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Why Is This Option Beyond the Pale for Heroin Addicts?
Ted Scheinman has a piece up at Pacific Standard arguing that there already exists an effective means of helping heroin addicts conquer their enslavement to the drug:
There is only one short-term chemical therapy that actually obviates the wrenching withdrawal symptoms of any opiate. This therapy involves the administration of a therapeutic dose of ibogaine, an alkaloid derivative of a family of plants in Central West Africa that Bwiti worshipers have long used as a visionary sacrament. A dissociative and powerful psychedelic compound, ibogaine induces a dream-state described variously as beatific, clarifying, and terrifying; the after-effects, usually a hazy state of dull relaxation, can last a number of days. In the majority of reported cases in Europe and Africa, cravings disappear once the psychoactive iboga wears off…
This treatment is scarcely even spoken of, let alone officially researched, because ibogaine is itself a psychedelic drug:
Most scientists at R1 schools (especially those with a research budget to lose) are uncomfortable speaking publicly about the treatment because to do so is to league oneself with the black sheep of the American scientific community—psychedelic researchers, a culture still stained by the legacy of Timothy Leary’s decades-long LSD boosterism. Even tenured researchers express a certain skittishness when the subject arises.
There is one organization, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), that is pursuing research on the use of ibogaine for heroin addiction. MAPS is conducting studies of the long-term effects of ibogaine on patients undergoing therapy at independent treatment centers in Mexico and New Zealand. Rick Doblin, a public policy Ph.D. from Harvard’s Kennedy School who co-founded MAPS, advocates a multilateral treatment program that combines ibogaine with “collaborative rehab and the talking cure.”
The war on drugs is costing taxpayers an annual $51 billion and accomplishing very little. Surely it’s reasonable to suggest that a portion of that whopping tally be expended for research into a practical solution to the nightmare of addiction? Where is the logic in the continued refusal to countenance research into the beneficial effects of psychedelic drugs?
Published in General
Sing it, Brother.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi2XCsPKlY8
Lyrics for “Needle and The Damage Done” – by Neil Young
Manfred, the fact that the poppies just flowed under US control should tell us everything we need to know.
What was your post?
I take away a few things: psychedelics did not cause you to go insane (even though you pushed the envelope by going into difficult situations)
I’m not asserting that they cure depression in every case – certainly not in untherapeutic and deliberately stressful environments.
They are non-addictive.
I too have taken various psychedelics , mostly in my youth.
Advocacy is problematic.
There are a number of drugs which reduce symptoms of acute withdrawal from opioids. There is nothing wrong with finding another one and we should do so. As PSH’s death shows, however, long-term recovery is more problematic and far less amenable to management with medications. Relapse after significant periods of abstinence is not related to withdrawal. The first physicians who treated alcoholism/addiction pretty much gave up on long-term medical management of the problem and believed the patients needed a change in their moral psychology – a “spiritual awakening.”
This “spiritual awakening” is the goal of 12-step recovery programs, which do not in any way excuse members from responsibility for the consequences of their behavior. Such recovery programs create a fellowship of similarly suffering individuals whose mutual support allows many to remain abstinent long-term. My own suspicion is that every human being is born dependent for our very lives on other human beings – usually parents. Without their care we would die. Addicts behave as though the next fix is a matter of life and death. Perhaps the drug dependency has its roots in our universal human dependency on fellowship with others. Recovery programs offer this.
…Incomprehensively to most people, subjects have no craving or desire for more psychedelics either. This is one reason classifying them as ‘drugs’ is misleading….. ·2 hours ago
I can agree with you on point 1. But on point 2 – “Subjects have no craving or desire for more psychedelics either.” Surely you jest. I had some acquaintances – back in the day – whose drug of choice was a psychedelic. They spent one summer following the Grateful Dead around the country from concert to concert. Apparently, their desire for psychedelics re-appered almost every day. You would not believe the shattered husks that returned after that long wasted summer.
Does it?
DocJay, a follow up question reference HVT and KativeVS’s points to a lesser degree.
If someone wants to get clean do these treatments help them or can they do it from sheer willpower. As you said – withdrawal while miserable isn’t fatal.
Do you think there is a market for these treatments by convincing people that they can get clean and these drugs/treatments will ease the transition? Will they stay clean?
http://www.maps.org/w3pb/new/2008/2008_Griffiths_23042_2.pdf
Table 3 Verbatim written comments about the nature of the spiritual experience for all 24 volunteers who rated the experience at the 14-month follow-up as being among the top five (including the single most) spiritual experiences of their lives. These comments were excerpted from the Retrospective Questionnaire that asked open-ended questions about what was most memorable and what was most spiritually significant about the experience
Volunteer Verbatim comments
02 The understanding that in the eyes of God – all people…were all equally important and equally loved by God. I have had other transcendent experiences, however, this one was important because it reminded and comforted me that God is truly and unconditionally loving and present.
