Are you a drug addict? I hope you aren't. But if your answer is yes, some relief might come from a counter-culture hallucinogen made from a shrub found in West Africa, and named ibogaine. However, you're out of luck if you live in the U.S. because it's completely illegal there, as reports KRON 4, a Californian TV news station, in this article. Apparently, it's amazingly effective for heroin, crack cocaine and even alcohol addicts. [And thanks to Robin for the pointer to this story.]
This hallucinogen came into light in the sixties, and Hunter S. Thompson, the Rolling Stone journalist, even accused Democratic presidential candidate Edmund Muskie of abusing the drug in 1972, saying it was a "serious factor" in his losing campaign, as reports the New York Daily News.
The ibogaine comes from this specific African shrub, named Tabernanthe iboga, related to the coffee plant, and here is what it looks like (Credit: Link).
Things have changed since 1972, and Dr. Deborah Mash, professor of Neurology and Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology at University of Miami, one of the few scientists in the world to study ibogaine, said, "I didn't believe it when I first heard about ibogaine. I thought it was something that needed to be debunked."
[Note: I also thought it could be a hoax, but you can check Mash credits here -- she appears near the middle of the page.]
She petitioned the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and won approval for clinical testing in 1993 and started to test it only several years later in 1998 because of funding problems.
It quickly became apparent that one dose of ibogaine blocked the withdrawal symptoms of even hard-core addicts and was amazingly effective for heroin, crack cocaine and even alcohol.
So, how does this hallucinogen works? Even doctors don't have an answer.
"I don't like the word 'hallucinogen,' but indeed, ibogaine alters mental state. And what it seems to do is it puts people into a four to six hour state of almost an active dream, it's like a lucid dream." she describes.
But as Dr. Mash was about to discover, during that dream state, something extraordinary happens. "We knew ibogaine was effective for blocking opiate withdrawal, we saw it diminish the desire to use alcohol. And we saw the cravings for cocaine blocked. I was hooked," she says.
So, if you're addicted to heroin, cocain or alcohol, you just have to take ibogaine to get rid of your addiction? Not so fast.
Ibogaine will not work for everyone. And even for those for whom it does work, it is not a "magic bullet." "You need treatment, you need social workers, you need case management, you need medication, psychiatry, you need the whole boat of professionalism around this," says Dr. Mash.
And what's next?
Dr. Mash will present her findings to the Food and Drug Administration next month. She hopes the FDA will eventually authorize further testing, based on her results. In the meantime, ibogaine remains illegal in the United States.
Meanwhile, you can find this hallucinogen on the internet, but without any guarantee of the quality, on sites such as this one, promising ibogaine treatment.
[Disclaimer: I'm not promoting here the use of any illegal substance. This column is purely informative.]
Sources: KRON 4, February 18, 2004; Lloyd Grove, New York Daily News, February 26, 2004
7:45:27 PM
|
|
