Just when you thought that Utah lawmakers had moved on from pandemic-era conspiracies, Rep. Trevor Lee has filed a bill to put ivermectin behind the counter, allowing pharmacists to dispense it without a prescription. The anti-parasitic drug, best known for treating river blindness in developing countries and deworming horses in rural America, would be available to any adult who fills out a questionnaire and promises they understand the risks.
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HB96 mimics the model used for emergency contraception and naloxone: a physician issues a standing order, and authorized pharmacists dispense to adults who pass a basic screening. Unlike Plan B or naloxone, ivermectin has FDA-approved human uses—and a thriving online ecosystem of alternative health influencers claiming it cures everything from COVID to cancer.
Ivermectin has been used for decades to treat parasitic infections in humans and animals like horses. It won a Nobel Prize in 2015 for its effectiveness against parasitic diseases.
Then came COVID-19. Early lab studies that would later be retracted or debunked suggested ivermectin might inhibit the virus. Before the scientific consensus could catch up, the drug went viral, both literally and figuratively. Major health authorities like the FDA, CDC, and WHO concluded the evidence did not support using it to treat COVID, but by then it was too late.
For many Americans, the official story didn't add up. The narrative became: big pharma and the medical establishment were suppressing a cheap generic drug that actually worked, letting people die rather than admit they were wrong about the miracle cure sitting on farm store shelves.
Demand for ivermectin exploded in 2021, but many doctors refused to prescribe it—some citing professional guidelines, others fearing they could lose their licenses. Pharmacies refused to fill prescriptions even when doctors wrote them.
Enter Tractor Supply Co. People convinced they needed the drug flocked to farm supply stores to buy livestock dewormer in paste and liquid formulations that contained the same active ingredient. Those veterinary formulations were designed for thousand-pound animals, not human consumption, with higher concentrations, resulting in a five-fold spike in calls to poison control centers.
From one perspective, Lee's bill can be seen as harm reduction: instead of having people buy horse paste at livestock stores, it creates a legal pathway for adults to get the human pharmaceutical version from a pharmacist with just some basic screening. From another perspective, it's the state of Utah officially validating a treatment mainstream medicine says doesn't work for the things people actually want it for.
A pharmacy must have patients complete a screening questionnaire to assess whether it's safe. The catch? The bill doesn't specify what that questionnaire asks or what makes someone unsuitable. Those details get punted to bureaucrats who'll write the rules later.
With the COVID pandemic in the rearview mirror, ivermectin has found new life in alternative medicine circles as a potential cancer treatment. Laboratory studies have shown it may inhibit the spread of cancer cells through multiple mechanisms. There's just one problem: Medical experts warn that all the promising results come from petri dishes and mice—there are no large-scale trials in humans proving it's effective at treating cancer. Social media posts about ivermectin for cancer spiked in early 2025, with influencers sharing anecdotal "miracle cure" testimonials.
Lee’s bill includes unusually strong liability protections for pharmacists who dispense ivermectin, which suggests Lee knows this might not go smoothly. Doctors who issue standing orders face no civil liability whatsoever, and pharmacists are protected except in cases of gross negligence or willful misconduct. The bill also explicitly states that dispensing ivermectin this way isn't unlawful or unprofessional conduct.
HB96 arrives as part of a national wave of "medical freedom" legislation. Critics say it legitimizes unproven treatments and enables patients to self-medicate with a drug that can have serious side effects. So far, five states—Tennessee, Arkansas, Idaho, Louisiana and Texas—have passed legislation making access to ivermectin easier.