July 1999
Subject: Re: C
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 07:54:20
Hi D,
I’ve talked to you this morning, and now I’m in L with C’s husband. We’ve come here to arrange everything, and meanwhile she stayed with S at the hotel she did the treatment. Resumedly, this is how it all went:
Thursday, 21st – took 0.1g Ibogaine as test dose but because she kept on moving, working, etc., vomited after approx. 2hours.
Friday, 22nd – worked till 2 a.m. of Saturday
Saturday, 23rd:
4:35 a.m., finished smoking her 0.25g of heroin;
3:35 p.m., took 20mg of Primperan (anti-nauseant and anti-vomiting);
4:35 p.m., took 0.8g Ibogaine (<> 18mg/kg)
5:40 p.m., started hearing a buzzing sound in her head, felt the drug flowing from her feet to her head;
6.35 p.m., got up to urinate; no vomiting; no visions;
7:15 p.m., I decided to give her an extra 0.2g (added to previous dose comes to 22mg/kg), in an attempt to strenghen effects, which seemed very faint (she talked and communicated easily and felt no big difference in her head);
19:40 p.m., still able to talk; not sleepy;
20:05 p.m., got up to urinate again; no vomiting;
Sunday, 24th:
9:10 a.m., got up by herself, ate a chocolate biscuit (!!) and drank some water, talked easily, and lied down again in bed;
1:15 p.m., full awakeness; talked; felt pain in back and kidneys; slight fever and rise in overall body temperature; intermittent running nose; I also noticed some tremors in her hands while smoking a cigarrette
Monday morning:
she confesses Ibogaine had some work on her, though by no means significantly enough to give her the control over her addiction. She tells me it may have “worked 50%”. Tremors are gone. But it’s too risky for her to go back to her job in L, since she doesn’t feel strong enough. After asking her she says she’s willing to take more Ibogaine to try and achieve better results. She’s comprimising her job and is on the brink of losing it by staying away from it for so long, even with a doctor’s prescription. This is the way it works: if they decide to fire her, there’s little she can do about it. So she’s running out of time, desperately seeking to become free. I have offered myself to help her and this dose is on me.
I am sending you $xxx in cash in you name, by DHL or another door-to-door express service – you shall receive it tomorrow, Tuesday. We’re all in your hands now. Thanks for everything.
Your friend,
R
Subject: Re: C’s treatment
Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 13:41:58
Dear D,
The situation right now (Wednesday, 9:30 p.m.) is that C feels some withdrawal symptoms and an ever-increasing desire to use heroin. It was rather difficult to convince her to stay off the drug. I had two options: either let her resume her consumption and plan the treatment for, say, Saturday or Sunday; or, ask her to make an effort and stay clean till tomorrow morning, when we would administer her the ibogaine again. We have decided for the latter option, and I too believe it may be better since this way she might still try and keep her job, which can prove to be important after treatment.
One thing that keeps leeping to my mind is the fact that she urinated a lot, and twice, 2h and 4h after ibogaine. Perhaps it’s nonsense to ask this, but do you think she could have lost the ibogaine through her urine? Also, she is having a slight rise in body temperature, and her lower lip is kind of sore. Tomorrow, between 9:00 and 9:30 I shall give her 0.8g again, and pray to God everything will go well.
About the root bark, I would leave that decision for after the treatment, though I know that sooner or later I may have someone else interested in another treatment.
Thanks for being such a friend,
R
Subject: Re: C’s treatment
Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 06:21:36
Hi D,
Many thanks for your advice and information. I have decided not to proceed with the treatment just now, and wait for an answer from G (which I haven’t received up to now). I support your thinking about heroin addiction entirely. However, it would be difficult to try and change C’s ideas: she believes ibogaine will be her way out of addiction, especially after seeing its effects on S. Last night she managed to sleep 8-9 hours and today feels more calm and capable of refraining from using heroin. But whenever her mind is not distracted, she goes back to the subject of “smoking just a little bit”. If we should postpone the treatment till next Saturday (7 days after the first), I’ll take your advice and allow her to use heroin moderately, just so that she doesn’t get nervous, and since ibogaine’s efficacy will not be altered. Because she is a friend, we have her trust in whatever recommendations we give her. Anyway, she seems to have improved a lot since the previous days, both physically and mentally.
Cheerio,
R
Subject: Re: treatment started;first impressions
Date: Sat, 31 Jul 1999 05:27:43
Hi D,
This is the first report on C’s 2nd treatment:
On Thursday and Friday she smoke 0.05g of heroin (total=0.1g) but no more than that because she has been under constant vigilance since her last treatment.
This morning:
08:05 – took anti-nauseant
09:15 – took 0.8g ibogaine HCl
10:45 – yawned periodically and felt restless in bed
10:55 – asked me how long she had taken the ibogaine and told me she wanted to urinate; I told her to keep her eyelids shut at all times and try not to speak or stand up
11:05 – got up by herself went to the toilet and urinated
01:00pm – demonstrated the following signs: yawning, restlessness, toe tapping, full awakeness. I spoke to her, she said this time the buzzing sound in her head had been weaker than the first time, that it was very faint now, almost gone. She experiences no apparent physical pain, but this may be due to her relative abstinence for one week.
