L.A. Times Ibogaine Article

In my quest to bring you the best articles and information on ibogaine, I came across an article from the Los Angeles Times written by Vince Beiser in 2004. I know this isn't exactly timely, but I believe content is king, and there's no doubt Mr. Beiser has composed a well written and researched journalistic piece on ibogaine treatment.

Beiser follows the treatment of Craig (not his real name) from Salt Lake City to San Diego to Tijuana, Mexico to be treated for his $1500 a month addiction to OxyContin and other painkillers.

Yes, there's all that stuff about Howard Lotsof and his discovery in the 1960's, the oft-repeated tale that has now become a full fledged urban legend and made Howard a bonafide folk hero and anti-establishment renegade. He's the poster child celebrity for addiction treatment around the world.

But when you peel away the repetitive addict crusader sub-story, there are actually kernels of information about Drs. Stanley Glick and Deborah Mash's significant efforts to obtain FDA approval for ibogaine analogues and metabolites. Not to mention Mash's Saint Kitt's Caribbean clinic where she has gathered scientific data on hundreds of patients. Mr. Beiser also reports on the efforts of Marc Emery, founder of the Iboga Therapy House in Vancouver, Canada and the Ibogaine Association in Mexico.

Overlooking the fact that Ms. Mash and Mr. Lotsof have had well publicized disputes and all around nastiness between them, I will say she did become an advocate and has done more in the scientific arena to bring ibogaine treatment to the people than any other scientist.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Getting that kind of proof requires controlled experiments on human subjects, which is what Mash is working toward. She has isolated a molecule called noribogaine, which is produced in the body as it metabolizes ibogaine, and which she believes is the key agent that blocks drug cravings. She is trying to get FDA approval to start human testing. On a parallel track, Stanley Glick has synthesized a chemical cousin of ibogaine dubbed 18-MC, which he also hopes to market.

Both Mash and Glick think their ibogaine derivatives will give users the drug-blocking effect without the hallucinations–something both believe is necessary if the FDA is to approve their products.

But would eliminating ibogaine’s psychedelic side diminish its effectiveness? No one knows. “For me, the ideal would be for people to take ibogaine in a controlled environment, and use the experience as part of their psychotherapy,” Mash says. “Then slap a noribogaine patch on them.”

To read the complete article, click The Magical Mystery Tour.

Ibogaine: ENDABUSE Report Video - Part 2

Part 2 of this six part series features the testimonials of 6 addicts (2 women and 4 men) with cocaine, heroin, and methadone dependencies who underwent treatment with the ENDABUSE Procedure using Ibogaine Hydrochloride.




This segment deals with their candid, graphic, and often disturbing accounts of how and why they became addicted to chemical substances. They are brutally honest about themselves, baring their inner souls and lives to the camera.

These six individuals (pioneers, actually) represented the first wave of those who went overseas to countries like Holland and Panama to be treated where Ibogaine was not restricted. In the early 1980's Howard Lotsof needed to demonstrate that the ENDABUSE Procedure to interrupt chemical dependencies and withdrawal symptoms was both valid and reproducible, not the rantings of a self-obsessed madman.

One of NDA International's early investors who was outside Howard's immediate circle of friends was a California psychotherapist, Dr. Leo Zeff, then in his late 70's, who treated dozens of patients in the 1960's using Ibogaine. Dr. Zeff, like Dr. Claudio Naranjo, were the first from the medical ranks to treat patients using Ibogaine as an adjunct to psychotherapy. When Leo went through his patient records, he discovered that a number of those who were addicts had their cravings interrupted after their Ibogaine sessions with him. The lightbulb went off in his head, and he made a sizable investment in NDA. No doubt, we were all delighted to have his professional affirmation and support.

One of the first things Howard did after Leo's involvement was to fly Dr. Zeff, his wife Norma, and himself to Gabon, Africa with a French interpreter and well known medical journal article translator, Bill Gladstone, to meet President Omar Bongo and his scientific advisor, Professor Jean-Noel Gassita. In the most diplomatic of moves, Howard told President Bongo that eboka (the Gabonese name for Iboga Tabernanthe, the name of the plant from which Ibogaine is derived) was Africa's gift to the world. Bongo immediately arranged to have several kilos of the raw botanical made available to Howard for alkaloid extraction. Howard now had access to supplies. The next part of the puzzle was treatment.

Howard traveled to Amsterdam where he found social activists in the Harm Reduction movement who advocated needle exchange to stop HIV and a society that tolerated soft drugs and prostitution. He hooked up with a prominent Dutch psychiatrist, Dr. Jan Bastiaans, who was famous for conducting psychotherapy sessions using LSD in the 1960's. Dr. Bastiaans was the first medical observer of the ENDABUSE Procedure, and his involvement created sanction from the law enforcement and medical establishment.

