It is known that for many centuries tabernanthe iboga and other plants containing the alkaloid ibogaine were an integral part of rituals and were used for treatment by the tribes of West Africa: for example, the Bwiti ritual is a sacred ritual of male initiation, during which a second birth occurs. Young people participating in the ritual abstain from food and sex a few days before. The ritual begins with the fact that for some time, to the sounds of tom-toms and ritual dances, the initiates lie and chew the root of Tabernanthe iboga, as a result they fall into a state of relaxation and feel sleepy. Then, under the influence of ibogaine, they move to the world of dreams, where they meet with the elements - water, earth, sun, moon. The climax is that they see and are aware of Bwiti - everything they have ever seen with their own eyes,it is this moment that is the moment of rebirth. A person who has undergone the ritual and saw Bwiti is recognized as a male and welcomed by the tribal elders. After the initiation ritual, representatives of the tribe use ibogaine, but already in small quantities - for relaxation, chewing the root of the plant while talking.
The first pharmaceutical result of many years of research was the drug lambarene (named after the scientist Lambarene Scheitzer, who developed this drug), containing the alkaloid ibogaine: based on a dry pharmaceutical extract of the root of the tabernenthe manii plant - 0.20 grams of extract (about 8 mg of ibogaine) in one tablet. From the description it followed that the drug stimulates the central nervous system and muscle activity, helps to get rid of fatigue and powerlessness caused by depression. The drug was intended not only to treat patients, but also to stimulate the psycho-physiological activity of healthy people, which attracted the attention of athletes of the post-war period (marathon participants, rock climbers, cross-country runners, and others). Ibogaine extract tablets gave strength and opened a second wind,allowing you to easily overcome obstacles. However, after an hour, the effect of the drug ended, and it was necessary to swallow one more, and another … Then, for example, somewhere in the mountains the climber ran out of pills, the stage of impotence and complete relaxation began, and the athlete felt like “a pitiful piece of meat dangling at the end ropes.
In 1962, a man named Howard Lotzof, who was a drug addict at the time, underwent ibogaine treatment. After a terrific experience of thirty-six hours, he felt free of addiction to heroin, and subsequently gave ibogaine to six of his friends. Five of them became heroin-free. Lotzof realized that ibogaine was more than just a stimulant and a hallucinogen. In 1966, Lambarene disappeared from the market and the sale of ibogaine was banned. In 1972, ibogaine was classified as a hallucinogen, and it was observed in academia to have effects similar to LSD and psilocybin. Ibogaine is listed on a Restricted Drug List in the United States.
About 20 years later, Lotzof returned to this discovery and set about trying to bring it to market. Howard Lotzof created a charitable foundation: the International Coalition for Self-Improvement of Drug Addicts, ICSN, and began conducting semi-legal trials to interrupt addiction with ibogaine. These studies have shown approximately 75% success, i.e. remission (up to 2 years and more …) from heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, alcohol and nicotine. Lack of interest in the drug from the outside led to Lotzof's decision to create NDA International. Lotzof believed that a business venture was more likely to attract the necessary financial support. In 1986, Lotzof, based on his trials on the use of ibogaine, filed a number of patents and registered them on the NDA in the United States.
In 1989, this alkaloid was included in the list of doping drugs banned by the International Olympic Committee, the International Cyclists' Union and the State Secretariat for Youth and Sports of France.
The early 90s, after a promising start, turned out to be a cool time for ibogaine. In 1991, the National Institute for Drug Abuse Research (NIDA), inspired by statistics and animal experiments, began to study ibogaine for its safety. There were drawn up protocols for the treatment of drug addicts.
Although ibogaine was approved for the treatment of drug dependence by clinical trials (in humans) in the United States in the early 1990s, financial support was weak, which significantly delayed the development of the ibogaine topic. The NDA has opted for an experimental ibogaine treatment in Holland. Ian Bastiaans, a Dutch psychotherapist with a high reputation, became a partner of Lotsof, and in the early 90s they treated 30 drug addicted volunteers, the results of this work (up to 80% remission) were then medically evaluated in a scientific publication by Dr. Ken Olper. It was at this moment that everything went down the crooked road. The death of a young heroin addict while undergoing treatment in Holland put an abrupt end to the Dutch project. The subsequent check did not find the fault of the organizers of the project in negligence,but the lack of scientific knowledge about the effects of ibogaine prevented the establishment of the actual cause of death (it was believed that the cause could be interrupted smoking of opiates during treatment).
Research has returned to the United States. In 1993, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which oversees the development of new drugs, approved clinical trials of ibogaine by Dr. Deborah Mash of the University of Miami School of Medicine on behalf of the Lotsof corporation NDA International.
