A ‘stark’ conversation with incoming AG leads KY opioid commission chair to resign

Nearly a week after the Kentucky attorney general-elect chose a new chair for the state’s commission charged with distributing opioid lawsuit settlement money, the outgoing chair said his “greatest concern” was the future of a state-funded proposal to invest in a psychedelic drug as a treatment for opioid addiction.

In a resignation letter sent late Tuesday night, Bryan Hubbard, outgoing executive director of the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission, said since “new leadership has been requested,” he will officially resign from his position on Sunday.

Attorney General-elect Russell Coleman announced before Christmas he was appointing Chris Evans, a former chief operating officer for the Drug Enforcement Administration, in Hubbard’s place.

Appointed to the post by Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron, Hubbard made waves during his time leading the commission for spearheading a proposal to invest up to $42 million of a nearly $900 million opioid lawsuit settlement over the next six years to conduct research by way of clinical trials using ibogaine with the goal of receiving U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to distribute it as a medication to treat opioid addiction. Ibogaine is currently a Schedule 1 drug in the U.S.

Hubbard unveiled his idea for Kentucky to become the first state to research the experimental drug in a news conference alongside Cameron in May. Controversial in part because ibogaine is illegal, the commission has hosted multiple public hearings on the proposal since the spring, and its members have listened to several personal ibogaine success stories.

“Ibogaine saved me and gave me back my life,” Dakota Meyer, a native Kentuckian, U.S. Marine Corps veteran and Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, told the commission in September. “It offered me a true path to recovery I never even imagined was possible. It provided me with a renewed sense or purpose and strength to rebuild my life.”

Proponents of ibogaine have lauded it as yet another potential tool to fight an epidemic that continues to kill thousands of Kentuckians each year. But its detractors have been quick to warn of the drug’s cardiotoxicity. Ibogaine prolongs the time it takes for one’s heart to relax between beats, which can lead to cardiac arrhythmia — a reality that some say would likely preclude the FDA from green-lighting clinical research of the drug.

The commission was slated to formally vote this winter on whether to allocate funding for the research of ibogaine when Hubbard’s ouster was announced.

“Our visionary initiative, the Ibogaine Project, sought to explore groundbreaking solutions for opioid dependence,” Hubbard said in his resignation letter. “This endeavor, inspired by the spirit of Kentucky’s resilience, aimed to position the commonwealth as a leader in neurobiological research and bring healing to our communities that have been devastated by the opioid epidemic.”

But as “circumstances and priorities shift, I find myself at a juncture where a change in leadership has been requested,” he said. “Throughout this endeavor, my greatest concern lay in the future viability of the Ibogaine Project. After a stark discussion with (Coleman), I am stepping down to allow for new direction.”

During the press conference when Evans was announced as the new chair, neither Coleman or Evans gave a definitive answer about whether the commission would continue pursuing Hubbard’s proposal. Coleman said he would “take a look” at ibogaine, but emphasized that he’d focus on addiction prevention.

“What I need is to make sure we look at (ibogaine) objectively, along with prevention efforts and other ideas that are out there — there are some great ideas out there on the prevention side, I want to see if we can scale those up,” Coleman said. “There’s been a lot of ink spilled on ibogaine. My concern is that we are not focused as intently as we should be on the prevention piece of this.”

In his resignation letter, Hubbard provided no clarity about the future of the funding proposal of ibogaine, but said the project’s “legacy will live on.”

“The day will come when its healing power reaches every individual in need,” Hubbard wrote.

After the announcement of the commission’s new leadership, some supporters of ibogaine and Hubbard urged the commission to keep steadfast in its pursuit of ibogaine research.

Brett Waters, executive director and founder of Reason for Hope, a non-profit supporting breakthrough therapies, said Hubbard’s pursuit of ibogaine showed “unwavering dedication to aiding Kentuckians from all walks of life affected by the opioid epidemic.”

“As one of the states hit hardest by the opioid epidemic – with one of the highest rates of overdose deaths in the nation – it would be a tragic loss for Kentucky not to lead the way exploring this new treatment paradigm in the United States,” Waters wrote in a news release.

Leaders of Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions, a non-profit which supports psychedelic-assisted therapy, testified at some of the hearings for ibogaine and said the change in leadership comes at a “crucial juncture.”

While no direct statement has been made about the proposal to research ibogaine in Kentucky, Amber Capone, the CEO of Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions, wrote she was disappointed about its likely discontinuation.

“We are disappointed that this cutting-edge, potentially lifesaving research, will not be taking place in the Bluegrass State, but this is only the beginning of our efforts,” Capone wrote.