Social POTWR 2019 Vol 3: Examining Opioid Addiction In America

In another thread in the warroom, it was posted that the largest ever seizure of fentanyl was just made. A whopping 254 lbs of fentanyl was seized along with 395 lbs of meth.

Imagine how many lives were just saved!
 
You can probably easily do this with Subutex, which is straight buphrenorphine. I never prescribe Subutex because of the increased abuse potential. I've only prescribed it to a highly functioning woman who had been stable for years on Suboxone when she became pregnant (Suboxone contains naloxone, which is contraindicated in pregnant women). Naloxone is included in Suboxone as an abuse deterrent. Naloxone doesn't absorb well via the GI tract, so it doesn't do much of anything if taken orally. Intravenous use can give you the same effect as Narcaning someone. It kicks opioids off the receptors and can throw you into withdrawal.

I'm curious if any of the posters here with opioid addictions have tried to inject Suboxone.

The people I interviewed said it was a similar high to heroin
 
I also forgot to mention that during my interviews, I was told that the heroin addicts keep suboxone as a readily available source of narcan.

I've heard of someone injecting Suboxone into someone who overdosed. Not the safest, but better than dying.
 
I've heard of someone injecting Suboxone into someone who overdosed. Not the safest, but better than dying.

Do you think it would be effective at all if taken orally? It melts under the tongue, but I don’t know how long that would take to get into the system. I would rather they inject subs than heroin. At least the subs have narcan already in there.

We are already on pace to have a record breaking year. We already had six overdoses this month and 23 overdoses last month. No deaths yet
 
Do you think it would be effective at all if taken orally? It melts under the tongue, but I don’t know how long that would take to get into the system. I would rather they inject subs than heroin. At least the subs have narcan already in there.

It could be somewhat effective, but not because of the naloxone. Naloxone doesn't get absorbed well via the oral route.

It could be effective though because buphrenorphine's affinity for the mu opioid receptor is very strong, and it will displace other agonists like heroin. The problem would be that sublingual administration would take longer than what would be ideal.
 
That 85% is for countries that have health care systems, I am guessing. In countries without a healthcare system, the doctors sell the pills to them on the spot. Again, I may be incorrect, but I thought I read that during my research.

My understanding is at one point over the last few years the US used 85% of the total Vicodin used in the world. I am a few years removed from the data but thats what I recall.
 
I've got a brother in a halfway house. Drugs (ultimately heroine), theft, and borrowing other peoples' checkbooks. Years of failed drug test while on probation. Years of robbing my mom blind. Somehow it's never amounted to any real time. Just local jails. Supposedly this is it though and next stop is prison. Since he hasn't gotten there by now it's hard to imagine why the next failed test would do it.

I don't talk to him. Not because of his drug use, but because he's a thief. And a liar. I don't expect him to ever truly feel sorry or make any attempt to atone. I sometimes wonder why it's gone this way. Best I've got is he had leukemia as a kid and comes from a broken home. How much is having high exposure to pain meds as a kid and how much is just feeling sorry for himself I couldn't say.
 
Yeah, I am very cognizant of that. I have tried just about every avenue available, and this combination of physical therapy and medication seems to work best for me, though I still have bad days.

And it seems there are a lot of guys you work with that have serious problems. Do you know if other departments in your area are having similar issues?

I have worked with a few that had a problem, but most left the profession and a few got into some trouble. One guy was a k-9 cop. He started dating a stripper and he fell apart. Granted, he was one of the few obviously dirty cops I worked, but when he started dating that stripper, he became non-functional. His drug kit that you use to train the dogs ended up empty, his stripper got pulled over in another county in his personal car with a bunch of drug dealers from Cleveland, and he got fired for some other shit. He was one of the only cops that I ever witnessed use force when it was simply not necessary-meaning that the guy was cooperating and he used force. I actually shoved him into a store window and it cracked. I told the Lt, but nothing was done because the guy did not want to do anything despite me trying to persuade him to file a complaint.

There was another guy that would show up to work with really poor hygiene and was reported to be taking pills on duty. He was also fired.

