Zamir's ibogaine experience...

Pre Treatment Application

I am seeking detoxification of alcohol and the cocktail of drugs that happen to be around me when I am intoxicated. Alcohol is the catalyst for all of the foul play that takes place in the story of my life. I wouldn’t say that I am an alcoholic but once I start, it is difficult to stop. You could call me a binge drinker, I guess. I feel that the constant preoccupation with alcohol is stopping me from doing the things that I truly need to be doing. I feel like I have bigger fish to fry and I want to grow myself better.

My Ibogaine Experience

I took the 17 mg/kg of Ibogaine HCL in a series of 4 doses, half an hour apart. By the third dose, I felt as if I was getting high from ecstasy. My speech was slower and my voice went up an octave. I was also super light on my wobbly feet. By the fourth dose, I was trailing off with my conversations and was confused with what I was talking about as I began to speak. At this point, the nurse advised me to go to my room and lie down. As I lay in the bed, my hearing became magnified. When I touched anything, tin-like sounds echoed. The sounds were reminiscent of racquetballs in a racquetball court. I could also hear my pulse pounding through my head and body. It was like musical beats rummaging around the room. The sound of the fridge’s motor was bassy and provided an interesting eerie backdrop to the pulsating beats in my head. I looked up toward the ceiling and a light stared down into my eyes. Suddenly golden snowflakes started falling down on me. I felt them cool on cheeks. This was pretty cool but strange. I looked around the room to align myself with reality and was confirmed with my whereabouts. And then the spirits started to show up. A wolf dog approached me. The detail was amazing. I could see right into his eyes and his breathing was as if he was alive and well out of breath. To the right of him was a small square tunnel opening which led to open space. Like NASA space. The lights were green instead of white. I went into the tunnel and started moving very fast through the tunnel. It was almost as if I was in a space ship. I started going faster and faster and it got to a point where I couldn’t handle it anymore and then suddenly I landed in a very trippy but detailed scene. I was with my girlfriend and we were so happy and laughing and having a gay old time until my point of view stretched out a bit. Suddenly, we transformed into femo (brightly coloured clay) and began mimicking our real life actions. We were exact replicas of ourselves. The objects in our lives were all replicas made of super detailed femo. As I drew further back, I noticed that we were in a smaller part of a larger picture that was in a larger village of a bigger picture. The details were so cool. I then opened a door in one of the rooms and ended up with my eyes open and staring at the wall in my room. There was a shadow that resembled a film strip and pictures started moving down the wall like a film strip on a reel. There were so many pictures of faces and scenes. I watched them roll down the wall until I realized that I could stop on any of the pictures and either pull them out toward me or I could transfer myself into that particular picture. It was pretty weird. I saw a few scary faces with mean eyes along with smoke and fire around them. I also saw some non detailed rape scenes. I simply blinked them away and they would disappear. They almost seemed like they were the stereotypical fears that you would think of when you thought of fear. It was scary faces with fire and horrible things happening to innocent people.

When I had my eyes open, I looked to my right and I saw my girlfriend’s face. It was as if she was sleeping right next to me. I was so happy to see her as a spirit. She smiled and asked me if I was okay and that she was going to be there the entire time. So anytime throughout my experience I could look to my right on a specific angle, and Amy would be there. My mom was also just a little behind her to watch over me as well. A few times my dad began presenting himself as a spirit but I did not want to see or deal with him. My dad and I are such opposites and we often butt heads. I don’t really like him very much. I blinked him away every chance I got. Toward the end of the treatment, I let him remain as a spirit and he appeared right in front of my face. I barked at him and then he skittishly retreated to a set of steps behind him. He held his baby finger and began whining and weeping like a little child. It was weird. I had always known him to be childish and immature but I actually saw him fully grown but as a child. I felt kind of sorry for him and thought of him as kind of sad and pathetic. And then he was gone and never returned.

The weirdest part was opening and closing my eyes. When my eyes were open, I could see spirits of faces in and out of my life. When I would shut my eyes, they would open again but my eyes were still shut. It was when my eyes were shut; I went to different imaginary worlds. At one point I was in an old rickety boat with a Philipino man and he was telling me stories without speaking to me. He was teaching me about things that I am unsure of. I was getting so much out of our journey at the time but now looking back I have no idea what it was all about. It was like spiritual lessons that can’t be explained or quantified or even made sense of. At one point, he opened up his picnic basket and I went into the basket and transformed into a whole new different world. It was so neat. At one point I was in what seemed like old Paris. There were such vivid and lovely detail of cobble stone streets and random old city life. It was like a Tim Burton movie but 100 times better. There was more than just detail. There were feelings and emotions and heavy nostalgia. I couldn’t get enough of it. And then at a certain point, the visions and scenes would transform into the previous vision and then to the vision before that and then the one before that and so on. They would attach themselves to the vision prior and then flush down some subway-like tunnel and off and away from me. The next night, I realized that this flushing away scenario was caused by the cars driving on the highway throughout the night. Anytime a car would drive by, my visions connected themselves with the previous visions and then they would take off on some tunnel. In retrospect, this was kind of annoying because I could have probably spent much more time in my weird little worlds instead of them getting flushed away. Such is life, I guess.

