In brief
- Law HB26-1325 creates a pilot ibogaine research program in Colorado under the Behavioral Health Administration.
- The program allows for up to five sites, which will be selected by a committee evaluating applications.
- There is no public budget: the program will only launch if sufficient donations and grants are secured.
Colorado has signed into law a specific framework to research ibogaine. The bill, HB26-1325, signed by the governor on June 4, 2026, establishes a pilot research program for the substance within the state’s Behavioral Health Administration (BHA) to study its safety and efficacy for mental health and substance use disorders.
Regulated research, not an open market
The text does not open the door to retail sales or unrestricted access. It establishes a research program with up to five pilot sites, which will be selected by a committee created by the BHA to review applications and make recommendations. In parallel, the law distributes regulatory powers: the state licensing authority is empowered to issue rules regarding the administration, manufacturing, and use of ibogaine, and the division of professions and occupations is tasked with approving rules to guide its use and administration.
One point deserves particular attention: any license holder wishing to cultivate, manufacture, dispense, or administer ibogaine must establish, in consultation with Indigenous communities, a benefit-sharing plan that directly supports them. This is an explicit recognition of the origins of iboga and those who have sustained its use for generations, following the path taken by other nations, such as when Gabon declared iboga a national heritage.
A law without funding
The program does not come with a state budget allocation. The BHA is authorized to solicit, accept, and spend gifts, grants, and donations, and a specific fund has been created for this purpose. However, the launch is expressly conditioned on securing enough money to both administer the program and fund the selected sites. The law also tasks the BHA with managing federal research and development funding, particularly through the Department of Health and Human Services’ ARPA-H agency, to advance the study of ibogaine for severe mental illness.
The legislation also includes several adjustments to the natural medicine framework Colorado has had in place since the passage of Proposition 122 in 2022: it standardizes the experience requirements for the fifteen advisory board members, limits the civil liability of facilitators—except in cases of intentional malpractice, gross negligence, or deviation from the recognized standard of care—and prohibits the advertising of paid harm reduction services or using them as a front for sales.
What this implies
It is important not to confuse an enacted law with a functioning program. What exists today is the legal structure; its launch depends on the arrival of private or federal funding, and the law explicitly conditions it on that. Colorado thus joins a movement already underway in several states, following Arizona’s allocation of five million dollars to an ibogaine trial, by extending to this substance a framework that until now had centered on psilocybin.
Ibogaine has a demanding pharmacological profile, with well-documented cardiac effects that make context and supervision critical. Having a state organize its study within a regulated framework, rather than leaving it in the gray area where much of its actual use currently occurs, is a useful condition for those who decide to explore it to do so with data and support rather than blindly.
Source
- Colorado General Assembly. HB26-1325: Natural Medicine. Colorado General Assembly, signed June 4, 2026.
Educational content written from a harm reduction perspective and with respect for individual freedom. It is not a substitute for advice from a healthcare professional and is not intended to encourage or condemn any drug use.
