While we wait for news relating to cannabis treatments for opioid addiction, here is a recent article pertaining to an alternative.
Psychedelic Spotlight, Thursday, January 21, 2021 10:37 AM
This article by Jennifer Walker-Journey was originally published on Psychedelic Spotlight, and appears here with permission.
Access to ibogaine treatment could help slow the river of opioid addiction around the world. Here’s how it works.
Ibogaine treatment facilities are popping up all around the world offering those addicted to opioids hope at long-lasting recovery without enduring painful withdrawal. Yet, the therapy is outlawed in the United States, a country in the throes of an opioid epidemic. That could all soon change.
The Opioid Tsunami
The opioid crisis hit the United States in waves. The first surge hit in the 1990s as prescriptions for highlHow Ibogaine Treatment Could Wipe Out Opioid Addictiony addictive opioids like OxyContin and fentanyl were doled out to Americans like Skittles for everything from minor backaches to dental work. More than a quarter of the people prescribed opioids for chronic pain went on to misuse them and between 8% and 12% became addicted, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
The second wave came in 2010, when heroin use increased exponentially because it became easier get than prescription pills. About 80% of heroin users first misused prescription opioids, according to NIDA.
The third wave came crashing down in 2013, as synthetic opioids, particularly illicitly manufactured fentanyl, hit the market to meet the demand.
The vice-grip of opioids is felt when your body has grown accustomed to the pills but you can’t get any. That’s when your body begins to feel the signs of withdrawal, a pain so intense that’s been described as if your bones were being scraped. Withdrawal makes getting clean seem impossible. It’s so intense, in fact, most people can’t do it on their own.
Source: Benzinga Newslettersletters@benzinga.com)
Ibogaine is a naturally occurring psychoactive substance found in plants in the family Apocynaceae such as Tabernanthe iboga, Voacanga africana, and Tabernaemontana undulata. Ibogaine is a psychedelic with dissociative properties.
Preliminary research indicates that it may help counter drug addiction. However, its use has been associated with serious side effects and death. Between the years 1990 and 2008, a total of 19 fatalities temporally associated with the ingestion of ibogaine were reported, from which six subjects died of acute heart failure or cardiopulmonary arrest. The total number of subjects who have used it without major side effects during this period remains unknown. It is used as an alternative medicine treatment for drug addiction in some countries. While Its prohibition in other countries has slowed scientific research. Ibogaine is also used to facilitate psychological introspection and spiritual exploration. Derivatives of ibogaine that lack the psychedelic properties (such as 18-MC) are under clinical trials and have shown to be neither psychedelic nor psychoactive --- these derivatives of Ibogaine have indicated a positive safety profile in humans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibogaine
Psychedelic Spotlight, Thursday, January 21, 2021 10:37 AM
This article by Jennifer Walker-Journey was originally published on Psychedelic Spotlight, and appears here with permission.
Access to ibogaine treatment could help slow the river of opioid addiction around the world. Here’s how it works.
Ibogaine treatment facilities are popping up all around the world offering those addicted to opioids hope at long-lasting recovery without enduring painful withdrawal. Yet, the therapy is outlawed in the United States, a country in the throes of an opioid epidemic. That could all soon change.
The Opioid Tsunami
The opioid crisis hit the United States in waves. The first surge hit in the 1990s as prescriptions for highlHow Ibogaine Treatment Could Wipe Out Opioid Addictiony addictive opioids like OxyContin and fentanyl were doled out to Americans like Skittles for everything from minor backaches to dental work. More than a quarter of the people prescribed opioids for chronic pain went on to misuse them and between 8% and 12% became addicted, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
The second wave came in 2010, when heroin use increased exponentially because it became easier get than prescription pills. About 80% of heroin users first misused prescription opioids, according to NIDA.
The third wave came crashing down in 2013, as synthetic opioids, particularly illicitly manufactured fentanyl, hit the market to meet the demand.
The vice-grip of opioids is felt when your body has grown accustomed to the pills but you can’t get any. That’s when your body begins to feel the signs of withdrawal, a pain so intense that’s been described as if your bones were being scraped. Withdrawal makes getting clean seem impossible. It’s so intense, in fact, most people can’t do it on their own.
Source: Benzinga Newslettersletters@benzinga.com)
Ibogaine is a naturally occurring psychoactive substance found in plants in the family Apocynaceae such as Tabernanthe iboga, Voacanga africana, and Tabernaemontana undulata. Ibogaine is a psychedelic with dissociative properties.
Preliminary research indicates that it may help counter drug addiction. However, its use has been associated with serious side effects and death. Between the years 1990 and 2008, a total of 19 fatalities temporally associated with the ingestion of ibogaine were reported, from which six subjects died of acute heart failure or cardiopulmonary arrest. The total number of subjects who have used it without major side effects during this period remains unknown. It is used as an alternative medicine treatment for drug addiction in some countries. While Its prohibition in other countries has slowed scientific research. Ibogaine is also used to facilitate psychological introspection and spiritual exploration. Derivatives of ibogaine that lack the psychedelic properties (such as 18-MC) are under clinical trials and have shown to be neither psychedelic nor psychoactive --- these derivatives of Ibogaine have indicated a positive safety profile in humans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibogaine
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