Directory of Lost Causes (By Quentin S. Crisp)

Ibogaine

I have just watched a documentary film titled, Ibogaine - Rite of Passage.

There are many things in this world that give me occasion to think that the values of human beings, at least in what is generally referred to as 'civilisation', are topsy turvy. Or, to use a word with a little more gravitas, they are inverted. They are upside-down.

Watching the abovementioned film reminded me of this once more.

I had heard of the drug ibogaine before. It was represented to me as a hallucinogenic derived from the root of a plant in Africa, which, when ingested, induces a three-day trip that effectively cures drug addiction. I was, naturally, interested. Wouldn't you be? I found when I watched the film that the information I had received was accurate (as, after all, I had expected).



Not everyone is interested in ibogaine, however. For instance, those who you might expect to be most interested - to wit, the pharmaceutical companies - are not. Why? According to Howard Lotsof, former heroin addict, who broke his habit using ibogaine and is now president of NDA International, the pharmaceutical companies that he tried to interest in ibogaine all gave the same reasons for not wanting anything to do with the drug:

1) As pharmaceutical companies their job was not to do whatever was most beneficial to public health, but what was most likely to produce a profit for their shareholders.

2) The mortality rate amongst drug-addicts is very high, and they did not wish to be associated with any section of society where the chances of liability for such things were increased.

3) Drug addiction itself has a social stigma with which they did not wish to be associated with in any way, even if their association was through helping to cure addiction.



It has also been suggested that other reasons the companies are not interested in ibogaine is precisely because it does cure addiction. That is, it is a one-time cure. It is not like methodone treatment, which swaps one drug with another. In other words, if the addict is not coming back for more, where can the companies make their profits? If we follow this line of enquiry it doesn't take us long to begin to see the pharmaceutical companies basically as legal drug barons. Certainly their stated aims (see #1 above) would seem to support such a view.

Personally, my impression is that ibogaine is suppressed (it is actually illegal in the USA) because it cures addiction. Addiction in one form or another is precisely what the governments of our civilised nations require of us. How could they have a drug war without addiction? How could they get their votes without a drug war?

Anyway, I am posting this merely because I wish to increase the circulation of such information.

I would recommend watching the film. Apart from anything else, it is beautifully shot, and, although it does not go into great detail about the visionary and psychological nature of the cure, there is enough here to hint at something of relevance to the whole human race beyond the limited world of literal drug-addiction.



If you or someone you know would like to try the ibogaine cure, unfortunately, so far it is only available in certain countries. These are, as mentioned in the film, Canada, Mexico and the Netherlands. In terms of city, that is Vancouver, Rosarito (I think) and Amsterdam.

A final note: I have been using the word 'cure' here, but as one or two people in the film cautioned, ibogaine is, more accurately, an addiction-interrupter. It will relieve the patient of the physical and mental symptoms of addiction, but thereafter the subject must also change his or her habits in such a way that he or she does not return to the addiction. This might involve, for instance, ending associations with people who have previously fed and encouraged the addiction.