One Pill Makes You Better

From the Sacramento, California News & Review comes this article about Americans travelling abroad to receive ibogaine treatment.

"American Drug and Alcohol Addicts Are Going Abroad in Search Of Ibogaine, a Purported Miracle Treatment That Is Banned in the United States. Will the Drug Industry Ever Embrace a Substance That Causes A Hallucinatory High?"

Here's an excerpt from this well written account:

"The first thing was a loud buzzing in his ears, as though a swarm of bees was swirling around his head. Then the hallucinations kicked in. The patterns in the blanket tacked to the ceiling above him glowed vibrantly and then began transforming into the faces of members of his family, faces that turned themselves inside-out and back again. He saw his father finding him dead with a needle in his arm. He saw himself in a beautiful field of flowers. He saw Jesus standing outside the Earth, creating different races of men and placing them on different continents. While Shawn's mind reeled through this visual cacophony, his body lay quietly in a darkened room in a house near Tijuana, Mexico, deep in the grip of a powerful psychedelic drug. The South Sacramento house where he lived with his father was far, far away. Shawn ( who asked that his real name not be printed ) was in Tijuana because he was desperate. He was addicted to heroin and cocaine, a suffocating habit that had landed him in jail several times and had left him so wretched--even when he was out from behind bars--that he wanted to die."

Check it out: One Pill Makes You Better

African drug Ibogaine blocks alcohol cravings

Here's an article of interest from the University of California at San Francisco's Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center:

"A naturally occurring hallucinogen advocated by some clinicians as a potent anti-addiction drug has been rigorously studied for the first time, confirming its ability to block alcohol craving in rodents, and clarifying how it works in the brain."

Their findings were published in The Journal of Neuroscience.

The complete article is "African drug Ibogaine blocks alcohol cravings". Well worth checking out.

Portlander establishes a new Mexican connection for ibogaine, a controverisal drug that some say can help addicts.

From http://www.shroomery.org/ comes a great human interest story about a man who opened an ibogaine treatment facility in Mexico as a result of his own experience with the drug:

Rocky Caravelli worked as a flooring contractor for 23 years installing hardwoods, linoleum and carpeting in Portland and the San Francisco Bay Area. But three years ago, he became something else: an evangelist. Not for God, but for ibogaine, an illegal substance that is finding popularity in Portland.

Ibogaine is used to treat drug addiction, and Caravelli has plenty of experience with that. For 15 years, he abused methamphetamines, heroin and even methadone.

After visiting four different rehab clinics and spending time in and out of Narcotics Anonymous, Caravelli went to Mexico to learn about ibogaine, an alkaloid from the root bark of the iboga plant, which grows in West Central Africa. In 2003, Caravelli visited a Mexican ibogaine clinic, where he could legally buy the drug. He spent $3,000 to take two doses in three days. On the third day, he awoke in Tijuana and realized his teeth had stopped hurting and that all he wanted to do was lie naked in the sun.

"It was like I was returned to my natural state overnight," says Caravelli, 42.

Since then, Caravelli says, he's been clean. He returned to Portland, sought out other drug addicts and preached to them the gospel of ibogaine.

For the complete story, click here.

Boaz Wachtel on Ibogaine

I count Boaz Wachtel as a comrade. I met him in the mid-1990s through Howard and Norma Lotsof when he was living in New York City. If my memory is correct, he came to us through another close mutual friend Bob Sisko who established the International Coalition of Addict Self Help (ICASH) in the Netherlands circa 1993.

Like us all, Boaz became swept up in the ibogaine movement and was treated with ibogaine for nicotine addiction. I believe his experience included a vision that peace in the Middle East was possible through water, a project he has championed ever since. Boaz returned to Israel and has become an ibogaine advocate there.

Here's an interview with him:

The Ibogaine Underground

From WBUR, Boston's NPR news source, is a radio talk show segment. Here's the write-up:

When it comes to heroin and other powerful addictions, withdrawal is a long, painful process. And when it's over, it's not over, because the cravings are still there.

But there is a little-known drug called ibogaine that is traditionally used in Africa for certain tribal ceremonies. Taking it can induce visions, but mostly, people say, it is awful.

But not as awful as the withdrawal symptoms from drugs like heroin. And it seems to have a remarkable side effect: it temporarily stops the craving for highly addictive drugs like heroin. It is controversial, and except for research, its use is illegal.

Addicts in the United States travel to Mexico or the Caribbean island of Saint Kitts for treatments. Or, they can go the more dangerous route of contacting the so-called ibogaine underground in the U.S.

Imitri Mugianis, speaks from Detroit where he is going to give other people a backstreet ibogiane treatment.

To hear the broadcast, click here.