My favourite part was when I saw myself in terms of what I could be. I have always been pretty hard on myself. I have been pretty deprecating when I look at myself in the mirror. I used to get irritated with all of my random thoughts as well. Anyhow, at one point I was looking at the wall and noticed a heater by the bed and a guy walked in wearing soccer cleats, shin pads and shorts with no top on. He had a nice athletic body and was wearing a t shirt on his head because he had just been playing soccer in sun. I looked at him and smiled and he smiled back. I remember thinking to myself about how he was such a nice looking fellow and overall cute guy. And that is when I realized that he was me. He was me if I was healthy and happy and being completely me. It was so neat. He smiled and pointed at me and then left. I got tears in my eyes at that point. Later on in the treatment, a spirit of myself came toward my face and it was not a normal mirror reflection of myself, it was me staring at me. I put my hand near my spirit face and smiled and it smiled back at me. It was quite a nice moment.

When my eyes were closed I had almost a dashboard viewing station of my brain. I had a few tunnel openings that led to different parts and aspects of images and scenes. I also had a gauge that showed new formulas on a conveyor belt going into my brain and old formulas coming out.

I could also create objects in my head. They would appear in full weight accompanied with their overall tangible properties. At one point I was holding a pink vase and I was unsure how it got in my hand. I thought that the nurse put it in there. I was looking somewhere else and when I went to look back at it, the vase had disappeared. After that I thought of an orchid and suddenly an orchid appeared to the top right of me. I picked it up and swayed it back in forth in my hand. I could even bend the stem. It was fucked. I then chucked it to the corner and it floated away.

By the end of my journey I was super tired and asked the nurse to give me some Gravols to allow me to go to sleep. Oh and in the middle of the treatment, I puked twice. It wasn’t so bad at all.

When I woke up the next day and after a bunch of thought, I realized a few things that had occurred the night before. For starters, my brain was pretty sore. It felt like it had been heavily worked out. I could feel it throbbing but in a good healthy way. For my entire trip, it was as if there was some presence that was supporting me throughout. I was always in complete and utter control but there was a sense of presence that guided me through my head. I felt really thankful and excited after. I felt like Iboga was trying to show me that if I was my true genuine self, the opportunities of the world would be completely endless. As long as I can be myself and not numb my thoughts and ideas with drugs and alcohol and anything else that takes me out of my present moment, I will be happy. I can live a life so full of imagination and trippy alternate universes and anything else my mind will allow. The Iboga taught me the things that I desired to learn via the most interesting medium possible. The neatest part of the experience is the fact that all of the imagery and beautiful settings and everlasting emotion were all concocted in my head.

Since the treatment, I have not had a desire to drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes. Usually if someone is drinking or smoking around me, I will want to indulge but as of yet, I have not a drop of desire. I don’t want to make a sweeping statement and swear off drugs and alcohol because I would hate to set myself up for failure. I just feel like I deserve to give myself a chance. And I feel happy.

Banishing addiction forever?

Banishing addiction forever?
By Carolina Sanchez /
PRAGUE DAILY MONITOR / PRAGUE WANDERER /
17 March 2009

This story is part of an occasional series of articles from the Prague Wanderer, a webzine created by New York University students in Prague. Learn more about the Prague Wanderer here.

At 7 am on 7 November 2005, in the bathroom of a Swedish Airport, Michael Korn took his last hit of heroin.

Twenty-four hours later he was in a rented house 15 minutes outside of Prague, in sheer agony from withdrawal. That afternoon, Korn got into bed, closed his eyes, and embarked on a frightening journey that saved his life.

After five years of trying to get rid of his 25-year-old addiction, Korn, now 49, had discovered the "miracle". It's known to some as the drug that cures all drug addictions: Ibogaine.

Korn had tried it all: Narcotics Anonymous, therapy, substitutions, and even went to an energy touch healer, all to no avail. But the healer told him about an Ibogaine treatment provider in Prague—Patrick Venulejo.

Venulejo, who has been working with Ibogaine since the start of the millennium, is "just praying for the day" he can move Ibogaine into clinical trials so it can become a government-licensed medicine, which can be provided by any physician. However, because of the serious psychedelic effects, Ibogaine is not a prescription anywhere in the world, and has been outlawed in several countries including the United States, France, Switzerland, and Belgium.

"It was so scary!" Korn said about the visualizations he saw after he closed his eyes. "They are very strange and not like anything else you’ve ever done. They come and go so super fast it’s like a movie on high-speed; you can’t tell the difference between ten seconds and ten years."

According to Venulejo, "you still know who you are, where you are, why you’re there, and perhaps how much you paid for it," during the hallucinations.

In 1967, the drug was banned from prescription because of the upswing in hallucinogenic drug use, along with LSD and ecstasy.

But later in the early nineties, the US National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA)—impressed by research from case reports and animal studies—began examining the safety of Ibogaine and the potential of creating treatment procedures for it.

According to Dr. Frank Vocci, Director of the Division of Treatment Research & Development at NIDA, in 1995 during a review committee meeting on Ibogaine, four committee members voted for continuing human testing and nine voted against. Those against the drug cited the few known human deaths following use of the drug, brain lesions found in rats, and the poisonous effect that developed in monkeys, which occurred during treatments.