I had an inside track on how many guys had substance abuse issues, and although it numbered in the single digits, at one point a few years ago, it made up almost 10% of the department. My place has been incredibly good to the guys that had issues, and I chalk that goodness up to intervention by myself and others BEFORE it became an "official" problem. The dept kind of took a blind eye approach so long as we took steps from a union or personal perspective and got the guys out of Dodge and off to a rehab. Officially, they were not "on the radar," but they were definitely known about. The trick was to try to gauge exactly how bad someone was addicted and have them get help before they reached rock bottom. I was very fortunate to be elected into my former union position and have a reputation of not spreading information about people's personal business. This allowed people to trust me and come to me with their problems, or allowed me to try and intervene even though I wasn't their closest friend, as this was one of their darkest secrets. The department's approach was very smart in a way, to never officially recognize the issues, and allow us to take care of it before it became noticed. We've "unofficially" been very proactive with getting people help, and thankfully we've not yet had the substance abuse problem ever spill over into the public arena.

As for other departments, damn near all of them have guys with substance abuse problems. Some depts have a zero tolerance policy and kick their guys to the curb upon a hint of a problem. IMO, that's not how to handle people, especially those you've worked with for over a decade. There's tremendous liability handling things the way my dept did, but good luck actually proving they knew there was an issue, as these problems were dealt with informally and without a paper trail - because they we able to at the time. Like I said, by luck or the grace of god, the issues guys had did NOT spill over into the public eye. Even with that liability however, my place valued the human perspective over all else. I gained an incredible amount of respect for the admin in this regard.

Before anyone starts an uproar about "dirty cops" or "junkie cops" and takes my 10% figure as gospel, please note that this was one snapshot of a moment in time a number of years ago, and is not a reflection of the current status. I believe that percentage right now has nose-dived.
 
I've got a brother in a halfway house. Drugs (ultimately heroine), theft, and borrowing other peoples' checkbooks. Years of failed drug test while on probation. Years of robbing my mom blind. Somehow it's never amounted to any real time. Just local jails. Supposedly this is it though and next stop is prison. Since he hasn't gotten there by now it's hard to imagine why the next failed test would do it.

I don't talk to him. Not because of his drug use, but because he's a thief. And a liar. I don't expect him to ever truly feel sorry or make any attempt to atone. I sometimes wonder why it's gone this way. Best I've got is he had leukemia as a kid and comes from a broken home. How much is having high exposure to pain meds as a kid and how much is just feeling sorry for himself I couldn't say.

That sucks. I guess if anyone has an excuse, it would be him because he could have been hooked from such an early age or because of some level of trauma from such a serious childhood illness
 
That sucks. I guess if anyone has an excuse, it would be him because he could have been hooked from such an early age or because of some level of trauma from such a serious childhood illness

He spent a fair amount of time at the hospital. Said because of the disease he'd die young.
 
I had an inside track on how many guys had substance abuse issues, and although it numbered in the single digits, at one point a few years ago, it made up almost 10% of the department. My place has been incredibly good to the guys that had issues, and I chalk that goodness up to intervention by myself and others BEFORE it became an "official" problem. The dept kind of took a blind eye approach so long as we took steps from a union or personal perspective and got the guys out of Dodge and off to a rehab. Officially, they were not "on the radar," but they were definitely known about. The trick was to try to gauge exactly how bad someone was addicted and have them get help before they reached rock bottom. I was very fortunate to be elected into my former union position and have a reputation of not spreading information about people's personal business. This allowed people to trust me and come to me with their problems, or allowed me to try and intervene even though I wasn't their closest friend, as this was one of their darkest secrets. The department's approach was very smart in a way, to never officially recognize the issues, and allow us to take care of it before it became noticed. We've "unofficially" been very proactive with getting people help, and thankfully we've not yet had the substance abuse problem ever spill over into the public arena.

As for other departments, damn near all of them have guys with substance abuse problems. Some depts have a zero tolerance policy and kick their guys to the curb upon a hint of a problem. IMO, that's not how to handle people, especially those you've worked with for over a decade. There's tremendous liability handling things the way my dept did, but good luck actually proving they knew there was an issue, as these problems were dealt with informally and without a paper trail - because they we able to at the time. Like I said, by luck or the grace of god, the issues guys had did NOT spill over into the public eye. Even with that liability however, my place valued the human perspective over all else. I gained an incredible amount of respect for the admin in this regard.

Before anyone starts an uproar about "dirty cops" or "junkie cops" and takes my 10% figure as gospel, please note that this was one snapshot of a moment in time a number of years ago, and is not a reflection of the current status. I believe that percentage right now has nose-dived.


What is so disheartening about the way law enforcement is so far behind the curve compared to other professions is the way they handle such issues as mental illness and substance abuse.

As for substance abuse, I can absolutely see the potential for abuse of the badge and potential for of all of the associated crimes we see with addicts in the general population, but there should be treatment for those that get addicted from reasons such as getting injured on the job. But most departments would want to cleanse their hands of such a risky employee.

