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Michigan Lawmakers Debate Bill To Fund Psychedelic Research Using Opioid Settlement Dollars

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3 weeks ago

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“For many veterans, the fight doesn’t end when they come home. Too many carry the invisible wounds of service.”

By: Ben Solis, Michigan Advance

Could a psychedelic drug with serious side effects and anecdotal evidence become a wonder drug for veterans dealing with opioid abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder as an addiction treatment?

House Republican state Rep. Jaime Green of Richmond wants to know, and wants to use opioid settlement dollars to fund needed clinical trials, a proposal that could meet some resistance from his Democratic colleagues.

Members of the House Families and Veterans Affairs Committee debated Greene’s House Bill 6020 on Tuesday. The committee received testimony from advocates of ibogaine as a therapeutic addiction and trauma drug.

The committee only took testimony and voted on Greene’s bill.

Ibogaine is currently illegal in the United States and is considered a Schedule I controlled substance. It is a powerful psychedelic with a long lasting experience that sometimes lasts more than 12 hours.

Those who testified Tuesday said the drug is physically and mentally intense, with an ibogaine experience likened to ancient indigenous spirit journeys with awakening visions. It also carries significant cardiovascular risks and should be carefully monitored by licensed medical professionals when used in a clinical setting.

Much of the ongoing research into ibogaine as a therapeutic drug has been conducted in other nations that have permitted testing, such as Mexico.

Greene, a former U.S. Army cryptologist, said he has not tried the therapy but has heard about its potential at conferences.

“For many veterans, the struggle doesn’t end when they come home. Too many have the invisible wounds of service, post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury, depression, chronic pain, substance abuse disorder,” Green told the commission. “In some cases, opioid addiction begins with an injury, a prescription for pain or trauma management. So Michigan has a responsibility to stand with the men and women who serve this country, and that means honoring their service beyond words.”

Greene’s bill would create an ibogaine grant program to support research to see if the psychedelic is effective in treating substance use disorders and other conditions, such as trauma-related mental illness.

If passed as written, HB 6020 would authorize the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to establish a consortium of other states, drug manufacturers, health facilities and research-oriented universities to conduct research.

An ibogaine research fund would be established to direct dollars to the program, with a proposed $50 million appropriation.

The House Fiscal Agency says the fund would be created by the state Department of the Treasury. The $50 million appropriation would come from the Michigan Opioid Recovery and Recovery Fund — a limited state account that holds a portion of the $1.8 billion Michigan received from the national opioid settlement of a class action lawsuit.

That last part could be controversial and some of Greene’s colleagues on the committee may be concerned about advancing the legislation.

He was adamant that the bills would not legalize ibogaine for recreational use, nor would it affect current projects funded by the opioid settlement fund.

the state Rep. Mai Xiong (D-Warren) noted that the state has rarely, if ever, funded clinical trials of experimental drugs, and that funding would be largely biased not only toward treating opioid addiction using proven methods, but also toward healing the wounds caused by the rampant use of opioids and by drug industry veterans like veterans in the pharmaceutical industry.

Xiong argued that the funds should be used for those more proven methods and not for clinical trials.

Green responded that no such substance has shown much promise, and that Michigan has state-of-the-art research facilities capable of conducting the necessary trials to determine whether ibogaine can be used successfully.

“The University of Michigan is a great example of that. That’s a global research facility that we should have in Michigan to help not only our veterans, but also those who are addicted to opioids,” Green said. “Why wouldn’t we want to do that? We have a fund that should be used to help people who are addicted to opioids. That is, instead of handing out pamphlets, it actually gives them a chance to recover.”

Kevin Boehnke, assistant professor of anesthesiology and associate director of the Michigan Psychedelic Center, spoke. legislation. Boehnke said the center’s mission is to advance education and research on psychedelics as a medical treatment, and it is currently conducting trials on cannabis among veterans with chronic pain.

Boehnke added that ibogaine, which is native to West and Central Africa, has been used by local tribes for centuries, and that interest in the medicinal drug for therapeutic purposes has emerged in recent decades.

“Unlike conventional drugs that require a daily dose, some evidence suggests that a single dose of ibogaine can improve symptoms over a long period of time,” he said. “Despite these known limitations, there is some scientific literature showing some compelling benefits, particularly for our veteran community.”

Boehnke said veterans have disproportionately higher rates of traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, opioid and other substance use disorders, as well as struggles with chronic pain and suicide.