But Venulejo says the decision to ban the drug was unjustified.

"This way, indirectly, they've killed a lot of people," Venulejo said in response to NIDA’s withdrawal from further testing. His point is that addicts are dying of overdoses that Venulejo believes Ibogaine could prevent. "Do people have any idea how many people die in hospitals?" he asked, referring to drug addicts who take a lethal dose.

There have been 12 recorded deaths linked to Ibogaine, which may have been caused by underground clinics that did not file reports when treatments began going wrong. The fatality factors range from pre-existing heart conditions, using opiates while on Ibogaine or soon after, and taking Ibogaine outside of a clinical facility where one can be acutely monitored.

Unfortunately, Venulejo does not work in a clinical facility, where costs are much higher (USD 5,000-USD 15,000), but rather from hotel rooms and homes where he charges less than USD 3,000, "enough to cover the cost and have some peanuts on top".

Discovering the possible cure for all addiction

Venulejo, son of an Italian father and Czech mother, was long interested in the evolution of consciousness.

This led to his research on Shamanic rituals, which involve communication with the spiritual world. Shamanic tribes use Ibogaine in initiations and to get in touch with spirits. "It combines, elegantly, the transpersonal and therapeutic journey," Venulejo said.

Ibogaine, extracted from the roots of a Central West African shrub, Tabernanthe iboga, is administered in oral capsules. The normal dosage is around 1.2 grams, which doesn’t always cause the visualizations.

In November 1999, Venulejo went to the first conference on Ibogaine at New York University held by Kenneth Alper, a neurologist who is pro-Ibogaine. He returned to Prague and began treating addicts.

"My first intention was to treat people, show [Ibogaine’s] potential and have people acknowledge it," Venulejo said.

In the Czech Republic, Venulejo appeared on two television news programs, TV Nova's "Áčko" in 2000, and “Na Vlastni Oci” in 2001, promoting Ibogaine with the hopes of attracting physicians’ attention. But he only got responses from people who wanted treatment, not physicians.

"It drives me mad when something works and it’s not used," Venulejo said. "They're professionals and should always be looking for the best solution."

Venulejo also approached the Czech Health Ministry to try to get Ibogaine approved as a prescription medication. But according to him, the ministry claimed to be cutting down the funds of their existing projects by 10%, and then by 30% on his second visit- therefore they couldn't investigate Ibogaine.

Now Korn and Venulejo are trying to register a foundation in Sweden that will promote independent medicines such as Ibogaine. The goal is to create funds through the foundation and loosen Ibogaine's prohibition.

Venulejo is now traveling around Europe, "focusing on spreading the word" and training more physicians to become Ibogaine treatment providers. "I’m waiting for when I get enough funds to get it into clinical trials," Venulejo said. "Ibogaine can really change people." He’s treated about 200 different people.

But acquiring funds for the drug's government evaluation is a problem private clinics are facing around the world, including Canada, Mexico, Panama, and the West Indies, because of the lack of knowledge of the controversial substance.

"Ibogaine wasn’t on the agenda until now," said Viktor Mravcik, director of the government-run Drug Monitoring Centre. "And we don’t have enough information about it."

"I would like to know more [about Ibogaine]," said Ivan Douda, co-founder of the Czech Republic’s Drop In foundation, which provides help to drug addicts. "Our position is not on the level to deal with experiments, that’s up to official institutions."

Substitution treatment, the exchange of illegal drug use for legal drug use, is becoming the "standard treatment in the Czech Republic for hard drug users," according to Mravcik.

Subutex, Suboxon, and Methadone, all legal drugs, are being prescribed to drug addicts to combat use of methamphetamines, cocaine, and opiates.

Currently an estimated 3,000-4,000 people are receiving Subutex to substitute illegal drugs in the Czech Republic said Mravcik. "Substitution is perfectly fine in a treatment scene," Venulejo said. "It helps take away the drug lifestyle. It keeps people addicted but gives them a normal life."

But addiction to Methadone, which Korn referred to as a "legal heroin", is potentially a bad thing. Clare Wilkins, director of the Ibogaine Association and owner of Ibogaine Treatment House in Tijuana, was addicted to alcohol and Methadone for 15 years. She tried several ways to quit, but like Korn, she failed.

Then her sister introduced her to the "blessing" of Ibogaine. "The change [after her Ibogaine treatment] was dramatic," Wilkins, 38, said. "I became a whole being that was connected to everything around me, rather than a broken being."

"Methadone has its own cons instead of pros," Wilkins said. "It's a harm reduction tool, you cannot deny it. But it’s a long-lasting substance."

Harm Reduction and INPUD

I have now opened a new account to deal with harm reduction and rights for people who use drugs. I am going to use this blog to stick to issues directly related to iboga. For the other (IHRA & INPUD) please visit http://inpud-za.blogspot.com/

Thanks

Simon Loxton
www.iboga.co.za

Statement from INPUD member at High Level Meeting of CND

Wednesday, 11 March 2009

Statement from INPUD member at High Level Meeting of CND

Mat Southwell is a member of the International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD), an advocacy network funded by IHRA and others. Mat is participating this week in the High Level Segment of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs as a civil society/drug user representative on the UK delegation. Below is the text of a statement he gave yesterday during one of the thematic roundtable sessions.