03 Freedom from every conceivable thing including time, space, relationships, self, etc… It was as if the embodied ‘me’ experienced ultimate transcendence – even of myself.
04 A non-self self suspended in an almost tactile field of light.
05 That in every horrible experience or frightening experience, if you stay with it, enter into it, you will find God. That the horror is in reality
only an illusion and God lies beneath it all.
07 The utter joy and freedom of letting go – without anxiety – without direction – beyond ego self
08 Collapse of ordinary space and time sense. Realization of unity of existence and relativity of ordinary consciousness… I have had glimpses of this before – but this was profound and sustained.
09 The ‘knowing’ was so powerful and yet personal. Experiencing the Beloved and falling in love.
13 The sense that all is One, that I experienced the essence of the Universe and the knowing that God asks nothing of us except to receive love.
17 I became like a point of awareness able to travel inside myself, others and the outside world. No reference to time or space… The feeling of joy and sadness at the same time – paradoxical.
21 The experience of death, which initially was very uncomfortable, followed by absolute peace and being in the presence of God. It was soawesome to be with God that words can’t describe the experience.
23 To cease to ‘BE’, as I understand it, was not frightening. It was safe and much greater than I have words for or understanding of. Whatever is larger than the state of being is what was holding me.
Point being, this is more than a ‘drug’.
This is totally demented. Used to be that we understood in this country the difference between Right (capital ‘R’) and Wrong (capital ‘W’), and geared social institutions to promote alignment with a divinely inspired moral compass, strove to fashion a society to reflect the “better angels of our nature.” Now it’s all a flight from Absolutes, a flight to “do your own thing.”
Equating the use of psychedelics with the use of”automobiles and fire”? Sick. Utterly Sick.
…
No one is saying there are no risks. Certainly some people are not suited psychologically/ or took a over-large dose/ or ingested ‘bad’ acid and any combiniation of these things – which are as much the effect of illegality and lack of regulation. This is no reason to condemn the whole family of substances called psychedelics, … By that logic, guns, automobiles and fire should all be outlawed because there are significant risks to their use.
Date:August 19, 2013http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130819185302.htmSource:The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)Summary:The use of LSD, magic mushrooms, or peyote does not increase a person’s risk of developing mental health problems, according to an analysis of information from more than 130,000 randomly chosen people, including 22,000 people who had used psychedelics at least once. The researchers found no link between the use of psychedelic drugs and a range of mental health problems. Instead they found some significant associations between the use of psychedelic drugs and fewer mental health problems.
Brent, while not fatal, serious withdrawal is brutal and the addict fears it immensely. Most junkies are very weak on some level. Yes there is a free market here, when isn’t there! Crow’s nest, I’m out and won’t be able to read that link til later.
Thanks. Have fun today.
Hi Franco, I took a peek at the study you referenced. it says that :
“Participants were recruited through flyers announcing a study of states of consciousness brought about by a naturally occurring psychoactive substance used sacramentally in some cultures.” So it seems to me that the participants were a self selected group of Carlos Castaneda wanna-be’s. ie … I am not at all surprised that a group of volunteers looking for a drug induced religious/spiritual experience found one.
B___ Cr__.
This misses the whole point. People should not entertain the use of such drugs – for MORAL reasons. If they have ‘issues’ that predispose them to trying them, they should FIX those issues. Any suggestion otherwise makes the advisor complicit in ‘sin’. You don’t have to be that religious to have a sense that the divine spark each of us houses corporeally is not nurtured pharmacologically.
(PS. I have not researched this at all, but I would be willing to bet a large sum, based on the reference below, that Norway is not currently alive with religious sentiment.)
Determining the optimum recipe for Soma seems to be taking longer than planned.
“Participants were recruited through flyers announcing a study of states of consciousness brought about by a naturally occurring psychoactive substance used sacramentally in some cultures.” So it seems to me that the participants were a self selected group of Carlos Castaneda wanna-be’s. ie … I am not at all surprised that a group of volunteers looking for a drug induced religious/spiritual experience found one.
Yes, except that there are tons of other studies including studies by the CIA in the 50’s where random people were recruited and reported essentially the same experiences. The reports of religious/mystical experiences pervade every study as well as basic anecdotal information. All you have to do is ask people who have taken the stuff.
Nice try, though.
I don’t think most would be against it (except those who complain that about those AA folks who smoke and drink too much coffee now!).
The problem usually is no mention of how addicts usually need to really want to change, usually have to hit bottom, fail and try again, and realize their maturity level most likely stopped at the point they were addicted and they have trust to recover and all will not be roses. AA addresses these things while the drug may help get them to that point.
“Participants were recruited through flyers announcing a study of states of consciousness brought about by a naturally occurring psychoactive substance used sacramentally in some cultures.” So it seems to me that the participants were a self selected group of Carlos Castaneda wanna-be’s. ie … I am not at all surprised that a group of volunteers looking for a drug induced religious/spiritual experience found one. ·9 minutes ago
Yup.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I dropped, snorted, toked, and inhaled as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. And gave away the bong to a passing Dead Head.