“While today’s treatment options are useful for some people, they leave too many service members without adequate relief,” Boehnke said.

However, state Rep. Carrie Rheingans (D-Ann Arbor) remained skeptical.

In another interview with the Michigan Advance, Rheingans said he wasn’t sure the parameters of the opioid settlement fund allowed for clinical trials on addiction treatment drugs. He also said that most lawmakers do not have experience conducting clinical research and often do not understand what is involved.

“They don’t know how much it is to do it right and get scientific evidence,” Rheingans said. “It might be a good idea to spend some of the opioid settlement dollars to try to treat PTSD veterans…I think the anecdotes and personal stories we’ve heard prove that ibogaine can be a miracle for some people. I’m not saying that’s not true, but to prove it scientifically, we need several years of federal funding.”

Rheingans said it would be more appropriate for the federal National Institutes of Health or the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to step up and fund the research. He also criticized his Republican colleagues for suggesting that states fund research, given that federal sources might have been an option had he not seen massive recent cuts under President Donald Trump’s administration.

As for whether the settlement funds could be used for clinical trials, Rheingans said he thinks it would be less of a question for Michigan lawmakers and more for Attorney General Dana Nessel. He also noted that the Legislature created a legislative opioid advisory council to gauge the allocation of settlement dollars.

“They’ve published multiple reports with multiple recommendations. None of their recommendations include clinical trials of a new drug, but legalizing recovery housing or syringe access programs … or decriminalizing the fentanyl test strip,” Rheingans said, stressing that he has introduced separate bills to address those areas. “If we’re going to spend $50 million in opioid settlement funds, we should spend it on recovery housing or other permitted uses, such as paying doctors to go to education to learn how to treat opioid use disorder.”

This story was first published by the Michigan Advance.

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DEA And FDA Highlight How Marijuana Is Safer Than Alcohol And Opioids During Rescheduling Hearing’s Opening Day

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June 30, 2026

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Attorneys for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on Monday highlighted testimony about the medical benefits of marijuana and its relative safety compared to other substances such as alcohol and opioids in the opening day of a hearing. The Trump administration’s cannabis rescheduling proposal.

Marijuana Moment spoke with several people in the audience for Monday’s hearing to find out how the testimony is going, despite the proceedings not being broadcast live to the public at the request of one congressman and others.

According to those sources, DEA attorney James J Schwartz stated that the government is the proponent of the proposed rule to formally move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), stating that the hearing is “not about the recreational use of marijuana” and “about regulation, not about legalization.”

“The government has presented no evidence to suggest that marijuana is not dangerous. All controlled substances are dangerous,
he said “However, controlled substances must be evaluated against the risks they pose, balanced against the medical benefits they provide.”

Dominic Chiapperino, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Controlled Drug Evaluation and Research and one of two DEA witnesses, testified about how federal health officials formed their recommendation to reschedule cannabis.

Opponents of the reform have used a new two-part test that they argue is a bad departure from a previous analysis, although a DEA lawyer said the hearing is not about that issue, and Chiapperino said the new test is now considered “every time” a new analysis is done on a drug.

The FDA official said the agency compared marijuana to alcohol, opioids and other substances in its scheduling analysis, and found that marijuana’s daily harms were lower than all or most of those comparators.

Cannabis is associated with fewer overdose deaths than comparable substances, Chiapperino said, and when reports of cases involving deaths mention marijuana, the deaths are often attributed to secondary incidents such as accidents or self-inflicted harm. Marijuana’s potential for overdose deaths is “much lower” than other Schedule I drugs and Schedule II drugs. Rather than opioids, the FDA official said.

As for withdrawal in regular users, Chiapperino testified that cannabis has symptoms similar to tobacco, including irritability, but alcohol has “more of a withdrawal syndrome,” which can include seizure and death.

Also on Monday, the lawyers of some of the parties against the reorganization had the opportunity to cross Chiapperino.

Kevin Sabet, president and CEO of the prohibitionist organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana, who was also invited to attend the hearing, said in a video posted on social media that it is “surreal” to see the government arguing that cannabis’s medical uses and relatively minor harms are “just lying through their teeth.”

The DEA “is in a very awkward position to argue the opposite of what it’s been arguing for the last 50 years, the opposite of what the science says, the opposite of what the evidence is,” he said, “which is, of course, to argue against the government that marijuana is more harmful than we thought, not less harmful.”