'Many new and emerging challenges face the international community with regards to the world drug problem, and old challenges remain as vexing as ever, we believe that many of these will be addressed in other round tables that will take place in the course of this High Level Meeting.

From the UK’s perspective one of the clearest imperatives that face us in the area of drug policy is the need to honour our commitments to the Millenium Development Goals in preventing the spread of HIV, and to ensuring universal access to treatment, care and support by 2010.

In the 1980s a number of cities in the developed world countries realized that they had HIV rates approaching or exceeding 50% among injecting drug users. The threat to cities like Edinburgh, Dublin, Milan, and New York led to a fundamental re-think of traditional drug practice approaches. Scientific evidence shows that the introduction of needle exchange, opioid substitution therapy, and outreach services was key to curtailing these public health crises before they became national catastrophes.

Two decades later a new generation of countries and cities are facing HIV rates at or above 50% of injecting drug users. The HIV epidemic is now being driven in some countries by injecting drug user but the consequences will reach far beyond my community. While you may not care about the lives of my community, our deaths also leave our children without parents and our parents without their children. Even if this doesn’t move you, many developing world countries are storing up a public health time bomb that will wipe out swathes of their productive work forces while simultaneously placing a huge burden on fragile healthcare systems.

However, this year’s declaration is so driven by dogma that it will not even acknowledge the life saving impact of harm reduction interventions.

I would like to thank the UK government for inviting the International Network of People who Use drugs (INPUD) to join its delegation. In many countries around the world, we are recognized as partners in the dialogue around the implementation and review of drug policy and practices. However, the UN’s drug control program remains at odds with almost every other division of the UN in its engagement with civil society.

Drug use and drug policy touches the lives of many but the coordination of drug policy remains exclusive to Member States only and as such UNODC has failed to utilize the common participative systems that are deployed as safeguards within other UN processes. UNODC has lost the opportunity during the UNGASS review process to learn from people who use drugs and thereby our expertise and insights are not integrated.

Nonetheless we stand ready to engage with this process and take part and support member states in their search for effective drug policies

Public health and criminal justice approaches are not easy bed fellows. However, within the current system it is still possible to find an effective balance between the need to protect society from crime and the need to protect individual and public health. Many drug user groups are involved in practical partnership with law enforcement agencies including training for police officers, the management of anti-social behavior in local communities and policy discussions. However, when police forces and criminal justice systems follow the most extreme versions of drug policy, drug users are excluded as partners, services are made less accessible, and risk behavior increases.

The United Nations should be the guardian of human rights and all divisions of the United Nations should adhere to the inalienable rights set out United Nations Charter on Human Rights. This declaration is a beacon of hope to oppressed and marginalised peoples around the world. However, within the UN, concern is mounting about the human rights abuses against people who use drugs conducted and justified under in name of Drug Control. My community is routinely denied the human rights that this organisation was founded to defend. It is indefensible that a division of the UN does not pay sufficient attention to addressing policies that may cause breaches of human rights against people who produce, sell and buy illicit drugs. We, the International Network of People who Use Drugs, offer our hand in friendship and invite you to begin negotiations to bring to an end this failed war on drugs.'

Why the world needs an international network of activists who use drugs.

We are part of the solution, not part of the problem!
And we stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in other countries who often suffer great abuses of their human rights. We demand that our governments take action in our countries, but also at the international level, so that drug use is treated as a health issue first and foremost, and we are involved in decisions that affect our lives.

Please click here to down load the PDF version : http://www.soros.org/initiatives/health/focus/ihrd/articles_publications/publications/nothingaboutus_20080603/Int%20Nothing%20About%20Us%20%28May%202008%29.pdf

Harm Reduction Psychotherapy and Training Associates (HRPTA) is an organization offering counseling and psychotherapy to people with drug and alcohol

Harm Reduction
Psychotherapy
Harm Reduction Psychotherapy (HRP)
sees substance use problems as related
to personal meaning, social forces and
biology in a way that is unique for
each person. HRP seeks to create a
safe, collaborative context in which the
specific nature of the substance use
problem and the relationship between
substance use and others aspects of the
person are clarified. Both problematic
substance use and problems in these
other areas are addressed with goals
and strategies individually tailored to
the person.

Why Harm Reduction?
Research in the substance use field has
found that it is easier for some people to
begin counseling when specific goals
are not required to enter treatment.
Harm Reduction has evolved as an
innovative approach to helping people
with substance use problems without
requiring specific goals as a condition
for beginning treatment. HR aims to
support users in reducing the harm
associated with substance use without
requiring abstinence as a goal.
Abstinence is one possible outcome,
among others. At HRPTA we try to
match the full spectrum of goals and
strategies for change to the needs of
each individual.

Albany Takes Step to Repeal Rockefeller Drug Laws

By JEREMY W. PETERS

ALBANY — The state legislature took pivotal steps on Wednesday toward repealing much of what remains of the state’s 1970s-era drug laws, which have tied judges hands and imposed mandatory prison terms for many nonviolent drug offenses.

The Assembly approved by a 96-46 vote legislation that would restore judges’ discretion in sentencing lower level drug offenders by removing laws that require a prosecutor’s consent before judges can send someone to a drug treatment program. Debate on the bill got underway late Wednesday afternoon.