Rite of Passage DVD

This is one of the best documentaries on ibogaine and the African Bwiti religious rituals where the iboga root is used as a sacrament.



"Revealing documentary about the most promising treatment modality for drug dependance available. It is the only substance we know, which is capable of blocking acute withdrawal in opioid addicts as well as cocaine and alcohol.This natural occuring molecule cannot be patented and is not a maintanance drug with addictive properties; reason for the pharmaceutical industry not to show interest...Educate yourself about this unique tool."

You can purchase this video by visiting www.ibogainefilm.com

New and Noteworthy

The news just keeps on coming.

Here's a 57 minute radio podcast of interest:
Madness Radio: Treating Addiction with Psychedelic Ibogaine
Rocky Caravelli talks about his recovery from 25 years of methamphetamine and heroin addition and a bipolar diagnosis through treatment with Ibogaine, a visionary plant medicine from indigenous people in West Africa, and his work helping many others heal.

Voices and Visions from Outside Mental Health – Produced by freedom-center.org & theicarusproject.net. Broadcast live weekly Thursdays 4-5 pm EST on FM Pacifica Affiliates WXOJ-LP Northampton, Mass, & KWMD Kasilof, Alaska.

Comment on Sacred Addicts
by Moughessangana
Iboga is safer than ibogaine and being treated in Gabon by an Nganga would be first on my list just because of the history of Pentagon funded ‘Skunk Projects’ aimed at data collection, & duping unwitting guinea pigs into submitting to experimentation & unnecessary screening. Medical Apartheid.

Howard Lotsof Speaks About Ibogaine

Howard Lotsof, who discovered ibogaine's ability to interrupt addiction and narcotic withdrawal symptoms, is interviewed.

Ibogaine Sessions at the Int'l Harm Reduction Assoc Barcelona conference in Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona represents a unique opportunity for the expansion of ibogaine therapy and to provide information on ibogaine and the medical procedures in which it is used to treat addiction and substance dependence as well as, the user self-help movement providing ibogaine therapy on a user-to-user basis.

Ibogaine presentations will be made on Monday, May 12th, 2008, during the International Harm Reduction's (IHRA) 19th Conference and on Saturday, May 17th at RAI (Recursos d'Animació Intercultural). The May 12th presentations will be made during a special session sponsored by the International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD).

The Saturday, May 17th ibogaine presentations are to afford the opportunity for addiction treatment specialists as well as, the drug using population who are not able to attend the IHRA conference to participate in the discussion of this experimental medication for those who cannot afford the costs of the harm reduction conference or for others who have conflicts on that date.

You can obtain information and view the agendas for both presentation sessions by clicking here.

New and Noteworthy

Here are some articles worth checking out (I know, I filter through a lot of chaff to find you the nuggets):

Brazzein, Bio-Tech, Iboga & Benefit Sharing in Gabon
by Caridad Del Cobre
Drug Addiction Treatment from Iboga -- Out of Central and West Africa For a very long time, Iboga (Tabernanthe iboga) has been used in Central and West Africa. In low doses, the plant serves as a stimulant to maintain alertness, for example, while hunting. In larger doses, it is a hallucinogen, traditionally used for religious purposes by ngangas and in initiation rites, (McGown, Jay, 'Out of Africa')...

Iboga Bio Piracy & Benefit Sharing
by simon
I have never heard of enyone getting rich off ibogaine and its hardly like the indegenouse people dont benefit from the process; I can say this because I deal directly with them and have also been in contact with Brainforest...

The lost promise of LSD
by Connie Littlefield
Prohibition of Albert Hofmann's 'problem child' failed to get it off the street -- and succeeded in killing legitimate research into its powerful potential to help people...

This blog is dedicated to Howard Lotsof

Ibogaine hydrochloride is an alkaloid derived from an African rainforest shrub, Tabernanthe Iboga, and used as a sacrament in the ancient native Bwiti religion during initiation ceremonies.

In 1962, nineteen year old Howard Lotsof accidentally discovered that ibogaine can interrupt heroin and other addictions for extended periods of time, while completely eliminating withdrawal symptoms. He would live with this knowledge for the next two decades, a secret very much like a defused nuclear warhead, ready to be armed and detonated upon the world.

I met Howard and his wife Norma Alexander in 1973 as a freshman at New York University's film school. They immediately befriended me (more on this in later blogs), and eventually we became swept up in each other's lives.

This blog concerns itself with all things ibogaine. It is presented as a forum and resource for a growing community of open-minded, compassionate individuals involved in a currently underground revolution of the human spirit and mind.

I dedicate this blog to Howard and Norma Lotsof, without whom there would be little if no hope for those suffering the slavery of addiction.