Tripping Your Way to Sobriety: A Hallucinogen Offers New Hope to Recovering
Drug Addicts
by Patrick James, good.is
November 22nd 2010
A psychedelic trip on potent West African hallucinogens seems more
fitting as a pathway toward self-discovery than as a doctor prescribed cure to
heroin addiction. However, researchers argue that the controversial drug
ibogaine has a remarkable ability to help recovering heroin, meth, and other
drug addicts fight withdrawal symptoms, according to an article in this week's
LA Weekly, which digs into the science and community surrounding the use of the
drug.
"It was outrageously powerful," reported one ibogaine user interview in
the article. "It was like the inside of my eyeballs was an IMAX screen. It was
all-encompassing, just a multitude of images, like 80,000 different TVs, all
with a different channel on–just jillions of images, shapes, and colors."
When the trip is over, many addicts report that they do not feel the
urge to return to their drug of choice. Originally used in root form during
ceremonies by practitioners of the Bwiti religion in Gabon, West Africa,
ibogaine is served up at high-end rehab centers, like Pangea Biomedics in
Tijuana, where its blended into SuperFood milkshakes.
Despite its potential benefits, it's illegal in the United States, and
not without good reason. Many have died while taking the drug, including three
(albeit unhealthy and drug using) patients at the Pangea center. Research was
halted by the FDA when brain damage was discovered in certain rats that were
fed the drug.
However, there's a burgeoning movement, both domestic and
international, to make the drug more widely available and better understood. In
New Zealand doctors have permission to subscribe it to patients. And a debate
is swirling over whether the drug's hallucinations are an unfortunate side
effect or an integral, albeit spiritual, part of the treatment. Doctors have
extracted compounds from the drug that they hope can help fight withdrawal
symptoms without causing hallucinations, but they're still waiting to test the
derivative on humans.
Photo (cc) by Flickr user Giuseppe Bognanni
Original Page:
http://www.good.is/post/tripping-your-way-to-sobriety-a-hallucinogen-offers-new-hope-to-recovering-drug-addicts/?utm_source=supr
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