The same bill was introduced on Wednesday in the Senate, where Democratic leaders vowed to quickly take it up. But the task now confronting legislative leaders and Gov. David A. Paterson is to reconcile the Assembly bill — which is considered the most far-reaching of the proposals on the table now — with the governor’s plan and the bill that Senate Democrats write.

Drug law reform has for years been one of the most divisive social issues debated in Albany. Bills aimed at broadly overhauling the statutes, known as the Rockefeller drug laws because former Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller championed their approval, have routinely passed the Democratic-controlled Assembly over the years, only to die in the Senate, which until this year was run by Republicans.

With Democrats now in the majority in the Senate and Mr. Paterson an avowed Rockefeller reform advocate, supporters of rewriting the drug laws see this year as their best chance to pass a plan that essentially does away with mandatory sentences for drug crimes.

“I think the stars are aligned,” Sheldon Silver, the speaker of the Assembly, said at a news conference on Wednesday morning. “It’s time has come.”

Senate Democrats were debating the issue in a closed-door conference on Wednesday night.

But before any three-way compromise is reached, several sticking points need to be resolved. Those issues include whether drug offenders who do not complete treatment would be sent to prison and whether offenders would first need to be certified as addicted before they could enter a treatment program.

The State Legislature has already eliminated the stiffest provisions of the Rockefeller laws, doing away in 2004 with life sentences for drug crimes and reducing other penalties for the most serious offenses. But supporters of the Assembly plan believe that plan is an opportunity to finish what began in 2004.

“It should not have taken this state 36 years to realize that mandatory sentences are a one-size-fits-all approach,” Mr. Silver said. “We cannot wait another year.”Drug law reform activists said that the legislation would be an opportunity for New York to catch up after falling behind other states that have greatly expanded their drug treatment programs as alternatives to prison.

“The general theme is states are making greater effort to divert people into treatment programs, and they’re start to use prison not as a first resort but a secondary or last resort,” said Gabriel Sayegh, the director of organizing and policy for the Drug Policy Alliance Network, a national drug law reform group.

“If the legislature follows through with moving toward a public health approach, New York could potentially go from having some of the worst laws in the country to having some of the best.”

But district attorneys have expressed concern that the proposals currently being considered in Albany strip them of their important function as a check against judges.

“We’ve achieved a balance where we’ve preserved public safety and reduced our prison population,” said Michael C. Green, the district attorney for Monroe County. “I look at that and say why do we want to take this system and make a seismic shift? My fear is that you’re going to disturb one of those trends.”

states should be allowed to make their own rules on medical marijuana

(02-26) 20:00 PST San Francisco -- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is sending strong signals that President Obama - who as a candidate said states should be allowed to make their own rules on medical marijuana - will end raids on pot dispensaries in California.

Asked at a Washington news conference Wednesday about Drug Enforcement Administration raids in California since Obama took office last month, Holder said the administration has changed its policy.

"What the president said during the campaign, you'll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we'll be doing here in law enforcement," he said. "What he said during the campaign is now American policy."

Bill Piper, national affairs director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a marijuana advocacy group, said the statement is encouraging.

"I think it definitely signals that Obama is moving in a new direction, that it means what he said on the campaign trail that marijuana should be treated as a health issue rather than a criminal justice issue," he said.

Piper said Obama has also indicated he will drop the federal government's long-standing opposition to health officials' needle-exchange programs for drug users.

During one campaign appearance, Obama recalled that his mother had died of cancer and said he saw no difference between doctor-prescribed morphine and marijuana as pain relievers. He told an interviewer in March that it was "entirely appropriate" for a state to legalize the medical use of marijuana "with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by doctors."

After the federal Drug Enforcement Agency raided a marijuana dispensary at South Lake Tahoe on Jan. 22, two days after Obama's inauguration, and four others in the Los Angeles area on Feb. 2, White House spokesman Nick Schapiro responded to advocacy groups' protests by noting that Obama had not yet appointed his drug policy team.

"The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws" and expects his appointees to follow that policy, Schapiro said.

The federal government has fought state medicinal pot laws since Californians voted in 1996 to repeal criminal penalties for medical use of marijuana.

President Bill Clinton's administration won a Supreme Court case, originating in Oakland, that allowed federal authorities to shut down nonprofit organizations that supplied medical marijuana to their members. Clinton's Justice Department was thwarted by federal courts in an attempt to punish California doctors who recommended marijuana to their patients.

President George W. Bush's administration went further, raiding medical marijuana growers and clinics, prosecuting suppliers under federal drug laws after winning another Supreme Court case and pressuring commercial property owners to evict marijuana dispensaries by threatening legal action.

The Bush administration also blocked a University of Massachusetts researcher's attempt to grow marijuana for studies of its medical properties. Piper, of the Drug Policy Alliance, said he hopes Obama will reverse that position.

"If you removed the obstacles to research," he said, "in 10 to 15 years, marijuana will be available in pharmacies."