My feeling is that we may be having another unsuccessful outcome. Her state of awakeness, open mind to speak, no nausea or vomiting effect for standing up, may prove this. Ibogaine just doesn’t seem to be having the usual effects on her. I still have 0.2g which belong to her from the first order, but since some concern was demontrated in relation to this patient, I do not want to risk giving it to her. My wild guess at this moment is that if we should ask her to get up from bed and offer her lunch she would have no problem in doing it. But I will of course advise her to rest as much as she can.
Have you any comments on this?
Your friend,
R
Subject: Re: C’s treatment: results?
Date: Sat, 31 Jul 1999 11:43:31
Hi D,
C got out of bed at 4:45pm, ate and smoke a cigarrette. Once again, I could not observe any of the usual autonomic responses to ibogaine. It’s still too early to tell, but I have serious doubts that this treatment came to a successful end. Logically, only two things could explain this: (i) either she is an abnormal metabolizer of ibogaine, or (ii) the ibogaine’s purity was not according to what expected. I took 100mg of the first lot you sent for C and gave it to S. Two hours have passed by and S says she doesn’t feel the same symptoms as she did on her first 100mg dose. On that occasion, 30min afterwards she felt tired, wanting to rest her head and close her eyes, and distinctly felt “something” coming up to her head. Now, nothing happened. Could it be that your supplier made any mistake with the ibogaine? I am absolutely sure I am dealing with an honest person, but you have to buy it from someone else, and sometimes things can go wrong in production. I must stress this is all a conjecture, but I’m just trying to figure out what happened.
As for C, she tells us this time she feels much better than the previous, but perhaps she’s trying to be nice since she knows we all put a lot of effort, work, and money to try and help her. I really don’t know. All I’d like to ask you is if you have had any feedback from any treatment done with this ibogaine that has proved successful.
Cheers,
R
Subject: Re: C’s treatment: RESULTS
Date: Tue, 03 Aug 1999 12:35:36
Hi D,
Sorry I didn’t write earlier.
First of all, let me stress the questions I placed in my previous mail have to do with the fact that I too am very interested in ibogaine and being this my second experience in helping an addicted person I am very “raw” on this. I’m glad to hear you personally can assure the ibogaine is alright. As for C, there are a number of things I need to tell you.
– she did not have the usual autonomic response to ibogaine: namely, she did not sleep much or had any level of unconsciousness, being absolutely open to communication; also, it seemed to have a diuretic affect on her (on this 2nd treatment, she abstained from drinking liquids 18h before, went to urinate the minute before treatment… and yet she urinated a lot 2h after taking ibogaine.
– the week before the 2nd treatment, I asked her to try and do some “psychotherapy” on herself during ibogaine, try to question why she got into addiction, what she wants for her future life, things like that. In one word, I told her she would need to focus on the right ideas to get out of her addiction.
– after the first treatment, craving had a minor attenuation. She wanted to buy heroin, and it was S who made her change her mind, and stopped her (later, after reading your messages, I let her have 0.1g of heroin just to calm down a bit).
– after the second treatment, apparently her craving is down to 10%(?) of what it was. The following day, she drove by an area where she once used to buy her dose, and told S, “I know I could now go in there and buy myself a dose. But I don’t want to. I’m feeling okay now”.
So, apparently it worked. She has little or no withdrawal symptoms, and craving was reduced to a “controllable” level. Before these treatments began, I explained to her what ibogaine was. It is an interrupter, not a cure. It’s up to her now to achieve the rest. Being a friend of her (I knew her 3 and a half years ago), I will continue to support her in every way I can and will be first to report if she relapses.
You can understand from my words that I’m not too sure about the success of this treatment, as compared to S’s. S had my advice, almost paternal, during the four years that preceded her treatment. And she responded in a totally different manner.
I begin to think that the oneiric trip can have its advantages, though the hallucinogecic properties of ibogaine were responsible for its prohibition. Perhaps this is why Dr. Mash’s clinics/treatments were called “Healing Visions”. It may be important for the addict to have visions. Are the other alkaloids in iboga hallucinogenic?
You wrote:
(…) (ibogaine) is an intensely spiritual drug and seems able to give people what they need, rather as though it were actually aware of one’s true inner state. Maybe it decided C didn’t need anything. (…) Anyway, sorry the treatment didn’t work. If, indeed, it turns out it didn’t.
I think you may be close to the truth about C. As for the treatment, I can’t say if she’s being totally honest about being okay, or how long will she have the strengh to keep her mind away from heroin. Thanks for your concern, but I don’t think you should take any responsibility for this. All I want is ibogaine to have a continued credibility, and that’s why I posed so many questions.
About the raw extracts from iboga, I could have an interesting patient on the line. She was addicted to heroin and (oh yes) cocaine for 14 years, and now enrolled in the methadone program. So now she’s off drugs but is addicted to 98mg methadone per day. Her doctor (always has been) is the son of a proeminent cardiologist here in L. She’s told him of this friend (me) who may be able to get some ibogaine for her, and her doctor’s reaction was very good. He’s on vacations and will be back in two days. She will be asking her doctor if he could assist her in doing a detox with ibogaine. From what I’ve read in the literature about the dutch experience, patients with a 120mg methadone dependence were detoxed to abstinence.
And that’s all for now,
Bye bye,