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Despite the new research and positive results, in March 1995, under pressure from adherents of the methodon program, the NIDA oversight committee suddenly decided to curtail further activity on the drug, and the Food and Drug Administration, the US FDA, included ibogaine on the list of No. 1 as prohibited in the application of the drug. The official report said that it was a death in Holland, and that NIDA was disappointed that ibogaine only got rid of drugs for months, not forever. Howard Lotsof later pointed out that this death, although a tragedy, was probably caused by the constant use of opium.
This delayed but did not cancel further attempts to investigate the effects and medicinal properties of ibogaine, which resulted in the following:
Ibogaine is no more toxic than aspirin, especially when taken in pill form. Studies have shown that prolonged use of ibogaine (10 mg for 30 days) does not adversely affect the kidneys, liver, heart or brain
2. In the amount of 10 to 50 mg acts on a person as an antidepressant - helps to overcome fatigue caused by depression.
3. In an amount from 300 mg to 1 g, it has oneiroid properties - it causes visual hallucinations or dreams while awake.
Very little happened in the next five years. The escalation of a legal war between NDA International and the University of Miami, accusing each other of violating contractual agreements, ended in bankruptcy first.
In the meantime, the spread of knowledge about ibogaine resulted in the fact that many people in various countries began to conduct haphazard treatment. Although usually undertaken with good intentions, such treatments were often carried out by people with little knowledge of medicine, and this led to other tragic incidents.
Two small countries, Panama and St. Kitts, have made the treatment legal in their country, and there it is available in private clinics, but only for a price of $ 10,000. Unlicensed medical clinics in Mexico currently offer this treatment for a slightly cheaper price of $ 4,000.
There are also some non-professional healthcare providers offering the same without medical conditions at a lower cost in Europe. In addition, ibogaine, whether in pure form or as an herbal extract, has become available from private suppliers on the Internet. So the only center in the Netherlands specializing in ibogotherapy is funded by private funds. The owner of the center, Sarah Glatt, sees patients on the ground floor of her country house.
Dr. Ruhl Kerssemakers, employee of Jellinek, the largest center for the prevention and treatment of various types of drug addiction in Amsterdam, believes that, despite the data of the research, insufficiently reliable articles about ibogaine are published in authoritative medical journals, and without this a breakthrough of the drug on the market is impossible …
Too few experts believe in ibogaine. This is the same as using cannabis or hemp for medicinal purposes. To launch a drug into production, a serious theoretical base is needed, but there is none. And it is extremely important for large pharmaceutical companies to make a profit on a drug - they need guarantees that it will work in the future. There are no such guarantees in the case of ibogaine. In addition, ibogaine is a plant extract, it is very difficult to determine the exact content of its active substance, and pharmacists and doctors do not like it.
But most likely the bottom line is that ibogaine is not a maintenance drug, it is not taken over and over again in a short period of time, and it is usually administered once. As a general rule, drugs developed by pharmaceutical companies for all purposes are maintenance drugs, since only maintenance drugs provide sufficient financial returns to justify the prior research and development costs. There are other factors that hinder the promotion of the drug on the market. Furthermore
There are also some who believe that bringing an anti-addiction drug to the market with the potential of ibogaine could be a morally questionable problem, a "conflict of interest" with groups of other corporations involved in the licensed sale of recreational substances such as alcohol and tobacco. By the way, the plant has already gained a reputation in Europe as a powerful stimulant and aphrodisiac, even surpassing the already known yohimbine plant for its beneficial effects on sexual performance.
The sensation of taking iboga is a concept of perception. Through the stillness that iboga allows to enter, a person understands what peace is. Every Bwitist believer believes that iboga is a magnificent gift of the jungle that is available to everyone, and no matter how incredible individual visions are, no matter how sacred and deep the feelings that arise in a group of believers, these reverent, merciful and loving creatures with which the surrounding world abounds, he knows that everything is only emptiness, nothing exists in reality, and what all people see and feel is just a figment of the imagination, a product of the unity of universal reason.
The strangest thing in all this is the emergence among relatively primitive peoples of such an abstract concept of possibilities, with the understanding that both absolutely everything and absolute nothing are possible.
When confronted with the Bwiti religion, it becomes clear that to this day religious cults are still alive, completely based on the effects of drugs on the human brain, in which the most important is the relationship between a person and a hallucinogenic substance. This relationship is between the temporal and, at the same time, timeless significance of using sacred plants to achieve an altered state of consciousness in worship. The Bwiti followers, along with the North American Indians who ritually use the peyote, called the "Red Christ," during the ceremonies of their Primordial American Church, represent one of the greatest modern religions, based on the use of hallucinogens.
