London: Ibogaine 2001 Conference

Copyright © 2001, Patrick K. Kroupa
All Rights Reserved

ibogaine UK

Original Publication: Heroin Times

On December 12th, the second ibogaine conference to be held in London took place. Roughly 100 people gathered for the event; many of them traveling from all over the world to take part in the proceedings.

Ibogaine is a rain forest alkaloid found in the root of Tabernanthe iboga, a shrub that grows in West Central Africa. The anti-addictive properties of Ibogaine were first reported in 1962. Since this point in time, ibogaine has been studied with FDA approval within the United States; unfortunately, due to lack of research funding, there has been extremely limited progress.

All of which is an extremely politically correct way of saying: at present, ibogaine lives in a twilight zone of red-tape, bureaucracy, and lack of interest from pharmaceutical firms.

There seem to be a nearly endless series of roadblocks standing between ibogaine and where it’s at right now — essentially nowhere — and “establishment” acceptance of its use as an effective treatment modality for drug-addiction.

While ibogaine will not “cure” you, it absolutely WILL detox you, better than anything else which exists at the present time, and without pain.

Unfortunately, ibogaine is currently a schedule I substance within the United States; in addition to getting you unsprung, it also provides you with the possibility of spiritual integration — a dangerous and undesirable side-effect, also known as experiencing hallucinations, or having “waking visions.”

Furthermore, ibogaine is not a maintenance drug, and no pharmaceutical house appears to have much interest in developing a medication which is only ingested once or twice; and, the patents on using ibogaine to treat opiate/opioid addiction have nearly expired.

What all of this amounts to is: complete lack of interest from the medical community. Aside from helping those who are addicted to drugs, become un-addicted; there seems to be little incentive in developing ibogaine – there are no dollar signs at the end of the rainbow.

As nice as it might be to believe that medicine is all about helping those who need help; it’s not really so much a question of, “can we solve this problem,” as it is, “can we generate a tremendous amount of revenue by solving this problem.”

To make a long and extremely convoluted story short: at the present time the only scientist running large-scale clinical studies on ibogaine and its effects on detoxing drug-dependent human beings, is Dr. Deborah Mash.

As of this date, the Healing Visions clinic in St. Kitts has detoxed over 250 drug-dependent individuals.

To summarize the results: yup, ibogaine sure seems to be extremely effective in making your habit go buh-bye. In particular, that whole entire strung out on opiates/opioids scenario.

That’s great and all, but not extremely useful to YOU, if you happen to have a habit you wanna cut loose. Most especially if you don’t have access to the funds which would make a medically-supervised detox a viable possibility for you.

On the flipside of all this, while ibogaine HCl is relatively scarce; the Indra materials and unpurified ibogaine root bark, are pretty much all over the place. Especially in the Netherlands.

While London currently has no lack of informal treatment providers, this will probably be changing in the near-future, as ibogaine is likely to become a scheduled substance in England. To cop a line from William Gibson, “the street finds its own use for things.” In the case of ibogaine, it’s been one very long and strange trip, from sacrament used in the Gabon, for spiritual initiation ceremonies by the Bwiti; to molecule being used by 21st century urban junkies, looking to get unsprung…

Unfortunately, as with any substance which you obtain through “the underground,” you run a variety of risks, since you don’t know the purity, origins, or authenticity of the materials you’re trying to obtain.

My advice has always been relatively consistent and straightforward. If you cannot afford to dose with ibogaine HCl in a medically supervised setting: do as much research as you can. About the materials you are attempting to obtain, about the reputation of the person(s) making them available to you; and ESPECIALLY dosing guidelines from people who have used those same materials in the past…

None of this is a guarantee, it’s more like a very basic prerequisite. If you don’t know what you’re doing, have no idea what materials you’re actually taking, or where they came from; if they turn out to be real, and you miscalculate… the mistake can be fatal.

Ibogaine CAN kill you, it is not a recreational drug.

Of course there are a lotta things that can kill you, including the heroin you’re bangin’ up and the lifestyle that comes with it; and nobody listens to warnings anyway — but please try to educate yourself to the best of your ability to do so. Everyone’s gonna do whatever they’re gonna do, but it doesn’t hurt to take action with at least a little bit of knowledge backing it up.

Ibogaine itself is all over the place, and nowhere… Whether it will ever be accepted as a treatment modality for drug addiction – especially within the United States – is highly debatable. Having said all that, the London Ibogaine Conference was a very positive event which brought together a disparate group of people who share a unifying belief that, well, ibogaine works.

Complete video of the conference will be available in the near future. It was organized by Nick Sandberg and Hattie Wells. Speakers at the conference included Dr. Pablo (standing in for Dr. Deborah Mash, who could not attend due to scheduling conflicts), who discussed the science of ibogaine; Nick Sandberg, who gave an excellent introductory talk about the origins of ibogaine, and it’s use in informal self-help settings; Dana Beal, who spoke about the history of ibogaine in the West; Brian Marciano and Roman Paskulin who talked about their experience with using ibogaine to treat addicts in the Czech Republic and Slovenia, and of course me, myself, and I; giving an extended version of the various topics I talk about in these articles.

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