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Shock the Junkie: A hallucinogen called ibogaine has helped addicts kick heroin, meth...
OC Weekly ^ | 11/18/10 | KEEGAN HAMILTON

Posted on 11/21/2010 4:14:51 PM PST by FTJM

A hallucinogen called ibogaine has helped addicts kick heroin, meth and everything in between. Is it the trip that does the trick?

Ron Price needs his milkshake. It’s 10 o’clock on a Monday morning, and the baldheaded, barrel-chested former bodybuilder is shuffling around the kitchen of a posh rehab clinic in Tijuana, wearing slippers and a blue Gold’s Gym T-shirt. Price was employed as a stockbroker in New Mexico until his training regimen left him with debilitating injuries that forced him to undergo 33 surgeries in less than a decade. His doctor prescribed Oxycontin, and Price quickly became dependent on the potent painkiller. More recently, he started snorting cocaine and chugging booze to numb the pain. Now, 53 years old and three weeks into rehab, all he wants is a milkshake and to crawl back into bed.

Clare Wilkins, the vivacious 40-year-old director of Pangea Biomedics, pops the lid off the blender to check the consistency of the concoction Price craves: peanut butter, soy milk, agave syrup, hemp protein powder and a few scoops of chocolate-flavored Green SuperFood.

Oh, and a half-teaspoon of root bark from the tabernanthe iboga plant.

Taken in sufficient quantity, the substance triggers a psychedelic experience that users say is more intense than LSD or psilocybin mushrooms. Practitioners of the Bwiti religion in the West African nation of Gabon use iboga root bark as a sacrament to induce visions in tribal ceremonies, similar to the way natives of South and Central America use ayahuasca and peyote. Wilkins is one of a few dozen therapists worldwide who specialize in the use of iboga (more specifically, a potent extract called ibogaine) to treat drug addiction.

(Excerpt) Read more at ocweekly.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: ibogaine
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1 posted on 11/21/2010 4:14:57 PM PST by FTJM
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To: FTJM

Price was employed as a stockbroker in New Mexico until his training regimen left him with debilitating injuries that forced him to undergo 33 surgeries in less than a decade.


Wow—being a stockbroker must be a lot tougher than I thought. [/s]


2 posted on 11/21/2010 4:20:50 PM PST by rbg81 (When you see Obama, shout: "DO YOUR JOB!!")
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To: rbg81

No wonder he was still in training, he wasn’t doing it right. Every stockbroker I know doesn’t even break a sweat churning their client’s accounts.


3 posted on 11/21/2010 4:22:50 PM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: FTJM

Woah... this has some pretty damn serious implications FOR its use in treating substance abuse!

VERY interesting story! Thanks for posting it!!


4 posted on 11/21/2010 4:31:27 PM PST by Danae (Anail nathrach, orth' bhais's bethad, do chel denmha)
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To: FTJM

Call me unimpressed. Any drug treatment that substitutes one drug addiction for another is not a real treatment.

I just read a similar study. I don’t remember the details, but it was essentially the same thing. The researchers reported better success with treating whatever drug addiction it was with a regiment that essentially substituted the old drug with a new one than with a regiment that involved removing all drugs. I fail to see what the improvement is.


5 posted on 11/21/2010 4:37:14 PM PST by exDemMom (Now that I've finally accepted that I'm living a bad hair life, I'm more at peace with the world.)
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To: FTJM
We used to hear this same story back when LSD was newly discovered by the general public. A few people tried using it in therapy, claimed miraculous results. Funny how these little fads never stand the test of time, though.
6 posted on 11/21/2010 4:38:26 PM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: FTJM

Not using the drugs one is addicted to works, also.


7 posted on 11/21/2010 4:40:15 PM PST by 4buttons
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To: Danae

You’re welcome. It’s strange which treatments get approved and which ones don’t.


8 posted on 11/21/2010 4:40:54 PM PST by FTJM
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To: FTJM

From FEAR AND LOATHING: ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL ‘72
By Hunter Thompson

Not much has been written about The Ibogaine Effect as a serious factor in the Presidential Campaign, but toward the end of the Wisconsin primary race — about a week before the vote — word leaked out that some of Muskie’s top advisors had called in a Brazilian doctor who was said to be treating the candidate with “some kind of strange drug” that nobody in the press corps had ever heard of.

