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Ibogaine - Treatment for Additions


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I just finished watching an episode of Law & Order SVU. A drug called Iogaine was referenced - a drug that in capsule form can withdraw a person from an addiction without causing severe withdrawal symptoms.....and the addiction cravings are gone for lengthy periods of time. That's right - one pill, and you're cured. I thought this was an exaggeration but I did some research and sure enough, it's out there. Please read the article - it's wonderful but it will make your blood boil. It's been around for over 20 years but the pharmaceutical companies can't see any profit in it so it's gone nowhere. For heaven's sake, it's a miracle drug. Can you imagine if we could effrectively treat heroine and crack addicts, among others?

Link: http://www.ibogaine.co.uk/ibogaine6.htm

Introduction

Ibogaine is a psychoactive indole alkaloid derived from the rootbark of an African plant - Tabernanthe iboga. In recent years it has been increasingly noted for its ability to treat both drug and alcohol addiction. Both scientific studies and widespread anecdotal reports appear to suggest that a single administration of ibogaine has the ability to both remove the symptoms of drug withdrawal and reduce drug-craving for a period of time after administration. In addition, the drug's psychoactive properties (in large doses it can induce a dreamlike state for a period of hours) have been widely credited with helping users understand and reverse their drug-using behaviour.

Studies suggest that ibogaine has considerable potential in the treatment of addiction to heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine, methadone, and alcohol, with some suggestion that it further be useful in treating tobacco dependence. It has also been suggested that the drug may have considerable potential in the field of psychotherapy, particularly as a treatment for the effects of trauma or conditioning.

A single administration of ibogaine typically has three effects useful in the treatment of drug dependence. Firstly, it causes a massive reduction in the symptoms of drug withdrawal, allowing relatively painless detoxification. Secondly, many users report, and scientific studies confirm, a marked lowering in the desire to use drugs is experienced for a period of time after taking ibogaine, typically between one week and several months. Finally, the drug's psychoactive nature is reported to help many users understand and resolve the issues behind their addictive behaviour.

Ibogaine can be easily administered, in capsule form, and has no addictive effects itself. It is essentially a "one-shot" medication and, used in a clinical setting with proper client screening procedures, the drug thus far appears to be safe to use. Whilst it is rare for an individual to stop using drugs permanently from a single dose of ibogaine, as the initial component in an overall rehabilitation programme the drug would appear to offer much potential.

Although approved for clinical trials (trials on humans) for the treatment of addiction in the US in the early 1990s, problems with financial backing have so hindered the development of ibogaine that, as of mid 2001, it remains undeveloped and thus unavailable to the majority of addicts worldwide. There are however a couple of private clinics, located around the Caribbean and in Mexico, that offer ibogaine treatment at prices starting around £4,000, and some lay treatment providers offer lower cost treatment, without medical facilities, in Europe. In addition, ibogaine, either in pure form or as a plant extract, has become available from some lay sources on the internet.

Ibogaine's current legal status in the UK, and much of the rest of the world, is that of an unlicensed, experimental medication, and it not therefore an offence to possess the drug, though to act as a distributor may be breaking the law. Ibogaine is a restricted substance (possession is illegal) in some countries, including the US, Switzerland, Sweden and Belgium.

Edited by Keepitsimple
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I just finished watching an episode of Law & Order SVU. A drug called Iogaine was referenced - a drug that in capsule form can withdraw a person from an addition without causing severe withdrawal symptoms.....

Canada has had a clinic since 2003.

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Yes Ibogaine.

Anaesthetic is a good treatment for withdrawl symptons too. You know, just knock the addict out for 2 weeks. The trouble with ibogaine is that you are treating one drug addiction with another drug. Like treating heroin addiction with pot. It will help with the withdrawl, but how effective is it in the long run?

The problem with drug therapies as addiction treatments is that it does not make the addict's life any better. That is, the issues which compelled them into addiction will still remain once they are off the addictive substance. I have known many, many addicts that have gotten months, even years, of clean time and eventually went back to their drug - some of them to their death. The hardest of them all that I have seen so far is crack cocaine addiction.

So ibogaine is good, but it is a small piece in the therapy that would/should last a very long time, if not a life time.

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Yes Ibogaine.

Anaesthetic is a good treatment for withdrawl symptons too. You know, just knock the addict out for 2 weeks. The trouble with ibogaine is that you are treating one drug addiction with another drug. Like treating heroin addiction with pot. It will help with the withdrawl, but how effective is it in the long run?

The problem with drug therapies as addiction treatments is that it does not make the addict's life any better. That is, the issues which compelled them into addiction will still remain once they are off the addictive substance. I have known many, many addicts that have gotten months, even years, of clean time and eventually went back to their drug - some of them to their death. The hardest of them all that I have seen so far is crack cocaine addiction.

So ibogaine is good, but it is a small piece in the therapy that would/should last a very long time, if not a life time.

That's why I was drawn to this information. Addiction is complicated - there is no complete magic bullet. What I like about Ibogaine (from what I read) is that it is non-addictive but more importantly, it can clear a person's mind for an extended period so that they can try to deal with the underlying issues that caused them to fall into an addiction in the first place. The fact that it can actually reduce or eliminate the body's need/urge for drugs for a period of time is compelling......with the right regimen of maintenance and therapy, an addict might not have to spend every waking day trying to fight off the urges that the body demands. It's not for everyone but it shows great promise for those who are motivated to break their habit. I'm a Conservative but on the surface, I'd be all for spending tax dollars to co-fund Provincial initiatives relating to Ibogaine.

