Dear Journal -
I wanted to put on here my short essay on a hopeful drug that is out there to help treat addiction. I couldn't help but to think of VC and JS while I was watching this video and thinking to myself, how badly I wish I had money so I could take them both to Europe for a treatment so they could be relieved of their illness.
If you come across this post and you know someone who is addicted to drugs and you have the resources to help them, think about this option, I think it is a miracle.
I wrote this paper for my Drugs and Behavior class, it's an amazing class and I had an amazing professor.
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Gales
Ibogaine Treatment Video
Gales
Ibogaine treatment video is a short documentary on how Ibogaine is currently
being used in countries outside of the U.S. to treat addictions that affect the
endogenous opioid system. “Ibogaine
is a naturally occurring psychoactive
substance found in plants in the Apocynaceae
family such as Tabernanthe iboga,
Voacanga africana and Tabernaemontana
undulata.”[1]
In
the video we can see how Gale is preparing to take Ibogaine to help with her drug
addiction. Gale talks about how she
developed addiction to street drugs. In
addition, we also see her taking the first dose of Ibogaine and witness how her
physical symptoms begin to go away after her initial trial dose of the
drug.
The
endogenous opioid system which is responsible for pain, is also the target site
for opiates, like heroine. Because
synthetic opioids are agonists they readily bind to the opiate receptors and
have a strong effect on our system.
Ibogaine is an isolated active alkaloid that comes from the root bark of
the Tabernanthe Iboga, that chemical is what apparently resets and refreshes
the opiate receptor sites, which in turn alleviates the physical withdrawal
symptoms of synthetic opioid drugs. How
this process works in not yet fully understood, but once the process is
completed, Ibogaine is no longer needed.[2]
In
the video, Gale talks about how she became addicted to drugs. Although Gail
does not specify what drugs she became addicted to, you can conclude that they
are opioids. She says that she was
caring for her mother who was ill with terminal cancer and her mother began to
offer her the prescription drugs she was taking for her illness. But
without meaning too, she put her daughter on a road to addiction of
prescription drugs and ultimately addiction to street drugs. Once her mother passed away and all of the
remaining prescription drugs were finished, Gail started seeking street drugs
to deal with the addiction. This
demonstrates that Gail became addicted due to exposure of the drug.
During
the beginning of the video, Gail is asked what symptoms she is feeling and she
says that she has a runny nose and eyes, she says that she has a burning
sensation all over her body and that her body is also in pain. After Gail takes the trial dose of 100mg of
Ibogaine, and is asked about the symptoms about an hour later after the dosage,
she says that all the symptoms are gone, you can actually hear her sound
clearer, no runny nose. After that trail
dose is successful, she has to take an additional 3 doses to complete the
treatment. Ibogaine clearly helps
alleviate the physical symptoms of withdrawal.
In the video we are later told that after the Ibogaine treatment, Gale
developed chronic pain so she went back to taking methadone, but instead of the
usual 300mg she would take, she only takes a dose of 40mg. The ending of the video also tells us that
Gail will be going back for a second treatment of Ibogaine.
Watching
this video made me feel very hopeful that there will be a day that a drug will
help individuals with drug addiction to be cured of this terrible disease. It made me feel really happy to see that
someone who was exposed to drugs in such an unfortunate way, was able to try to
regain her life back by way of Ibogaine treatment. I am sure there are hundreds of stories like
Gale’s where people start using drugs due to unfortunate circumstances. I hope that there will be continued research
on Ibogaine and that it will become legal in the U.S.
[1] N.d. Ibogaine. Wikipedia. Retrieved on August 13, 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibogaine
[2] N.d. What is Ibogaine? Awakening in the Dream House. Retrieved on August 14, 2013 from http://www.awakeninginthedream.com/ibogaine.html
Gales Ibogaine Treatment video
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