On Tuesday, opponents of the review will have an opportunity to cross-examine the FDA official, and the government’s second witness, Corey Burchman, a doctor from New Hampshire, will begin his testimony. The DEA announced in a filing last week that it will do so Testify on “How Medical Marijuana Provides Medical Benefit to Pain Patients.”

On Monday, a DEA attorney said Burchman would “describe the real-world impacts of treating pain with marijuana instead of opioids” based on his experience with both and discuss how he has “personally transitioned patients from opioids to marijuana for their pain.”

The witness will also testify about the differences between cannabis and opioids in terms of withdrawal and overdose, he said.

Before the hearing began, marijuana reform activists rallied They held a press conference outside DEA headquarters to highlight how they feel of the process – criticizing the fact that supporters of the reform were not invited to participate and that the proceedings are not reproduced live, despite the “transparency” oath of the officials.

DEA Administrator Terrance Cole only organizations and individuals opposed to marijuana reform have been invited to the hearing as a designated participant – telling followers that they do not meet the definition of “interested person” to participate because they are not “affected or prejudiced by any rule or proposed rule that may be issued.”

last week, Marihuana Moments sent petitions to DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge Derek Julius and DEA Administrator Cole asking for them reverse the decision to ban the public from tuning into the cannabis hearing via live stream. A Congressmen and other journalists later joined that request.

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The opponents who are participating in the hearing submitted statements last week anticipate the anti-marijuana arguments they intend to make during the procedure.

The hearing it will end before July 15.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in April He issued an order that immediately reclassified the state’s licensed medical cannabisas well as marijuana products approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under Schedule I through Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

According to a separate order signed by the acting attorney general, the upcoming hearing will include Class III marijuana.

Preliminary hearing process on the marijuana redistricting process initiated by the Biden administration It was halted last year amid allegations of improper communications and witness selection.

the current The marijuana redistricting process is being challenged in several ways which have been upheld by a federal Court of Appeals. those pieces of State attorneys general have filed lawsuits against cannabis reform, Opponents of marijuana legalization and a a cannabis-based biopharmaceutical corporation.

Meanwhile, the reorganization of state-licensed medical cannabis is already having a major impact.

The Congressional Research Service published a report on the current rescheduling of cannabis Certified patients with medical marijuana from state licensed dispensaries are now eligible for Class III. “The order appears to allow end users to use marijuana medically without a CSA prescription,” he says.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has published a Draft update to a gun purchase form to recognize the legal status of medical marijuana in the reprogramming. The revised section of the question states that only the “recreational use or possession of marijuana” is federally prohibited, omitting the prior form’s mention of medical cannabis.

The US Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said they plan to issued new tax guidelines for the marijuana industry after reprogramming. The reform will benefit state-licensed marijuana businesses by allowing them to take federal tax deductions that are currently prohibited under IRS Code Section III, known as Section 280E.

Even the DEA, which has long opposed cannabis legalization and accused the Biden administration of stalling the initiative in the reorganization process, has done so. It launched a registration process for legal marijuana businesses in the state to take advantage of the federal benefits that come with the reform.

The Department of Transport, on the other hand, issued guidelines stating this use Legal medical cannabis in the state is still no excuse for truck drivers to test positive for drugspilots and other safety-sensitive personnel.

A congressional committee recently Federal officials voted to block further steps to reschedule cannabishowever lawmakers from both parties told Marihuana Moment they don’t think that provision will be enacted become law

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cbdMD welcomes White House call for fair treatment of hemp-derived products

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24 hours ago

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June 29, 2026

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cbdMD welcomes the Administration’s call for Congress to ensure fair treatment of hemp-derived products under federal law and calls for immediate action to revise hemp regulations to ensure fair treatment of hemp products under federal law.

In a letter to congressional leadership this week, the White House Office of Management and Budget identified hemp reform as a priority strongly supported by the Administration. The petition calls on Congress to ensure fair treatment of hemp-derived products by maintaining access to appropriate full-spectrum CBD products, and by maintaining Congress’ intent to reduce products that pose health risks. The administration also urged Congress to pass a responsible federal framework or at least extend the current implementation period to give lawmakers time to get policy right. The request builds on the president’s previous public statements urging lawmakers to protect access to full-spectrum CBD products that millions of Americans rely on.