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That's why I was drawn to this information. Addiction is complicated - there is no complete magic bullet. What I like about Ibogaine (from what I read) is that it is non-addictive but more importantly, it can clear a person's mind for an extended period so that they can try to deal with the underlying issues that caused them to fall into an addiction in the first place. The fact that it can actually reduce or eliminate the body's need/urge for drugs for a period of time is compelling......with the right regimen of maintenance and therapy, an addict might not have to spend every waking day trying to fight off the urges that the body demands. It's not for everyone but it shows great promise for those who are motivated to break their habit. I'm a Conservative but on the surface, I'd be all for spending tax dollars to co-fund Provincial initiatives relating to Ibogaine.

You DO know it was Marc Emery who started/funded the Ibogaine clinic right? Marc Emery has been talking about this stuff for a at least a decade, and personally funded an Ibogaine therapy clinic in BC. Just more evidence of what a great man and visionary that our dispicable government has shipped off to rot in a foriegn prison. This is just one of the many worthwhile projects that Marc funded using the profits from selling Cannabis seeds online. The same profits that he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in income tax on. The profits he declared on his tax forms as being from cannabis seed sales.

And BTW, its addictions, no additions, lol

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You DO know it was Marc Emery who started/funded the Ibogaine clinic right? Marc Emery has been talking about this stuff for a at least a decade, and personally funded an Ibogaine therapy clinic in BC. Just more evidence of what a great man and visionary that our dispicable government has shipped off to rot in a foriegn prison. This is just one of the many worthwhile projects that Marc funded using the profits from selling Cannabis seeds online. The same profits that he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in income tax on. The profits he declared on his tax forms as being from cannabis seed sales.

And BTW, its addictions, no additions, lol

You just never give up.......are you really what I picture? Some guy from Woodstock days with a pony tail walking around with a joint and a cloud of smoke around his head? Maybe a paisley shirt?

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Guest TrueMetis

You DO know it was Marc Emery who started/funded the Ibogaine clinic right? Marc Emery has been talking about this stuff for a at least a decade, and personally funded an Ibogaine therapy clinic in BC. Just more evidence of what a great man and visionary that our dispicable government has shipped off to rot in a foriegn prison. This is just one of the many worthwhile projects that Marc funded using the profits from selling Cannabis seeds online. The same profits that he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in income tax on. The profits he declared on his tax forms as being from cannabis seed sales.

And BTW, its addictions, no additions, lol

Ya our government fucked up.

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You just never give up.......are you really what I picture? Some guy from Woodstock days with a pony tail walking around with a joint and a cloud of smoke around his head? Maybe a paisley shirt?

Describes me as well. Doesn't make either of us bad people.

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I always get the sense that no amount of addiction treatment of any kind will ever be acceptable to conservatives unless it comes with an overdose of their moral judgementalism.

I agree with you here. I think that a person who submits to effective treatement should not be prosecuted. But I do underline the word "effective".

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I agree with you here. I think that a person who submits to effective treatement should not be prosecuted. But I do underline the word "effective".

The person submitting to effective treatment does not have that option since there currently is none.

An individual using drugs obviously sees a benefit from it. There is a difference between the use and abuse of drugs. I don't advocate the use of drugs, especially of a psychotropic nature, that doesn't mean that there isn't a proper use of/for them.

Addiction is related to the abuse of drugs; however one may define abuse. I would define it as when the use of the drug becomes paramount in the persons life over all other importances.

Is addcition physical or psychological? I would say for most drugs it is mostly psychological. A person can rise above an addiction more easily than the medical establishment realizes.

The benefit of using a drug may vary over the time the person is using it and often when a person becomes addicted he cannot see the benefit they are getting from the drug. It may start out being just the new experience and in the end the benefit is usually just satiating the craving for it with no other benefit than that. Of course, it is easy to see that the benefit may be that it is relaxing and calming but in effect that means something is keeping the person from being relaxed and calm. All manner of externalities may be blamed for this tenseness or nervousness but most of it is the craving for another fix which will get rid of this "craving". If the person feels that one hit is good and relaxes him then he should have another and get more relaxed. Problem is that he doesn't get more relaxed and he may overdose. So with some drugs they will kill you and others will kill you more slowly.

Addicts or users (who don't consider themselves addicts) argue that drinking alcohol or coffee is using drugs and if you drink alcohol or coffee then you are being hypocritical about the use of marijuana. once again the distinction has to be made between the use and abuse of drugs. Drinking too much coffee or alcohol will kill you just as certainly as smoking too many joints will. The abuse of any drug will kill you sooner or later.

Allen Carr wrote a book called, "The Easy Way to Quit Smoking" in which he accurately describes what an addiction is, medicos don't know it, and how you can overcome it.

I recommend the book as good reading. I don't think it works for everyone as, I believe there is more to learn about addiction since it isn't a 100% guarantee, it is around 80% I think. Since doing nothing will achieve about a 20% success rate and considering the medical establishment isn't much higher than that I would say 80% is quite high a success rate.

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"The person submitting to effective treatment does not have that option since there currently is none."

Not true. Abstinence is an effective treatment for addiction, which is the gist of ibogaine - allowing the addict a period of abstinence from the addictive substance. However, ibogaine is not a substitute for abstinence over a long period which is the crux for an addict - how to remain abstinent.

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The person submitting to effective treatment does not have that option since there currently is none.

So what about people who just want to relax and unwind at the end of a hard day's work? What options do they have for treating this besides abusing tobacco and alcohol? I mean, its all abuse right?

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