Hippy Drug Could Cure Alcoholism

Britain's daily tabloid THE SUN published an article today about the University of California at San Francisco's recent animal studies using ibogaine. This hallucinogenic drug taken by "hippies" was found to be surprisingly effective in interrupting the behavior of rats addicted to alcohol.

The Sun mistakenly characterizes ibogaine as becoming "popular in the Sixties because it caused vivid hallucinations" -- which is untrue. The ibogaine experience is extremely long, lasting in most cases over 30 hours, and is so physically taxing and mentally exhausting that nearly every person who's tried it recreationally swear never to do so again. This word-of-mouth has definitely prevented widespread abuse amongst psychedelic thrill seekers.

According to the article, "Experts at the University of California made the discovery by turning mice into alcoholics, making them give up drinking for two weeks, then giving some of them ibogaine. The rodents who took the drug no longer craved booze, while the rest continued to drink alcohol when offered it."

Quite shocking is the statistic that alcoholism accounts for 7% of the deaths of British men aged 15-44. It's easy to understand why the U.K. is pursuing every avenue to combat its massive alcohol problem. Fortunately, ibogaine is not illegal in England, and there is an underground of addicts treating addicts.

Check out the first part of a nationally broadcast BBC documentary that explores British ibogaine treatment called "Detox or Die".



Check out The Sun article, Hippy drug cures drunks.