“We are encouraged to see the administration so clearly championing the responsible, scientific hemp products that consumers depend on every day,” said Ronan Kennedy, CEO of cbdMD. “cbdMD has always believed that the future of this category is built on quality, transparency, and clear rules that separate them from bad actors. A federal framework that protects consumer access, promotes safety, and provides certainty to companies that provide certainty is what this industry and the people it serves deserve. We applaud the policymakers who are working to achieve this outcome.”

“We believe CbdMD is purpose-built for this next phase of the market,” added Kennedy. “Our focus remains on serving our customers with reliable and effective products, supporting responsible regulation and building long-term value for our shareholders as the category continues to evolve. Along the way, we will continue to evaluate the opportunities this evolving environment holds.”

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Applications For Missouri Marijuana Microbusiness Licenses Will Open Next Month

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1 day ago

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June 29, 2026

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“We have a lot of tutorials, and we also provide a step-by-step guide. Anyone could sit down and make the app. I don’t think it’s challenging.”

By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent

Application window win one of Missouri’s 77 micro-business marijuana licenses through a lottery selection it will be open from July 13 to 27.

The selection lottery is scheduled for Sept. 9, and the Missouri Division of Cannabis Regulation expects to issue licenses in December, according to a press release issued Monday.

Microbusinesses are marijuana facility licenses issued to entities and individuals designed to allow marginalized or underrepresented people to legally participate in the marijuana market.

Lesley Turek, the division’s capital manager, has been traveling the state this month to educate people about the application process.

“I really feel that microenterprise graduates are, first and foremost, a community of people who help each other,” he said. “They’re the ones who are driving this program forward, so I’m looking forward to meeting new people and sharing as much as I can about the program. It’s a great program.”

Much of what is being worked on is the new rules that went into effect at the end of May…In 2024 the proposed cannabis regulators will remove a large number of licences Because of unconstitutional property deals.

The new rules, he said, allow regulators to conduct extensive scrutiny before licensing, rather than after. Furthermore, they give a more in-depth explanation of what it means to “have and operate the majority” of the License, which is a requirement in the Constitution.

Regulators are mandated to communicate directly with majority owners and require applicants to complete a compliance course before applying and after receiving a license.

The microbusiness program was passed by voters in the 2022 constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana.

In Missouri, there are seven categories in which people can qualify for a micro-business license, ranging from lower income or living in an area considered poor, to past arrests or incarcerations related to marijuana offenses.

Applicants pay a $1,500 application fee if not selected. The Missouri Lottery will select 77 license applicants to open dispensaries or cultivation facilities. The goal is to fill the remaining gaps in the minimum 144 micro-business licenses mandated by the Constitution.

Turek believes the application is relatively simple and something people can complete on their own, unlike the much more complicated application for comprehensive licenses.

“We have a lot of tutorials, and we also offer a step-by-step guide,” he said. “Anyone can sit down and do the app. I don’t think it’s a challenge.”

The part that most people often don’t understand is everything that comes with owning a marijuana facility.

“It’s very expensive, it’s very regulated, and so it’s challenging,” he said. “I want to make sure people have a clear understanding beforehand so they can make a good decision whether they want to apply for this program.”

A big part of his presentation was that the majority of the licenses should be owned by and eligible people. They must have more than 50 percent of the authority to direct the decisions made with the license.

“It’s more than a percentage of ownership,” he said. “It’s really about being able to have that control over it.”

It also talks about the designated contact, and why in the new rule the regulators will require that the designated contact be the applicant or the eligible person with the majority of ownership.

The designated liaison role was conceived as a way to ensure clear communication between the state and licensees.

Instead, state regulators discovered it many named contacts have kept real applicants in the dark about business and licensing. Applicants are locked into agreements that limit their voting power and profits in the business.

That’s why the state now requires pre-application training, a three-video online course to ensure applicants understand “potentially predatory practices,” regulators said in response to public comments during the rulemaking process.

The press release It says those who need help with eligibility requirements or application forms can contact the facility’s application services (email protected).

Educational dissemination events for micro-enterprises

Personal forums:
June 22 – 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm – Kansas City

Webinars:
June 24 – from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m
June 29 – from 18:00 to 20:00

Registration is required for in-person and virtual sessions. Interested participants can register at Microenterprise education. Additional information on the microenterprise program is available here cannabis.mo.gov.

Those requiring assistance with eligibility requirements or application forms may contact Facilities Application Services at (email protected).

This story was first published by the Missouri Independent.

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