One by one, the addicts came from the United States to the Netherlands to be treated with Ibogaine, on nothing more than a tall tale and the conviction of Howard. They were moving into uncharted waters using their flesh and blood as guinea pigs. Dosing had to be determined. Timing and precautions had to be worked out. These people knew what was at stake, but their desire to break the horrible cycle of addiction was stronger than their fears.

And so they took the plunge.

The ENDABUSE Report Video on Ibogaine - Part 1 of 6

In 1994 Howard and Norma Lotsof and I decided to produce a corporate video on the status of NDA International's patents involving the ENDABUSE Procedure using Ibogaine Hydrochloride in the treatment of addictive chemical dependency disorders. The result was a 56 minute video that featured Howard as NDA president, scientists that presented ethnobotanical research (BeLinda Hayes, PhD) and animal studies (Patrica Broderick, Phd; Stanley Glick, MD and M.R. Dzoljic, PhD, MD) to the Food and Drug Administration, 6 addicts who were treated with ibogaine, social workers Rommell Washington and Barbara Judd, and a doctor who observed patients using the ENDABUSE Procedure (tm).




Part 1 of this 6 video series features the scientists who performed animal studies. Future videos will focus on testimonials from addicts and those who work with them.

Howard, Norma and I met as film students at New York University in 1973. It was a natural for us to document the early history of this project. I shot all the footage with Howard's assistance on lighting and Howard, Norma and I spent days in the editing room with a NewTek Video Toaster system painstakingly constructing each edit on a linear editing system using 2 VCRs. Although primitive compared to non-linear computer video editing systems today, we made do with what we had and put together the very first comprehensive video documenting the science of ibogaine combined with addict, social worker, and medical testimonials on its efficacy.

Since 1994, The ENDABUSE Report video has been shown at conferences all over the world to scientists, lay-people, organizers, and addicts. Dana Beal has ripped off parts without my permission for use in his own ibogaine videos (Dana is a friend, so I'm okay with this. He just never asked me for my okay).

This video has to be viewed in the context of history. In 1994 Howard Lotsof was still considered by the medical and 99.9% of the scientific community to be an ex-addict crackpot with unsubstantiated and ridiculous, laughable claims for a Schedule 1 illegal hallucinogen derived from the root of an African shrub that indigenous peoples have been using for centuries.

Nobody outside of a handful (counted on one hand) of scientific researchers and a very few of the addict community believed anything Howard had to say. To the medical, pharma-industrial complex, and our government, why should they believe a word of what this lay person and a bunch of outcast drug addicts were saying? Who the hell cares about society's lepers and this whining, pain-in-the-ass, ex-addict who just wouldn't shut up about ibo-who? Who did he think he was, anyway?

Fourteen years later over 300 scientific papers have been published on ibogaine. Ken Alper, MD, of NYU Medical Center estimates over 4,000 addicts have been successfully treated in mostly non-clinical settings using ibogaine to eliminate narcotic withdrawal and reduce drugs cravings from weeks to months to years. The U.S. government and your friendly neighborhood pharmaceutical conglomerates with tens of billions in profits each year continue to ignore ibogaine and millions of addicts around the world and choose to focus on drugs to maintain male erections (sorry for the dig, I know they manufacture a lot of very important drugs to treat diseases and help people like you and me).

Enough of my ranting! Thank goodness for blogs so people like me can rant and chill out in my spare time when I should be watching the tube.

BTW - I apologize for the quality of this video. The original was shot and edited on S-VHS; only a VHS dub could be found at this time to be digitized. I'm still in the process of locating the S-VHS edit master and hope to re-post a higher quality excerpt in the future.

In the meantime, please sit back, pull on some good squeeze, and enjoy.

Rocky Caravelli's Dream House Ibogaine Clinic

From Tristan Gulliford and RealitySandwich.com is a lengthy interview with ex-addict Rocky Caravelli, the Treatment Facilitator and House Manager for the Dream House, an ibogaine treatment facility in Mexico.

Dream House is a comfortable, home-style treatment environment that can accommodate up to 3 patients at a time. It has received many positive reviews from addict patients, whose testimonial videos can be seen on Youtube. Here's one of many:

Rocky goes into great depth about his experiences with ibogaine, his 25 year addiction kicked in 12 hours, his work at other ibogaine clinics, and his quest to open an ideal treatment facility to give patients the best possible experience.

