'Blood money': KY officials grill GOP AG on plan to 'fund corporate research' for 'perilous' treatment

09 October 2023

Kentucky Democratic officials and addiction experts are questioning state attorney general and Republican gubernatorial candidate Daniel Cameron's plans to put millions of dollars towards "studying ibogaine—an obscure, unproven, and possibly 'perilous' plant-based treatment that makes you violently ill," The Daily Beast exclusively reports.

Per the report, Cameron announced earlier this year that he would use $42 million from the state to "fund corporate research" for the treatment via "a group called the Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission, which is housed under Cameron's AG office."

The Beast notes the AG "appointed a majority of the commission's 11 members, including its chair, state attorney W. Bryan Hubbard," and several state officials, including Democratic Governor Andy Beshear, wonder "why the members who Cameron appointed to the commission have taken so quickly and stolidly to this specific treatment," as "Ibogaine didn't appear to be on the opioid commission's radar until Cameron and Hubbard announced the grant proposal on May 31."

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A source connected to Governor Beshear told the news outlet "that the ibogaine proposal was a shock to the governor and his staff, and it came against the wishes of the stakeholders in the state most familiar with these treatments."

The news outlet reports:

But the Daily Beast's investigation into the people and entities behind this project revealed an intricate nest of political and corporate ties. Those ties include a sitting U.S. Senator, a top GOP strategist, and a billionaire Republican megadonor who recently put millions of dollars into a group backing Cameron’s faltering gubernatorial campaign.

That megadonor, longtime conservative financier Jeff Yass, stands to reap massive profits from the development of ibogaine, which, despite its controversies and health drawbacks, has begun to attract a niche following of devoted patients and investors as a potential miracle cure to break opioid addiction.

Yass' firm sharply increased its investment in ibogaine research around the time of Cameron's announcement, and executives at two of the firms Yass is invested in have rallied openly for the Kentucky program, including in public hearing testimony this summer.

The Beast notes, "Yass—the fourth-largest megadonor in the country and the wealthiest person in the state of Pennsylvania with a net worth estimated over $25 billion—stands to profit massively from ibogaine, especially in the long run."

The source close to Beshear said, "Cameron came out of the blue with this, and it caught everybody off-guard that's close to the issue. And the individuals running recovery facilities are behind the scenes very opposed to taking those funds away from the facilities. It's blood money, and those funds were intended and committed for those people working every day in the recovery field. There was never any talk of the money being used for corporate R&D. That money, we understood, was for groups working every day to help people recover."

The Beast reports "the drug has a committed base of support. Advocates include military veterans, addiction survivors and families, and political players like former Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry," however, "even without the political intrigue, which has not yet been reported, Cameron's announcement raised a number of eyebrows. That's in part because he hadn't consulted members of his own commission in advance, but also because it was difficult for some Kentuckians to understand why, with so many urgent needs in the addiction and treatment communities, Cameron seemed so intent on funding research into this singular alternative therapy—which likely won’t even be authorized for medical use within a decade, according to the commission’s own expert testimony."

The news outlet references Lexington Herald-Leader columnist Linda Blackford's June report, in which she referred to Hubbard, writing, "To make such a splash over one civil servant's research into one drug looks strange, especially when that civil servant's boss is running for governor."

Furthermore, following the AG's "surprise announcement in May, Beshear's two political appointees on the commission pushed back immediately, questioning the opacity of the proposal's origins and expressing skepticism about subsidizing a corporate partner on what appears to be a narrowly-tailored moonshot."

The University of Kentucky's Dr. Sharon Walsh of the University of Kentucky suggested Cameron's push is "a clear conflict of interest."

The Daily Beast's full report is available at this link (subscription required).

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