The bill has the backing of former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who has pledged to raise an additional $5 million to support the research being proposed. This bill positions Arizona as a leader in finding ground-breaking solutions to the mental health epidemic by drawing on thousands of years of ancient wisdom.
Ibogaine is best described as a psychoactive substance that derives from the shrub of the iboga tree. Like other plant medicines, it has been used by healers and spiritual guides in West Africa for medicinal and ritual purposes.
Iboga is not just a psychedelic, but an entheogen. Entheogen is a term that encompasses empathogens — known to increase empathy — and enactogens — which allow users to turn inward and heal past traumas. Used for healing purposes by shamans for centuries, these plants invite users to connect with their own pasts to heal the present and are often described by researchers like Jamie Wheal as a bridge across time and cultures.
I am a trained medical anthropologist who has spent the last 25 years studying issues related to culture, health and society. More specifically, much of my work has focused on the intersection of sex, psychedelics and the superconscious. This has given me a front row seat to tensions between scientists and traditional healers from around the world.
HB2871 comes on the heels of SB1555, which establishes a statewide committee to oversee psychedelic assisted therapy across Arizona. A similar bill, HB2762 was passed last year that supports physicians and other medical practitioners using ketamine assisted therapy for mental health, leading to the establishment of ketamine clinics throughout the state. All of these are key nodal points in a larger movement that is happening nationwide to examine alternative approaches to mental health and opioid addiction.
Most notably, however, HB2871 focuses on research beginning with one of the most vulnerable populations when it comes to PTSD and treatment resistant depression: veterans.
And the scientific data are astoundingly positive, confirming thousands of years of ancient knowledge about the unique powers of the plant. A study published by the National Institute of Health demonstrated that ibogaine drastically reduced withdrawal symptoms in more than 80% of study participants with more than half of them reporting full abstinence of any drug use more than a year later. And this complementary study conducted by Stanford medical center showed an 88% decrease in PTSD symptoms and an 87% drop in depression.
With such staggeringly positive results, it is easy to see why so many veterans and other populations who struggle with depression and addiction are finding ways to cross the border to Mexico in search of treatment.
Advocacy for plant medicines is coming from across the aisle and in some of the most unlikely places. In one of his first tweets after being picked by Trump to lead the Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. signaled strong support for the legalization of psychedelics empowering researchers and advocates across the country.
The research that HB2871 would support is especially significant, however, due to its approach and the way that advocates such as Sinema have positioned it. The framing of HB2871 presents an approach that seeks to honor the cultural context and history of the plant while partnering to study its effects and possibilities for a global audience.
When studying with a group of shamans some years ago, I heard one of them open a plant medicine ceremony with words that I have never forgotten. “Hope is a memory of the future,” he said. In a world where people are experiencing unprecedented levels of disorientation, despair, doubt, pain, anxiety and trauma, it is inspiring to have hope that we can see the future of healing by honoring a rich past and building a path forward.
Pardis Mahdavi is an American scholar and former president of University of La Verne.