Here's an excerpt:

"After two years of doing work in the underground, I got to see even more of what could make this treatment work more smoothly. People needed more time so they could get to feeling strong again, and a better environment was needed in which to do the work. It's hard to do treatments in the apartments of people where they've been using for months. It's also hard to bring people you just met into your home or to some other supporter's house. There is not enough medical support if something goes sideways and it's illegal to top it off. These are not the best of conditions to work in and I felt disrespectful to the spirit of the plant."

"Well, we have learned a lot about working with this medicine and have grown in intuition and clarity for what protocols to use. Everything is per individual. Everyone is unique in their needs. Sometimes we have to go slow, using many small treatments. Sometimes we need to really push through boundaries or blockages and address withdrawal symptoms. We see people with so many different situations. Hard core addiction to heroin and stimulants like meth-amphetamine require that we provide a strong support in pre-treatment and many additional boosters. Treatment for methadone can go on for days or weeks sometimes. We receive people with emotional issues due to sexual abuse, depression, and, in many cases, just the desire to reclaim their lost sense of self and being alive. Whether people come to us for addiction to substances or for psycho-spiritual development, the truth is that all of what needs to be addressed stems from a spiritual base, and that is why the treatment itself is just the beginning of the process. It takes time for people to process and integrate their session. Sometimes it takes months to pass in order for people to really understand and look back to see what's been changing from the inside out."

To read the entire article (highly recommended), click Spiritual Healing in the Dream House.

Yippie Leader Dana Beal on Ibogaine Clinics

Yipster Dana Beal was released from jail on drug money laundering charges. The $150K he had in his possession when he was arrested was, according to Dana, money raised to open an ibogaine clinic. In his interview on Paul De Rienzo's New York City public cable TV talk show "Let Them Talk", Dana talks about his recent arrest and ibogaine clinics in Mexico and Canada to treat methadone, opiate, alcohol, and other addictions.

Rocky Caravelli's "Dream House" clinic in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico where addicts treat addicts is mentioned (for details, call 503-922-1089 in Portland, OR) as well as Claire's medical clinic where doctors treat patients (for info, call 213-505-5992).

To see the video, click Dana Beal on Ibogaine Clinics.

The Politics and Polemics of Ibogaine

Ibogaine as a psychotropic would always be controversial. Howard Lotsof and I knew this from the get go. What we never expected was that greed and betrayal would ultimately sabotage an enormously worthwhile project, one that could potentially benefit millions of people.

Somewhere along the line, during a 20+ year odyssey that spanned the best years of my life, politics and polemics would get in the way of commercializing ibogaine treatment. What could not be stopped by the pharma-industrial complex or our shortsighted federal government, was the tide of the addicts themselves, weary and war-torn, always on the frontline of human suffering, who were desperate and clever enough to bypass all the oppressive societal mechanisms and treat themselves. This has become the almost righteous legacy of ibogaine.

Fifteen years ago when reports of ibogaine animal studies were being published from Eastern Europe, I turned to Howard and proclaimed, "This thing you started has taken on a life of its own. And no one can stop it. We are about to become bystanders."

Another friend warned me that Howard should never have attempted to make money off of ibogaine. She said he should give his discovery away as a "gift to mankind." Deep down, I felt the truth of her words gnaw at my soul, but the wheels had already been set into motion, and I became just another observer of a tsunami, a juggernaut that could not be stopped.

It should be noted, however, that Howard tried to raise money via a non-profit, his Dora Weiner Foundation, from 1983 through 1986. During this 3 year period do-gooders only kicked in about $10K, hardly enough to launch an effort to bring ibogaine to the world. It wasn't until Howard formed NDA International, Inc., a for-profit corporation, did significant cash start rolling in to finance this against-all-odds project. I remember people did see potential in securing patents and opening for-profit treatment centers, given the potential (and highly conservative) estimate of a patient base of a half million narcotic addicts in the United States.

From Simon Witter and the drugs-forum in the U.K. is an unabridged version of an article that appeared in The Times Magazine (London), July 1998. It is a detailed account of the disastrous struggle Howard Lotsof faced in the final years of our company, NDA International. It is also a breathless testament to the addict ibogaine experience and it illuminates why this gift to mankind will never go away.

The piece begins:

It may change society and save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people (at a conservative estimate), but ibogaine development is being tied up in a bitter legal war that has already almost ruined the man who discovered it. Is this the blessed chalice, the cure to drug addiction and more? Is it the greatest pharmaceutical discovery of the late 20th century? Or will it turn out to be just another story of a maverick visionary being shafted, and all benefits lost to mankind?

Click to read the entire article, A Journalist Investigates Ibogaine: Its Effects and Its Politics.