What About Ibogaine- Dana Beal

Found at Salon;
neglected by Covington & Burling;
censored at the Huffington Post

http://letters.salon.com/books/feature/2010/06/28/cocaine_nation_interview_ext2010/view/index8.html?show=all

What about ibogaine?

It's hard not to be frustrated by the circularity of the arguments in this thread when you happen to have a key chip of information that would change the whole equation. Several people opined that there's no scientific answer for cocaine addiction. But that's only because, like most people in the United States, they do not know that a broad spectrum addiction interrupter, Ibogaine, is being withheld from the American people by their government, which has classified it as a Schedule I drug. Ibogaine is not a maintenance drug. A single dose or short course of treatments alleviates both withdrawal from and cravings for opiates, cocaine, meth-amphetamine, alcohol and cigarettes--but not cannabis (neural pathways are too similar). So it is perfect for polydrug dependency. Short term effects similar to a mix of wellbutrin, ketamine and salvia divinorum DISSOLVE the drug habit. In the medium term ibogaine, which sequestered in body fat, turns into a metabolite which is a powerful anti-depressant. But its permanent effects result from the expression of a growth factor, GDNF (glia-derived neurotropic factor) that not only re-sprouts dopamine neurons, but back-signals to the cell nucleii telling them to keep making GDNF so that the regeneration process continues even after ibogaine is eliminated by the body.

The only reason why ibogaine is illegal is that in 1967 the feds decided it was too similar to LSD. That was before we knew that it is not a hallucingen at all, but a true oneiric--a REM-ogen.

Understand that if ibogaine were legal, far more people would do it for alcohol and cigarettes than all the illegal drugs combined. But it makes no sense for a medical cure for cocaine and meth to be more illegal than the drugs you're talking about legalizing. It is also frustrating that I can't ask Thomas Feiling about ibogaine. But maybe he'll read this. Then again, maybe your moderator will decide this is off-topic, and delete it like the Huff Post.
—danabeal Read danabeal's other letters
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