In medicine
Ibogaine is used in drug addiction practice
Ibogaine affects those receptors in the brain that are responsible for addiction. The substance also stimulates the increased production of serotonin in the body, and thus prevents the onset of withdrawal symptoms. Recent studies testing ibogaine in alcohol-dependent rats have shown that ibogaine enhances the production of proteins in the brain tissue that successfully block alcohol cravings.
Ibogaine has hallucinogenic properties but is not addictive. The drug containing the alkaloid ibogaine allows you to interrupt the dependence on chemicals, while eliminating the manifestations of withdrawal symptoms. Ibogaine treatment is done in one step. However, it may be necessary to repeat the course of treatment. Since it is not uncommon for patients to start using drugs again after the first dose of ibogaine, it takes time to become aware of the body's response, and there may be a need for another treatment with ibogaine. Experience shows that it took many patients about two years to interrupt their long-term dependence on chemicals, during which they were periodically treated with ibogaine.
Interestingly, 29 out of 35 patients who were treated with the preparation of the extract of the Tabernanthe iboga plant had previously tried unsuccessfully to be treated by other means. About ten percent of people treated with ibogaine are free from drug addiction for two years or more.
Benefits of ibogaine
Reduces the negative physiological manifestations of withdrawal syndrome (withdrawal). Patients who were treated for opiate (heroin) addiction were able to use ibogaine to reduce the negative effects of drug withdrawal, and some - to completely avoid withdrawal. This is a very important factor in addiction treatment, as many consumers are afraid to undergo treatment precisely because of withdrawal.
A single dose of ibogaine by a person seeking to cope with addiction to heroin, methadone, cocaine or alcohol usually achieves the following:
First, the complete removal of the severe withdrawal syndrome, which allows detoxification to proceed painlessly (in approximately 90% of individuals).
Secondly, the removal of cravings for drugs for a period from one week to three months (in about 60% of individuals). Finally, discovering the personal reasons underlying drug addiction behavior, leading to long-term drug withdrawal (in about 30% of individuals).
Patients who have undergone treatment have a chance to completely get rid of the need for drugs at least for a while. The experience of American and European ibogaine treatment programs shows that at least a few people got rid of addiction and drug needs after the first ibogaine treatment for two years or more. This effect can only be achieved if all stages of ibogaine treatment have been completed, namely visualization, awareness and assessment, stage of immobility, and psychological support from specialists - program staff or clinic staff - has been provided during treatment. It is not often that with other methods of treatment it is possible to ensure that a person ceases to feel the need for the drug after 24 hours. Ibogaine treatment differs in thatthat the patient stops thinking about the drug within 45 minutes after taking the drug. When the patient gets enough sleep and gains strength after going through all the stages of treatment, he does not feel the need for the drug for at least two to three days.
Unlike methadone, ibogaine is non-addictive, does not require systematic use, and therefore provides greater freedom. A person may need an additional course of treatment (maybe more than once), but he should not take ibogaine systematically.
Act
Onset: The body responds 45 minutes after ibogaine is taken orally. The first stage lasts for 2-2.5 hours: hearing sharpens, sounds become vibrating and booming, there is a violation of coordination of movements. After 1-2 hours, ibogaine can cause an increase in blood pressure by 10-15%, an increase in heart rate (especially if a person has previously experienced anxiety and anxiety), and a slowdown in the heartbeat. After 4 hours, nausea is experienced, vomiting begins, and can vomit several times.
Then visualization begins: like a movie or alternating slides that reflect events from life. Hallucinations begin, in which people see themselves from the outside and travel through the labyrinths of their own memory, under the guidance of a mysterious "guide", whom some call the "spirit of iboga." There is a revision of your own life, important moments or the experience of strong sensations. Ibogaine causes a shift in consciousness and leads to awareness at the level of once experienced psychological trauma. The use of ibogaine allows you to experience suppressed problems and fears in yourself and to look at yourself and the world around you in a different way. The rendering stage usually lasts 3-5 hours, then the viewing stops abruptly.
Assessment: If a person used ibogaine for sacred or medicinal purposes, then after the stage of visualization there should be an awareness and assessment of what he saw and, consequently, the person's attitude to his own life and decisions. During his life, everyone makes decisions, and sometimes it seems that you can only do this and not otherwise. Revision of situations under the influence of ibogaine allows you to return to some situations, reevaluate them and see alternative solutions. This can lead to changes in decisions made in the present, including the desire to get rid of addiction.
Exit: This stage is replaced by a state of immobility and rest, when a person lies completely motionless and dozes. This condition differs from paralysis or sleep, as the patient is able to get up and walk, while experiencing certain difficulties.
Ibogaine causes temporary sleep disturbance. Disruption of biological rhythms may occur. Sleep duration is reduced to 3-4 hours a day. It may take a month or more for sleep to gradually improve.