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Asian Parliamentarians to Discuss the Decriminalisation of Drug Use

19th February 2009
Asian Parliamentarians to Discuss the Decriminalisation of Drug Use at Harm Reduction 2009

At Harm Reduction 2009, the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD) – in cooperation with UNAIDS – will organise a panel of parliamentarians to examine various issues related to the decriminalisation of drug use and wider debates on this issue. The session will share the positive experiences of some European countries in terms of drug decriminalisation in the hope of influencing and informing Asian parliamentarians and governments and encouraging them to develop new policies and more tolerant and realistic approaches towards drugs.

Asia has been dealing with psychoactive substances – such as heroin and cocaine – for many years, and has long faced the problems associated with the drug trade in terms of the health and safety of its population. Today, most of the Asian governments have committed to combat this problem – with the “War on Drugs” approach becoming the normal practice among nations. This is despite the persistent record of ineffectiveness and negative consequences that this approach has. There is a wide range of evidence against this approach – not least the increasing number of drug-related incarcerations across Asia each year.

As a result of the failure of existing drug policies, numerous academics and advocates have been lobbying Asian governments to pay more attention to the decriminalisation of drug users – one of the most profound ways to eliminate drug-related harms to society. It is strongly suggested that, if Asian governments adopt these more rational approach, problems such as drug trafficking, organised crime, HIV/AIDS and the violation of human rights would be also decreased.

Drug use can leave a well documented trail of destruction and damage, not only to the drug user but also to their families and the wider community. Yet politicians are very reluctant to discuss and debate this issue. Given the widespread ignorance about drug use, it is not surprising that parliamentarians generally feel fearful of the public reaction to decriminalisation. However, in certain cases where medical approaches have been properly implemented, their public acceptance has been forthcoming – and this could be extended to selective decriminalisation efforts when the benefits are apparent and are properly explained.

EDITORS NOTE: Lets hope and welcome similar efforts in Africa especially South Africa with the elections coming up. Politicians commonly manipulate or use emotional issues such as the current methamphetamine epidemic to "win over the people" with zero tolerance policies on drugs. This comes out of total ignorance and a ruthless attempt to gain the favor and votes of the people. All it does is bring more pain and misery to the people directly affected; those profiting are far away from the drugs and those higher up on the food chain shoot back!

Hana's iboga experience

i just wanted to share my process a bit around having experienced an iboga initiation recently. All i can say is that I am completely blown away by this plant spirit and the incredible container that bwiti has perfected to deliver it. It was probably the most physically and emotional intense experience of my life. Traveling the universe and playing with time and space. Meeting people " ancestors". Insight upon my life. Unlocking my fear and stuck negativity. Cleansing and awakening. What a lesson on taking control of my life and never playing the victim game. It's like an ecstatic explosion over the head. Wake the eff up it screams. no time to waste on bullshit. there is nothing like it. this plant spirit has an uncanny affinity for humans.
I am feeling the beauty and tragic nature of life so intensely. every little speck of life and human interaction makes me tear up, and smile. I can usually be kind of a bitter asshole! I have had a long hx of depression and anxiety in my life and this just snapped me right out of it. I know i have a ton of work to do, but i feel motivated and confident. The self hatred has lost its edge because the illusion of it all has been pierced. Forgiveness of myself is hard. Just act with integrity in the future and don't beat yourself up was the message. It keeps you from sharing the gifts you have with others to tear yourself apart.
And talk about a physical cleansing. the GI health it brings alone is enough for it to be revered as medicine. Also it has a power full effect on libido. I almost feel like it completely reprogrammed my HPA axis. Which might explain how it normalizes infertility perhaps. It scrubbed out my brain. A prismatic collection of alkaloids and metabolites in that sacred root. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. I feel weak right now but clear and calm.
And the root bark combined with the ibogaine takes you light years beyond just ibogaine in my opinion. if you can keep it down!. I barely made it, but then i just grabbed it and off i went.
i am so grateful for this medicine.
not to mention it was a blast.

after the ecstasy the laundry.....back to daily life now. but somehow i am a different person. hopefully i can keep that juice alive.
i wish the means and opportunities to all those wanting it.

Also do it with a master like i did. don't do it alone! this experience needs to be more affordable to those who need it in my opinion. although i think it is worth every fucking penny. its too intense to be taken lightly, and bringing down the cost does do that. I see the value in maintaining it's value. those who need it most don't seem to get it though. like most things in this capitalist mess.

just wanted to wax poetic about my iboga initiation

basse!

Low dose iboga journal by Martee

Jan 29:
Took 1and 1/2 tsp. I lay down and went to sleep after taking it. Although there were no visuals and just that slight buzz sensation I was able to sleep. The message I got was that I needed to get out of my own head. Too cerebral maybe. Sometimes things just are what they appear and not symbolic or representative of anything. It is possible to miss the simple things trying to look so deep.

Jan 30:
Next day, I have put a few days aside to recover from the night before. I had not felt a great impact and felt the need to do another dose. Also had this thought because I felt I was needing this booster for at least a month. Again no visuals, no intense buzz feeling. Just knew I had taken something. However, after waking up 6 hours later I heard my voice in my head as I opened my eyes. It was not my thoughts as one usually hears, it was my voice being heard in my head. What it said to me was that I had gotten exactly what I needed from this dose. When I do a booster, as a rule I don't have great expectations although I always have a question and a direction. Sometimes the revelation doesn't hit for days or more. I always go on faith that I am getting a physical healing that I need, especially in regards to keeping my liver in good health and doing a reset of sorts in my brain. The feeling I get in my head after a booster or session is like there is more of a solid feeling under my skull. It is a very grounded feeling.

