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Thanks Roy Well that's two of us, now I only have to persuade the rest of the world's medical and scientific communities. I would love to do either or both of these studies myself, but as I am a psychologist not a medical graduate, and for the sake of the world's addicts, I would love it even more if a team of top neuroscientists from somewhere like Oxford decided to do it, while scanning the brain using the latest imaging technology. What really puzzles me is the anomalous reasoning that allows doctors to continue to prescribe Ritalin for children with ADHD in spite of the number of deaths from heart attacks in previously healthy children [because 189 unnecessary deaths in 10 years, is regarded as statistically negligible]. Yet finds that 2 deaths in 40 years out of many hundreds of successful outcomes renders Ibogaine as potentially too dangerous to use on addicts. It is very difficult to avoid the conclusion that the drug companies are pulling the strings that will keep their obscenely high profits flowing, in the same way that the oil companies blocked the discoveries of non-fossil fuels. By the way, it is known that as eating disorders, OCD, and depression also have the similar neural roots to addiction, Ibogaine might also be able to help to treat these conditions, so it is no wonder if the drug companies are scared of it. Jo ________________________________ From: Marsh Roy <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Thursday, 9 February 2012, 9:43 Subject: Re: Time to declare war I did a quick scan on Google Scholar and indeed found very little on either Ibogaine (mainly pharmacological, rats etc) or NET (one narrative review). I don’t want to provoke a debate that is likely to become quite heated and personal, but it does seem worth a small grant to do an up-to-date scoping review of one or both interventions. Roy From:Evidence based health (EBH) [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Pranab Chatterjee Sent: 09 February 2012 06:14 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Time to declare war Thomas deQuincey wrote Confessions of an English Opium Eater. Seems like that is the book you are referring to. I have never heard of Ibogaine or the NET and would like to hear what the EBHC community has to say about this. However, I must say whenever someone says "a drug that cures ALL xyz" I get a little skeptical about it. Regards, Pranab On Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 6:39 AM, jo kirkpatrick <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Hi EBH It might be a hackneyed cliché but 'now' is the time to learn from the mistakes of the past and to plan for a better future. Evil prospers where good people keep silent and do nothing. Like so many of my generation, I kept silent and did nothing for 45 years, while one by one people I knew died. I am trying to make up for my previous apathy, and encourage others to join my declaration of war on 'the war on drugs', which as they can't really fight a substance, is actually a war on people - the addicted. The casualties since the 1967 Dangerous Drugs Act, are now in hundreds of thousands and still mounting. During the first years of my illness I needed round the clock care. I had moved out of my home for fear of infecting my daughter or her father. Hep C is so infectious and there was no cure back then, so I was afraid that if they were involved in my care it would put them at risk. I was looked after at various times by six people who had Hep C antibodies but were not ill. Within five years of my recovery all six of them were dead, only one, Ollie, died of hep C related liver failure at age 50. Another one, Nick, age 28, tried to break up a fight in the street between two women. They turned out to be a mother and daughter who both turned on him and he was stabbed. They both denied using the knife and the police were unable to prove which one caused the fatal wound so neither of them was charged. The other four died from: 'methadone related sudden death syndrome', which is not an overdose but a type of cardiac and/or respiratory failure that usually occurs without warning during sleep. If they are lucky they wake up in the throes of sleep paralysis, trying to sit up and gasping for air [I have actually experienced this several times and it is terrifying, it's as if I stopped breathing in my sleep]. I have heard it can even happen long after people have stopped taking methadone. There has been little research into this because this has only been realised recently but I was able to find a news report and an NIH report, here are the links: http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/01/22/us-methadone-death-idUSCOL27391920080122 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18187075 Every year hundreds of people die because of the world's insane drug laws. In the UK NHS clinics stick rigidly to prescribing policies that are based on prejudice rather than evidence. A cure for all addictions, called Ibogaine was discovered in 1967. Since 2000, hundreds of people have recovered their lives in the many private Mexican rehab clinics, which are the only places Iborgaine therapy is available for about £5000. Unlike methadone or opiate reduction therapy, Ibogaine doesn't leave newly recovered addicts with an alcohol problem; or distracted by the cravings that cause most people to relapse. Cravings keep recurring, and continue for several years. The FDA banned Ibogaine in the USA because it is similar to LSD; and because there is a very slight risk for people with undiagnosed heart conditions. On two separate occasions people with undiagnosed heart conditions took it alone without supervision and died of heart attacks. The majority of scientists refuse to get involved in RCT out of fear for their reputation if a patient dies, but many addicts I know of would be happy to sign a waiver. They take far greater risks of death from overdose, anthrax and other contaminants every time they inject heroin from a new batch. If Ibogaine was successful, not only does it cure all addictions but might also work with depression, PTSD and OCD. The drug companies are terrified of the impact it could have on their profits and will probably go to extreme lengths to prevent its production. http://www.ibogaine-research.org/Ibogaine-Research-Project/Areas/Media/JAMA.htm There is another treatment, that is drug free: 'Neuro-Electric Therapy' NET. This was discovered in the 1970s, and is reported to be able to get addicts through withdrawal symptoms. In 1982, the British public saw this treatment used by Meg Patterson on some famous pop stars, they all recovered and are still off drugs today. Over 189 addicts recovered using this method in Hong Kong, and then 72 in Somerset in the UK. After two years follow ups the 1982 study reported 90% success rate [the figure for methadone reduction after 2 years is 3%]. In 1984 a team from KCL, [Gossop, Strang, Bradley & Connell] did a comparison study with NET versus methadone, which only achieved a 33% success rate in both groups. There was no report of any follow up on these groups. As a result NET was shelved in favour of methadone programmes, with no regard for the added problems methadone causes, even those that were known about in 84. After reading the 1984 report I also concluded that NET was another red herring, but then I read a copy of a letter to the Lancet from NET's developer, Dr. Meg Patterson. She asked Gossop et al., why KCL had ignored her offer of help, and stated that according to their research report they had used the wrong settings. Too little stimulation wouldn't work and too much would be annoying, and would not ease withdrawal. Nobody else ever questioned the discrepancy in the 1984 KCL findings, or made any further attempt to see whether NET could be made to work with the correct settings. Thousands of people now use an identical device, a TENS Unit, instead of medication for pain relief, it can't be a mass placebo effect that would have worn off eventually. It has been suggested that if Patterson had been a man, or a psychiatrist instead of a surgeon, or if the device had come from the UK or USA instead of from Hong Kong it would have been taken more seriously and examined more objectively. The sociocultural war on the use of opium was begun in the early 19th century as a result of the Temperance Movement's knee-jerk reaction to the work of Martin De Quincey, 'Confessions of an opium eater' and some of the other Lake District poets. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9YdHjiovr9wC Their problem with opium was that it was described by De Quincey as a 'sensual pleasure', and thus must be as dire a sin as lust or drinking. They completely failed to notice or perhaps even read the narrative of isolation, hopelessness and desolation, which occupied most of the remaining pages. The writer describes his life of constant illness and the pain that drove his need for opium but all this is ignored. After World War I, the British Government banned the sale of opium, but allowed doctors to prescribe it to patients if it was needed. Since this book many others, and then plays, films, magazines, newspapers, and even pop songs, have built on the myth and added more confusion to the opiate delusion. I am all too aware that many addicts are criminals, some are sub-human morons, the very dregs of the Earth, but so are some black people, some gays, and some average white people. Society can't just carry on tarring all addicts with the same brush. The rest and probably the majority are just ordinary, honest, hardworking and normally sensible people who shouldn't be treated like criminals just because their lives have gone horribly wrong. Until addicts can be given a viable cure, they should be allowed to obtain the drugs they need legally but at their own expense, and left in peace. The book I am editing strives to inspire researchers to re-examine NET, using the settings that are recommended by Patterson as well as exploring other settings in different positions; and perhaps even set up Ibogaine trials in the UK. If that fails, it might encourage addicts to ask their clinics about options like NET and Ibogaine, or write to their Area Health Authorities, and M.P.s, which might also trigger some action. Best wishes Jo -- Pranab Chatterjee, MBBS Medical College, Kolkata, India My Website Scepticemia Cargo Cult Medicine Vagus Journalis @Scepticemia