Ibogaine: Treatment Acceptability

Patient Medication Acceptability and

Treatment Options:

•Ibogaine•Methadone•Buprenorphine

Howard S. Lotsof

DORA WEINER FOUNDATION

Background: Drug Control

• 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act

• 1914 Harrison Narcotic Act

• 1970 Controlled Substances Act

Background: Methadone

• 1937 synthesized by Max Bockmühl and Gustav Ehrhart, I.G. Farbenindustries. Patent issued 1941

• 1950 use in treatment of opioid abstinence syndrome established in US

• 1964 use in opioid maintenance therapy

Methadone molecule

Methadone powder

Methadone diskets

Methadone liquid

Background: Buprenorphine

• 1965 synthesized by KW Bentley at Rickitt & sons, UK.

• 1975 - 1978 DR Jazinski et al. Indicate utility in treating opiate addiction

• 1977 - 2003 John Lewis champions analgesic and antiaddictive development

• 2000 Drug Addiction Treatment Act authorizes use in opioid maintenance therapy

• 2002 FDA approves that use to Reckitt Benckiser

Buprenorphine molecule

Buprenorphine products

manufacturer, Reckitt Benckiser will not make current product photographs

available

Background: IbogaineAn experimental medication

• Botanical source Tabernanthe iboga. Used for 100s of years in African medicine and religion

• 1901 ibogaine isolated by Dybowski and Landrin

• 1958 molecular structure determined Bartlett et al.

• 1962 Lotsof discovers Antiaddictive effects

• 1993 - 2003 Mash & Glick develop second generation ibogaine-like drugs

Ibogaine molecule

Noribogaine

Liver transforms ibogaine into noribogaine

18-methoxycoronaridine molecule18-MC

Synthetic molecule

Tabernanthe iboga shrub

Roots bark contain ibogaine

Pharmaceutical ibogaine

experimental medication

Discovery of antiaddctiveeffects

MethadoneNYC1964

Doctors administer to drugs users

IbogaineNYC1962

Drug users administer to

drug users

BuprenorphineLexington, KY

1975 Pharmaceutical industry/gov.Development

Methadone

•The golden age of Dole and Nyswander

•1966 - 1973

Drs. Dole and Nyswander ca 1976

Early generation methadone patients

• The program was administered or controlled by doctors in a medical research environment even at the clinic level.

• Nurses, counselors and patients believed in opioid maintenance therapy and collaborated to make it work. Patients and staff were a team.

• There was no “us” and “them”. Patients were treated like any other medical patients.

Early generation ibogaine patients

• A full collaboration between academic researchers, pharmaceutical developers and user self-help groups with mutual respect.

• Equal status between the parties. Users, doctors and drug developers worked together to define the ideal administration paradigm.

• There was no “us” and “them”. Patients were treated just like any other medical patients, except when they were treated like doctors.

Later generation ibogaine patients

• Drug users are no longer involved as equal participants in ibogaine development.

• Drug users and self-help groups, no longer affiliated with medical academics or drug developers, lost a level of authority and control.

• Ibogaine patients are not dependent on clinic administered drugs. Ibogaine providers generally leave the field rather than control or abuse patients. This could change in the future.

Later Generation Methadone Patients

What’s wrong with methadone today?

• Nothing is wrong with methadone.

• Almost something is wrong with many clinics that administer and provide it to patients.

• Medical decisions are often not made by medical doctors.

• Many clinics practice control of patients rather than providing them with ethical medical care.

Buprenorphine patients

• Buprenorphine patients never shared an important role in the development of the drug.

• The manufacturer and the US government appear to desire that stigma associated with chemical dependence not be attached to buprenorphine.

• Whether this early generation or later generations of buphrenorphine patients are well treated by the medical community and society will have to be seen.

Two important issues in chemical dependence

treatment

• Stigma

• Discrimination

Focuses attention on the victim

Stigma

Focuses attention on

those who produce rejection and exclusion

Discrimination:

Ibogaine removes thestigmatized condition.

The ibogaine advantage

1. Industry deems ibogaine not to be profitable.

2. Government, industry and academia chose to place their interest in the development of opiate drugs with which they are familiar.

3. Ibogaine represents a new scientific paradigm to the understanding of addiction.

Why ibogaine is not available?

1. St Kitts West Indies

2. Vancouver, BC, Canada

3. Rosarito, Baja, Mexico

Ibogaine availability proximate to United States

Ibogaine availability

Ibogaine resources

The Ibogaine DossierAn internet library

http://www.ibogaine.orghttp://

www.ibogaine.desk.nl

Manual for Ibogaine Therapy

Second Revision

Release dateFriday, May 9, 2003

http://www.ibogaine.org/manual.html