Jan 31:
Took 1 and 1/2 tsp. Still feeling the need and here it is, yes, the third day in a row. Not the usual practice but I felt I was so way past due and did not get what I felt I should as of yet. Also at this point wondering about the potency, as I had had in the past some intense experiences with previous rootbark, even the stuff D gave me that he said was low grade, maybe a 2 , he said just do 3x the amount and you have a 6. Actually that was the first time I got major visions on root bark. I must have done at least a Tablespoon then. I also know that there are such big variables in a person from one experience to the next that I know it's not like taking anything else that you know you will get x response from x dose. I also know my system is tough usually as I burn through stuff fast and usually need a lot more than average. Just to let you know I am 5'10" tall and weigh over 200 lbs. So when you think of a female dose, that is not me.

So I had a big revelation and this is something I have played around with but it came to me very concrete. What a lot of people think are emotionally driven habits or behaviors, are really a combination of the physiological coupled with behavioral responses. Knowing what nutrition can do for neurotransmitters and how we are creatures of habit as far as how we respond to things, I am thinking as much as 60% of cases are this instead of purely emotional. I have to tell you a couple of clients I have brought this up to, their response was at first disbelief because having an emotional response is the excuse for the behavior to a degree. Their emotional baggage has also become a dysfunctional friend. This phase of thinking can sometimes pass in as little as 10 seconds.
Now you find out there is a man behind the curtain, and things are not as they seem. Then I believe there is a sense of relief because it means they are not as fucked up as they have labeled themselves as being. It gives them a light at the end of their very long sometimes dark tunnel. For a very long time I have been understanding that a lot of issues that appear emotional or psychological can and have been remedied through physical (particularly the right nutritional formula) changes. It is the revelation of the behavior as part of this occurrence that to me, makes real sense.
So let me know what you think of that one.

Also my intuitive and empathic skills seem to be getting sharper and more refined with each dose. I am getting physical reactions when reading people sometimes. The instant recoil as they mention something that their body hates hits me before they are done with the sentence. Also I was craving fettuccine Alfredo and it wasn't for me it was for one of my clients. She had a crisis with her mom and wasn't eating and wasn't getting enough fat or protein. She lives down the road from an organic dairy and can get raw. I encouraged her to go get some brown rice pasta, sheep cheese and raw organic cream and make some Alfredo and have it with a nice plate of greens. The next day my craving was gone and I did not eat anything other than my usual fare.
The good part is that I knew they weren't my cravings. It's all about keeping myself separate and protected from everyone's issues as I tend to get pulled in pretty easy.
As far as major progress in general goes I am pleased that the fear aspect that dominates a lot of my sessions and boosters were minimal this time. That is one of the reasons I do it late in the day or at night as a rule so I can shut everything out. I have talked to Matt Z and Mark C who tell me they do a tsp and go for a bike ride to the park and reflect and are then awake for at least 20 hours or more before they can sleep. Thankfully that is not me. I sleep. Easily. I also do not like to be around anyone at this time. I turn off the phone and the computer. I need silence and privacy.


Friday feb. 13th:
I feel like I got my ass kicked with this booster. I did a total of 3 tsps in 3 separate doses, an hour apart and I knew when I started to hear that deep pulsating didgeridoo sound I was in for it. That sound that tells you, you are in Iboga land now!! I almost feel like if I had another 1/2 tsp. it would have felt close to a full session. Strange how that works. I felt like the visions were there but not breaking through all the way. Some of them were in outlines and then faded. I did get some visions with eyes closed. I felt like I was shown my existence, my life as it is now at it's lowest common denominator of despair. If that makes sense. It included the greyness one would associate with an old Oliver Twist movie, including the big desperate empty eyes. OK can you imagine what that does to someone who has only been acknowledging the positive and forward movement and getting as much joy and happiness where ever I can? At worst I have taught myself to idle in neutral if I have to but never to go to doubt, negativity let alone despair. So this....vision...which again strangely I did not see it with my eyes open as a vision, I did not see it with my eyes closed as a vision, I saw it in my mind as a thought and the thought had this clear image. That is something I never experienced quite before with iboga. So needless to say I have been in a bit of a strange place the few days after. My take on it is that it is something deep within me that to rid myself of it I have to bring it up to get it out and get rid of it. Emotions being concrete things that reside internally, from my perspective have to be felt on the way out. Think about it......we stuff these things so we don't have to feel them.
5 days after booster:
I did some thinking on this today. Where the despair came from and what it meant. I think I didn't know despair until I started using heroin. I think despair comes from the word desperate. And even though I didn't grow up privileged and had my problems I can't pinpoint being desperate until I had a full blown habit, by age 16. The feelings I was shown in my second session as far as the original wound that caused my addiction was doom and apathy. With apathy you don't get despair. That was different.
Even though I have been clean over 4 years, I think I pretty well stopped wearing despair on my sleeve as part of my being about 10 years ago. That was when I first acknowledged a force bigger than myself and saw a bigger picture. What I think is that I did not really deal with it, in good old addict style I just stuffed it physically. Again, emotions being a concrete thing, there deep they reside.