Speaking of which, have you ever been to Chicago, DocJay?
This misses the whole point. People should not entertain the use of such drugs – for MORAL reasons. If they have ‘issues’ that predispose them to trying them, they should FIX those issues. Any suggestion otherwise makes the advisor complicit in ‘sin’. You don’t have to be that religious to have a sense that the divine spark each of us houses corporeally is not nurtured pharmacologically.
(PS. I have not researched this at all, but I would be willing to bet a large sum, based on the reference below, that Norway is not currently alive with religious sentiment.)
What is immoral about taking psychedelic drugs? I know a lot of people like yourself believe that, I don’t know what basis they have for those beliefs.
http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/drugs-and-the-meaning-of-life/
My impression is that Huxley is onto something, and this is why psychedelics are different from drugs. They certainly aren’t an “escape from reality”. People do that quite well on their own.
I would be all for the use of psychedelics as part of treatment in controlled environment. Uncontrolled psychedelic use however seems a risk that we should not let people regulate for themselves. I have a history of schizophrenia in my family, and I have observed the power and potential physical danger of hallucinations.
I fear the flu. It’s brutal. Last time I had it, I was in bed for seven days except to use the bathroom. And that took every ounce of strength I could muster. I was exhausted but could hardly sleep. I was famished but couldn’t eat. I was delusional at times. I might have prevented this misery with a little more diligence. I made a bad choice. I have not missed a flu shot since.
Are you sure “weak” is the right word? I tend to think “ill” is an imperfect but better way to express it. Genetically disposed maybe? It seems clear that Native Americans, for example, have a problem with booze that’s unrelated to physical or psychological weakness (the latter is a problematic concept). I thank my lucky stars everyday that I can have one drink and not think about it. This an alcoholic cannot do . . . one becomes eight without their seeming to be able to control it. I don’t think we know why. But they alone must prevent it.
What was your post? #9, which when I posted it, appeared to come before yours, though it was #5 (probably not as weird as it seems).
I take away a few things: psychedelics did not cause you to go insane (even though you pushed the envelope by going into difficult situations) Exactly. I sensed it as a real accomplishment. But it didn’t keep the furies at bay.
I’m not asserting that they cure depression in every case – certainly not in untherapeutic and deliberately stressful environments. But if it only works in positive environments, the long-term success rate isn’t going to be so great, no?
They are non-addictive. Agree entirely in the long-term. Culturally, in the short-term, maybe not so much.
Advocacy is problematic. Agree completely. I’m all for trying any and all options therapeutically, a view I suspect that I hold at least in part because of my youthful experiences on LSD.
I am with Milton Friedman on the futility and immorality of the War on Drugs. From a 1998 piece in the Hoover Digest:
Drug abuse also has devastating consequences, primarily to the abusers themselves. We in the medical profession should do everything possible to help those amenable to treatment.
Of course ibogaine should be studied scientifically as a potential ameliorative for the scourge of opioid addiction.
I think so, too, in the sense that it operates experientially, whereas the word drug usually suggests something physically palliative or ameliorative, not mind-blowing.
An interesting parallel currently exists in treatment of refractory depression with sub-anesthetic doses of ketamine. It has “psychedelic” properties, like ibogaine. It is commonly used as an adjunct to general anesthesia, I.V. sedation and for treatment of chronic pain, especially in patients with terminal cancer. It does not depress respiration (the usual cause of death in opioid addicts) and causes no physical symptoms of withdrawal.
There is a growing body of evidence that modest, sub-anesthetic doses of ketamine are remarkably effective and rapid in treating depression resistant to the usual antidepressants. I strongly suspect it would have the same impact on opioid withdrawal as described for ibogaine. I remain curious to see if ketamine will be widely accepted or rejected as an antidepressant. It is inexpensive and very safe at the doses which have been studied. Will the fact that it is psychedelic result in rejection of a potentially breakthrough treatment of depression? I wait with interest to find out.
Isn’t the distinction here not drug vs. non-drug, but medicinal vs. non-medicinal? Generally, perhaps with the exception of substance abuse (but this begs the question of whether drug abuse is an illness), medicinal drugs are those things we consume for a positive medical outcome. Other drugs have some other purpose . . . communing with God or the Grateful Dead, for instance. Or for the purpose of recognizing Jerry Garcia as YHWH. (Is that thunder I hear?)
Drug abuse also has devastating consequences, primarily to the abusers themselves. We in the medical profession should do everything possible to help those amenable to treatment.
Of course ibogaine should be studied scientifically as a potential ameliorative for the scourge of opioid addiction.
If opioid addiction is a scourge, how can it be immoral to fight it? Legalizing it will encourage addiction, no? You’re saying the cure is worse than the disease, I guess. Perhaps.
I think the case against the war on drugs is inefficaciousness. We lost the war and there is as little an expectation we can win it as there is that we can Nation Build in Afghanistan.