It had been common knowledge for many weeks that Humphrey was using an exotic brand of speed known as Wallot . . . and it had long been whispered that Muskie was into something very heavy, but it was hard to take the talk seriously until I heard about the appearance of a mysterious Brazilian doctor. That was the key.
Big Ed discussed the marijuana question
for the dope-smoking students in Madison,
Wisconsin, moments before refusing
to take a toke himself. Later
in the campaign, however, it was
reported that Senator Muskie was a
known user of a powerful drug called Ibogaine.

I immediately recognized The Ibogaine Effect — from Muskie’s tearful breakdown on the flatbed truck in New Hampshire, the delusions and altered thinking that characterized his campaign in Florida, and finally the condition of “total rage” that gripped him in Wisconsin.

There was no doubt about it: The Man from Maine had turned to massive doses of Ibogaine as a last resort. The only remaining question was “when did he start?” But nobody could answer this one, and I was not able to press the candidate himself for an answer because I was permanently barred from the Muskie campaign after that incident on the “Sunshine Special” in Florida . . . and that scene makes far more sense now than it did at the time. Muskie has always taken pride in his ability to deal with hecklers; he has frequently challenged them, calling them up to the stage in front of big crowds and then forcing the poor bastards to debate with him in a blaze of TV lights.

http://www2.vcdh.virginia.edu/HIUS316/mbase/docs/hsthomp.html


9 posted on 11/21/2010 4:41:17 PM PST by Brad from Tennessee (A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.)
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To: exDemMom
Call me unimpressed. Any drug treatment that substitutes one drug addiction for another is not a real treatment.

Where in the article does it say that people treated with ibogaine became addicted to it?

10 posted on 11/21/2010 4:44:49 PM PST by FTJM
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To: hinckley buzzard
We used to hear this same story back when LSD was newly discovered by the general public. A few people tried using it in therapy, claimed miraculous results. Funny how these little fads never stand the test of time, though.

The article mentions LSD and the differences between it and ibogaine.

11 posted on 11/21/2010 4:46:09 PM PST by FTJM
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To: 4buttons

If only it were that simple.


12 posted on 11/21/2010 4:48:05 PM PST by FTJM
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To: 4buttons

If only it was that simple.


13 posted on 11/21/2010 4:48:21 PM PST by FTJM
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To: hinckley buzzard
Steve Allen tried it, so did Bill Wilson, founder of AA, IIRC.

http://www.google.com/custom?q=famous+lsd+users&sa=Michelle+Obama%27s+Massive+Rump+%28_!_%29...+BWAAhahaha&cof=AH%3Acenter%3BAWFID%3A1d2a7495eeed915b%3B

BTW, buzzard, famous Merry Prankster Ken Babbs grew up not far from Hinckley, in Mentor, where I grew up, and thereby hangs a tale for another day...
14 posted on 11/21/2010 4:53:12 PM PST by 4buttons
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To: FTJM

It is, actually. Ponder upon it.


15 posted on 11/21/2010 4:55:09 PM PST by 4buttons
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To: 4buttons

Nope, it isn’t.


16 posted on 11/21/2010 4:56:54 PM PST by FTJM
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To: FTJM
A hallucinogen called ibogaine has helped addicts kick heroin, meth and everything in between.

Perhaps this should be tried by many in government to reduce their addiction to the spending of others' money.

17 posted on 11/21/2010 4:57:40 PM PST by Pearls Before Swine (/s, in case you need to ask)
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To: FTJM

"I spent the last few years building up an immunity to ibogaine powder."
18 posted on 11/21/2010 5:02:26 PM PST by TigersEye (Who crashed the markets on 9/28/08 and why?)
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To: exDemMom
Any drug treatment that substitutes one drug addiction for another is not a real treatment.

The way the article reads, I tend to agree. When ibogaine treatment for substance abuse first came out some years ago it was said that one trip was sufficient to break the habit. And it wasn't a pleasant trip either, something most people would not care to repeat for recreational purposes. But the above story of some addict in a bathrobe and slippers mixing up his morning treatment fix only to shuffle back to bed doesn't sound like much of a "treatment".
19 posted on 11/21/2010 5:02:49 PM PST by SpaceBar
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To: FTJM

It is, correctly, a choice that is made every time it is used, or not used.

Simple, and immediately within the scope/range/power of just about anyone.


20 posted on 11/21/2010 5:06:13 PM PST by 4buttons
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