On the physical front, as there is always a physical manifestation of an emotional issue and visa versa, this is directly tied to the yeast I have brought up out of hiding by doing a series of heavy metal detoxes. Deep hiding, 2 years or more totally asymptomatic. Yeast can make one feel depressed, foggy and sad to say the least. I had some brief cravings, and no wonder the despair coming from using, knowing that I wanted more heroin than my 16 year old brain could financially make peace with. Also you only have to be dope sick once to know you are in a desperate situation, permanently. So the cravings and heroin use and despair all go together. Funny. The realization of that helped me completely get rid of the cravings. That and I have been using my Bach Flower Rescue Remedy quite a bit this week.

I also do not feel with everything I am doing that it is at all a "search" for happiness. I feel it is getting all the crap out so the true state of being, can just be allowed to blossom. Everything I will ever need is already within me. I can enjoy external influences, but none of them will bring me true fulfillment or happiness.

I feel to get old emotions up and out you have to feel them on the way out and deal with them. It's exactly like cleaning out a closet. You have to put your hands on the stuff, look at it, acknowledge the part in played in your past and then decide without reservation to let it go. To let the thing go as well as any turmoil or hurt it caused in your life. Complete release.

Personally, I love that deep resounding ibo buzz.......It was always a comfort to me when other parts of the experience were not. On the upside I must say the last two times I have done the boosters, there was no fear aspect anymore. Other than my first session, all the rest had heavy fear as an overall theme and feeling. I see that as progress, major progress. Where I came face to face with this feeling of despair it did not dominate the entire experience. Do I need another booster to process this one, I think I already have processed it. But truthfully it hit me pretty hard before I was of the mindset to break it down and analyse it.

Just to let you know, I use a magic bullet food blender to get the root bark to a fine powder. So when I say a tsp it is very very fine powder. I got a total of approx 6 Tablespoons from my bag. I have already been through over 2 T. I did give a T. before grinding( which probably would grind to a tsp) to my naturopath who is a shaman and is the one who was making me a homeopathic remedy from a little hcl that I was using for liver and endocrine. He has done ceremonial peyote with his tribe many times and is a scientist and doing stem cell research. He knew about ibogaine when I first met him. I have learned a lot about brain chemistry from him and check my results and hypothesis on his Bio tracker Meridian assessment computer. The ibogaine helped a lot with my endocrine issues over the last few years. Needless to say I completely wacked out my endocrine from staying up for years shooting speedballs. It tested particularly strong on the hypothalamus, which is in the brain. I know you said not to give it out indiscriminately, and I felt this was something that was right to do.

I also have a sister who did a session over 3 years ago once. She stopped a 20 year habit as well, but has not had therapy and replaced her addiction with working too much at the cost of her health and her family and drinking. She has never done a booster and will probably never have the money put aside to do another full on session. I seriously think with about 5 or 6 tsps. I could reset her. When I brought it up to her she broke down crying and revealed to me that she remembers directly after her session was the first time she ever remembers having real clarity in her life. That was short lived. She was very uncomfortable with what was revealed to her in her session, so it might take some doing to get her to agree, but I feel she will die without it. She also has hep c and lives in denial. She has a young teenage son, lives in NY city.

I want to be completely honest with you. I am not looking to hand this out to anyone else. I know for me it feels life and death when I don't have it. I do not feel I will need another booster anytime in the next month.
The strange thing is that after my first session, I went a solid 2 years with so much resolve and lack of any cravings. There has been a definite shift away from that. I, being analytical as I am, have determined that these cravings are actually more behavioral. I don't know if that makes sense to you or not. I also have homeopathic remedies for serotonin and l-dopa that I do from time to time when I need them. It just seems like more of a struggle now than it was years ago. I am wondering if you see this in others or yourself.

I think it is extremely commendable what you are doing trying to gather research and have comparisons. I know I like case studies and hearing of others experiences to compare and learn about myself and consider the possibilities. For me iboga is not so much about how many people had a space ship experience or floated above the earth, it's about all the introspection and being able to shed all the ingrained, inherited bullshit that hides ones true self. By the way, no matter how much hcl I took in my sessions I never had those all inclusive deep experiences. It could be me, not being able to let go. My need to be in control all the time. Could have been the fear.

One more question, does iboga deplete the brain of serotonin and l-dopa neurotransmitters. This is something I am feeling with this last booster. I am noticing the drive and inspiration I had the week before is not as it was. And from that perspective something to consider about spacing them out and not doing them too often. That is one of the things my doctor brought up to me when I first met him years ago.

I also wrote this up from memory and from some of the emails I share with Matt Z. Again I need to write after each time as you suggested in a journal. I always feel I will remember and get around to it and I don't. Maybe next booster I will ask about procrastination and where that comes from for me.

Hope this is not too lengthy. Again if your wife wants to contact me I am sure I can offer something that will help. My theory is that until you deal with the basic nutritional needs of the body and brain, you can't heal properly. That includes how the body is going to utilize all the supplements and herbs one takes. By the way, all the Chinese herbs are not across the board for everyone. Sometimes they can do more harm than good.
With much respect,
Martee