Thursday, 7 February 2013

The Merits And Demerits Of Ibogaine Therapy

By Terrie Joyner


The abuse of illicit drugs is a destructive practice that has destroyed many families and societies in the modern world. Narcotics such as crystal, ecstasy, heroin and cocaine are in high circulation in street and clubs. As a result, the lives of many youths have been derailed and they find themselves struggling to back out of their ill habits. Ibogaine therapy has recently been in the limelight for its assumed ability to solve drug dependency problems.

Ibogaine was discovered in the early sixties by a heroin junkie who went by the name of Howard Lotsoff. The substance is manufactured by extraction from a shrub that grows in some parts of Africa. Scientists have classified the product under the term psychedelic to refer to its effect on the brain.

Upon using the drug, Lotsoff went into a temporary hallucination stage that lasted for nearly thirty hours. After regaining consciousness, the junkie had lost appetite for heroin and did not go through the dreaded withdrawal symptoms. From then, the former junkie made it his life mission to popularize the substance and make it available to other people who were trying to find a way out of substance addiction.

Medical proponents of this product assert that it has the ability to curtail the neurotransmitter receptors in the brain that cause urges for using narcotics. This means that the drug interrupts the normal behavior of a brain by resetting it to a period before using narcotics or alcohol had begun. As such, the patient is able to assess their addiction to drugs from an impersonal perspective.

A huge number of users have professed that the therapy occurs by creating a nasty taste in the mouth of the user. As such, many dependents are left too sick to ingest food leave alone opiates. Other than the few testimonials available, not much else is known about the effectiveness of the therapeutic process. Scientists have not spent time on research or study of its chemical composition and can only compare it to some opiates.

For one to go clean the conventional way, they must be really determined and ready to go through endless bouts of fever, physical weakness, loss of appetite and hallucination. The common word for these physiological conditions is withdrawal symptoms. Nevertheless, use the substance has been said to eliminate these unpleasant conditions.

It is a difficult process for the drug to be absorbed and accepted as a mainstream cure for addicts. This is because the original chemical structure of the product resembles many opiates and hard narcotics. This raises the fear that some addicts might turn from their usual drugs and commence using the so called cure. In this regard, the herb is not registered for use by the health authorities in the United States.

In many developed countries, the administration and use of ibogaine therapy as a curative technique for junkies is not explicitly accepted. This is mainly since there is not much objective evidence to prove its success and the presence of psychedelic substances. Individuals who choose to follow underground channels to obtain the product must use it under the care of a qualified physician.




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1 comment:

  1. Good post. I think recovery assistance and treatments like Ibogaine Therapy is very good help in addiction recovery.

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