Psychedelic science is experiencing a resurgence, and ibogaine seems to be the tip of the spear for Western interests. It has been shown to quickly and effectively treat substance use disorder, various depressive disorders, and shows rapid and sustained effects on neuronal structure and function, benefitting users after a single administration.
The drug is powerful, and its history is paved with challenges largely outside the view of Westernized psychedelia of the 60s and 70s, because it is simply not a fun thing to do. Its potential to heal, however, is exciting people all over the world, and is already invigorating tens of millions of dollars in investment in the United States while still listed as a Schedule I narcotic.
Derived from the root bark of a group of shrubs found mainly in Central Africa, ibogaine is generally considered to be the longest-lasting psychedelic drug known to man, and depending on who you ask, the most powerful.
The first time I attended an ibogaine treatment ceremony in Mexico, the provider offered a comparison to ayahuasca, the Amazonian plant brew of longer-lasting DMT famed for intense visions.
“While ayahuasca is often called the mother, ibogaine is the master,” the provider said.
Whereas ayahuasca journeys tend to last between 4-6 hours, ibogaine’s effects can last upwards of 24 hours or more.
It commonly produces a waking dreamlike state where users experience a wide range of reactions, and side effects often include nausea and intense fatigue lasting the duration of the experience. The person undergoing ibogaine experience isn’t guaranteed intense psychedelic visions, and the open eye visual field remains relatively stable, but what happens behind the eyelids is what makes it remarkable. Another recurring feature of ibogaine journeys is an autobiographical replay of the user’s memory behind closed eyes. This “life review” has proven to be a deeply cathartic tool for the people who take ibogaine.
The Master Molecule’s Ancestry
For millenia, various groups practicing the animistic religion of Bwiti in Gabon and parts of neighboring Central African nations have used iboga, the family of shrub plants from which ibogaine is derived. There, iboga is central to the plant medicine tradition. Iboga is part of a ritual to guide adolescents into adulthood, help the bereaved cope with loss, and serve as a medicinal tool for a range of ailments. Now, the traditional consumption of the root bark of iboga shrubs, known as “whole-plant medicine,” has been exchanged for a powdered extract of the refined ibogaine molecule that can be placed in capsules and swallowed.
From Addiction to Advocacy
In 1962, a 19-year old hanging around New York University named Howard Lotsof was chasing the next highest high after developing a habit for using heroin. What he got changed his life forever. Not only did he stop desiring the notoriously potent opioid, he then dedicated the remainder of his life to advocating for its acceptance into the Western pharmacological treatments for addiction.
The power of ibogaine comes with a catch: it has a known cardiotoxicity, and without proper care, it is potentially fatal. Mismanagement of patients in sensitive conditions at clinics outside the United States have led to several deaths, but research (and, separately, Bwiti wisdom) have shown these are preventable. In 1993, Deborah Mash P.h.D. secured the first FDA approval for a clinical trial of ibogaine in the U.S. and conducted research and clinical development studies at a substance abuse treatment center in St. Kitts from 1996 to 2005. She discovered that ibogaine’s active metabolite, noribogaine, is likely responsible for many of the drug’s prolonged effects on the body. Mash and others have shown that safe administration of concentrated ibogaine is possible.
In a medical therapeutic setting, the cardiotoxicity can be addressed by giving patients a carefully crafted intravenous magnesium solution, additional supplementation, and closely monitored inpatient care. (It is worth noting again that the Bwiti have effectively dealt with this challenge using whole-plant iboga without western medical intervention for a very, very long time.)
Veterans and Visionaries
In recent years, enormous contributions to ibogaine’s acceptance as a viable treatment have come from military veterans. A landmark study from researchers lead by Nolan R. Williams M.D., head of the Stanford University Brain Stimulation Laboratory, showed that, in addition to helping people recover from opioid addiction, a single treatment with ibogaine could profoundly impact patients dealing with complex post traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety.
The study, published in Nature Medicine, showed that out of the 30 Special Operations Forces veterans with mild traumatic brain injury who participated, 86% reported feeling no major symptoms of PTSD, and 83% appeared to have made a full recovery from depression and anxiety respectively one month after a single-dose of ibogaine.
Some of the biggest bets in psychedelics are being made on ibogaine and its spinoffs by prominent technologists and venture capitalists including Sergey Brin of Google, who supported Williams’s own company, Soneira Bio, to the tune of $15 million last summer. Other companies have cropped up as well. Deborah Mash’s DemeRx is exploring the therapeutic potential of ibogaine’s active metabolite, noribogaine, and others still like Delix Therapeutics are synthesizing entirely new molecules based on ibogaine. Earlier this year, the state of Texas made the largest commitment of public funds to study psychedelics in history when Governor Greg Abbot signed a bill committing $50 million to researching ibogaine. Other states like Arizona and Mississippi are beginning to follow suit.
The Ethics of Extraction
At a time when depression and drug addiction are among leading causes of disability and death in the world, the explosion of ibogaine’s global profile could prove to be one of the most significant medical innovations of the 21st century. It could also reshape the economic welfare of a part of the world left behind by extractive capitalism. Iboga and its extracts have been poached severely over the last several decades, impacting the culture and the ecosystem that have carried them through the ages.
“Buying iboga without indisputable proof of its origin is not only totally illegal, but it is also responsible for the extermination of all kinds of protected species, notably elephants, panthers, pangolins, gorillas,” Yann Guignon told DoubleBlind in 2023.
Guignon is the CEO and co-founder of Blessings of the Forest, a social organization (Community Interest company based in UK + NGO based in Gabon) that has focused on the conservation of cultural & natural heritage of Gabon.
“Ninety five percent of the iboga(ine) sold online is from trees that have been poached from the Gabonese public domain, reserved for local traditional Bwiti practitioners, and from the protected national parks of Gabon,” Guignon said.
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A Moment of Unblinding
In a talk Nolan Williams gave to the MAPS Psychedelic Science Conference, he pointed out the sudden, explosive interest in ibogaine and iboga as a moment of unblinding for Western industry and medicine.
“The West can’t discover things it can’t see, and the West has no reason to look at something if it can’t at least see the indigenous peoples first,” Williams said.
Ibogaine is now on full display for the global community, and its impact is impossible to ignore.
