mew said:
any part of t iboga is a schedule 1 felony in the usa, inlcuding ibogaine...
schedule 1 means there is no medical use for the substance and therefore it is only hazardous
its ironic when government funded studies regarding iboga/ibogaine conclude unequivocally that it is not only an applicable medical treatment for opiate addiction, but unrivaled as a medicine for those suffering in that way
the same thing goes for psilocin/psilocybin, yet studies done by the same government that declares they are medically irelevent show it to be an effective treatment when dealing with late stage terminal cancer patients, treating them psychologically to accept their fate consequently increasing the quality of life they have left exponentially...
the laws are a travesty and only through spreading truth can they finally dissolve and evolve into more logical parameters.
change from within the broken system rather than fighting the whole thing with revolution, its going to be a while longer before we can see the blooms of our communal efforts, sadly
I have extremely high hopes for ibogaine, but here's the thing:
By some estimates, ibogaine use has a mortality rate of about 1 in 300. Deaths from ibogaine have been attributed to bradycardia (slowing of the heart), lethal combinations with other substances, liver problems, and other conditions. Anyone interested in using ibogaine to treat substance abuse should carefully weigh the risks and benefits of treatment, and should ensure that medical assistance is available during the session.
MAPS has completed two observational studies of the long-term effects of ibogaine treatment on patients undergoing therapy at independent ibogaine treatment centers in Mexico and New Zealand. Image: Christopher Hansen Data from these studies contribute to the growing scientific literature about...
www.maps.org
This is an element of risk that is otherwise unknown with the other classic psychedelics, though ibogaine does have fairly unique pharmacology, specially regarding agonist/antagonist action at the kappa, delta and Mu opioid receptors
Pharmacology - κ-opioid, 2.2, 0.61. μ-opioid, 2.0, 0.68. δ-opioid, >10, 5.2. NMDA, 3.1, 15. 5-HT2A, 16, >100. 5-HT2C, >10, >10. 5-HT3, 2.6, >100.
The NMDA glutamate receptor also has anti-addictive properties, and while there are folks out there who want to create a form of ibogaine that is addiction treating but not psychedelic I can tell you they are doomed to fail, the serotonin receptor agonism is just as important as the opioid receptor action in this case, the psychedelic experience is the essential catalyst to lasting psychological transformation, while simultaneously the action at the opioid receptors prevents withdrawal.
I have high hopes for ibogaine, though I feel people need to be aware that this stuff is serious medicine, and that there are serious potential risks, it's very important to find a quality facility that provides top quality medical supervision and care, because death is a possibility here....
Now, with psilocybin/psilocin, mescaline, dimethyltryptamine, and THC there's never a possibility of death as a result of toxic overdose from the compound (there are three reported deaths from psilocybe fungi (
Erowid Psilocybin Mushroom (Magic Mushrooms) : Fatalities / Deaths ) two cases are very murky and the other involves a heart transplant patient, so I'm confident in saying death is not a risk from consumption of psilocybe fungi)
The classic psychedelics (DMT, LSD, psilocybin/psilocin, mescaline, marijuana) are incredibly safe, and with the exception of LSD, have all been time tested by thousands of years of human use, in Mexico there is even recorded use of the seeds of certain morning glory vines which contain lysergamides similar in structure to LSD, so human use of all of the classic psychedelics is nothing new. Even modern pharmacological science has shown the intrinsic safety if these compounds, as is pointed out by Dr. David E. Nichols here:
As senior LSD researcher Dr. David Nichols, Distinguished Chair of Pharmacology at Purdue University and head of one of the world's top LSD research labs, stated in his 2004 review article on hallucinogens, "There is no evidence that any of the hallucinogens, even the very powerful semisynthetic LSD, causes damage to any human body organ. [...] Hallucinogens do not cause life-threatening changes in cardiovascular, renal, or hepatic function because they have little or no affinity for the biological receptors and targets that mediate vital vegetative functions.-erowid
When we look at these cultures that have been using these plant psychedelics for generations, we do not see genetic mutations, still-births, blindness, deformities, early death, etc...we see that these plants and the compounds contained in them are either benign to the health of the populations which consume them, or they seem to be having medical benefits. ( in western culture we think of health as more physical than anything, where in these cultures psychological health and physical health are one in the same, so I feel it's no coincidence that we do not see mental illness in these cultures, and that our culture's attempts at treating mental illness always fail because it's fully devoid of plant entheogens.)
With the exception of marijuana and THC and the cannabinoid compounds as well as salvia divinorum and the salvinorin compounds (which are diteroeniod hydrocarbons that do not contain any nitrogen, are not alkaloids or amines) all the classic psychedelics are tryptamines or phenethylamine and all share close relation to endogenouse neurotransmitters (serotonin is 5-hydroxy-tryptamine, meletonin is N-acetyl-5-methoxy-tryptamine, pinoline is 6-MEO-tetrahydro-ß-carboline, and dimethyltryptamine is endogenous as well, psilocin is 4-hydroxy-dimethyltryptamine, psilocybin is 4-phospholoxy-dimethyltryptamine, and so on, you get the picture, now, on to the phenethylamines, dopeamine is 3,4-dihydroxy-phenethylamine and is related to the endogenous neurotransmitters epinephrine, nor-epinephrine, etc...so in all actuality these classic psychedelics (with the exception of THC and salvinorins) are exogenous neurotransmitters. These are not tertiary compounds, these are not waste products, these plants and fungi are expending mass amounts of effort and energy to produce these things, which have no obvious benefits to the organism, that is unless you realize that the organism is reaching out, looking for symbiosis with creatures with chemically advanced brains which function on higher neurotransmitters...
To be considered schedule one, a compound must :
·Be dangerous
·Be addictive
·Have No medical value
None of the classic psychedelics (all of which are in schedule I ) fit any of these prerequisites for that scheduling class...
Even though ibogaine has potential risks I feel it too should be liberated from its unjust scheduling along with every other psychedelic or shamanically important plant...
I would love to see ibogaine become an option for addicts in the United states, methadone really doesn't do much as far as addiction goes, the patients are still very addicted, they will become sick if they miss a dose, and they still experience a high from the doses they take, I mean it's legal and doesn't involve needles, and it prevents withdrawal, but it does NOTHING as far as treating addiction goes, plus the methadone withdrawal lasts over 30 days, during which time the patient will not sleep, many patients describe it as far worse and lasting far longer than withdrawal from traditional opioid compounds, and methadone is really the only option other than cold turkey, or withdrawal with non-opioid medications (which sounds great, but is pure hell for the person in withdrawal and is almost as bad as cold turkey), so I would love to see ibogaine therapy reach the United states.
Sorry for the long post, I've been researching ibogaine for quite some time now, here's the legal bit as I understand it:
"Both Ibogaine and its source plant Tabernanthe iboga are Schedule I in the United States. This means they are illegal to manufacture, buy, possess, or distribute (sell, trade or give) without a DEA license.-erowid
(This means any and all parts of the plant are schedule one)
-eg