utilization of genetic resources and traditional and Indigenous knowledge.
Ibogaine is a powerful hallucinogen with effects that can last from 24 to 48 hours. It is often used for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression in people with traumatic brain injuries, as well as addiction to opiates, alcohol, and other substances. Due to the intensity of ibogaine’s effects and the shrub extract’s relative rarity, ibogaine is seldom used recreationally. Additionally, there are cardiac risks with ibogaine, which should be taken under medical supervision, according to natural medicine practitioners.
Commercially, iboga and/or ibogaine would be imported from the country of Gabon, where the plant’s ceremonial use is protected by the country’s government.
Neither the Colorado or the United States are signatories to Nagoya Protocol compact, but during a August meeting held by the advisory board, boardmembers recommended the state write a letter of intent to start and follow Nagoya Protocol for the importation of ibogaine, and asked the state to request a waiver to the Controlled Substance Act from the federal government to import iboga or ibogaine extract or powder from existing Gabon infrastructure that is Nagoya Protocol compliant.
Attorney Joshua Kappel, a founding partner at Vicente LLP and specialist in psychedelic law who attended last week’s meeting virtually, tells Westword that “unfortunately, the program is not legal under federal law, but there’s a more than zero chance that we can import iboga from Gabon” and that Colorado “would need the federal government to step in on this very nuanced topic and authorize that.”
Another option is to grow iboga in the U.S. and engage in benefit-sharing with the people of Gabon, who have long used iboga in spiritual rituals, Kappel says.
By statute, since the Advisory Board recommended adding ibogaine, the question now goes to the directors of two agencies, the Department of Revenue (DOR) and the Division of Professions and Occupations under the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA), for consideration. If those directors agree that ibogaine should be offered in Colorado’s natural medicine healing centers, the questions of sourcing and being Nagoya Protocol-compliant would need to be addressed.
Kappel is optimistic about the prospect of healing centers offering ibogaine treatment, especially as the opiate crisis in the U.S. shows no signs of abating.
“It’s killing tons of people every day,” he says. “I think we have enough good people in the state government on the advisory board and in the psychedelic ecosystem to move this forward and really create history here.”
If ibogaine receives state approval and facilitators are able to legally secure it, Colorado would become the first state in the country with licensed ibogaine facilities. Colorado’s licensed psilocybin therapy centers and facilitators were legalized by the same voter-approved initiative that decriminalized ibogaine, Proposition 122. Under Prop 122, DMT and mescaline are also decriminalized for personal use in Colorado, and are expected to be up for a similar review after June 1, 2026.
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