I guess it’s the same for other forms of mental illness. Police departments are terrified that an officer with depression may go haywire and go postal some day. And most police officers that suffer from depression are terrified that their jobs would be at risk for seeking treatment. I know i resisted therapy for many years because of this. I was only put on my first depression medication(cymbalta) because it had been shown to have some therapeutic value for back pain. My doctor tried for two years to get me to try it before I finally relented(no, I didn’t doubt his knowledge but I was afraid my department would somehow find out I was on depression meds), but when i agreed to try it, it was mostly because of the depression. When I broke down and told him that is why I was willing to try it, he said he couldn’t believe that It had taken me so long to become so depressed with all of my back pain. It was another year before I sought therapy, and probably another year before I told my chief, but only because I had been missing so much work. This was after two miscarriages and the death of my dog that sent me spiraling into a dark place(not suicidal-never that, but so depressed i could not function). But i could see it on his face that he thought I was a liability and I think he thought I was weak because I was tearing up in his office. This put a serious strain on our relationship, which got better when I became I lieutenant and got a renewed vigor for the job and was pretty damn good at it(I inherited the highest crime area and turned it around), but have had several bad patches since then and he hates me, and has basically told me so. In fact, just twelve hours ago, I asked if he had a second to discuss which of my sergeants I wanted to act in my absence(I have been on light duty due to a work injury and have surgery in 8 hours). He answered that he did not have a second, but I insisted. He was so clearly annoyed, but I really am fresh out of fucks to give. As I walked out of his office after a brief discussion, he said “good luck” with a smirk on his face. Just because I know he wants to be rid of me so bad, i actually may stick out my remaining 3.5 years.

Because of my depression and missing because of back pain, I am seen as a pain in the ass and a liability, and I am sure that any other officer that admitted to having depression would be viewed by him the same way.
 
He spent a fair amount of time at the hospital. Said because of the disease he'd die young.

Man, I think that would do it. Doesn’t excuse the stealing and dragging his family though shit, though
 
COULD THE PSYCHEDELIC DRUG IBOGAINE HELP TREAT OPIOID ADDICTION?
POSTED: 5/30/17
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2.5 million Americans who have an opioid use disorder. Those who receive medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction are prescribed methadone, buprenorphine, or naltrexone. While these medications have been proven to be effective treatments for opioid addiction, they do have side effects and are not completely risk-free. Is there another medication out there that can treat opioid addiction without such risks? Is there a quick fix to help relieve the withdrawal symptoms? Some in the medical subculture believe the psychedelic drug ibogaine may be a potential treatment for opioid addiction.

What is ibogaine?

Ibogaine is a powerful psychoactive substance, extracted from the iboga plant found in central Africa. The plant has been used by the indigenous people of Cameroon and Gabon for centuries during healing ceremonies and spiritual rituals.

Howard Lotsof inadvertently discovered ibogaine as a potential treatment for opioid addiction in 1962. Lotsof, who at the time was addicted to heroin, wanted a psychedelic high and ingested ibogaine. After the effects from ibogaine wore off, Lotsof noticed he no longer had the desire to take heroin and did not experience withdrawal symptoms. This led Lotsof to examine ibogaine as a possible treatment for drug addiction.

While scientists and health professionals are still learning exactly how ibogaine affects the human body, it is believed to impact the neurotransmitters in the brain and block neurotransmitter receptors that are involved with addiction. The drug also causes hallucinations and a wide array of other side effects that can last up to 24 hours or longer after an initial dose.


https://www.centeronaddiction.org/t...lic-drug-ibogaine-help-treat-opioid-addiction



For all the cops here who meet people who have hit rock bottom, and are looking for a way out. Please look into this. I have seen too many videos of folks that tried to quit opium, 30, 40 times, and failed. The brain is wired to demand the opium, and autistic screams for it. Quit opium for 90 days, and day 90 is just as bad as day 30, and day 45. It doesn't get better. The brain chemistry is fucked.

The people who have used this treatment swear that when they woke up from the 24-72 hour hard core hallucinogen trip, their brain chemistry has been reset, and they no longer crave opium.

This hallucinogen appears to work as a chemistry reset. We have seen evidence of this time and again, with treating PTSD with MDMA. You can reset your brain chemistry.

Why we can't get clinical trials on this, is hard to explain without a massive conspiracy in place. Kind of like those Afghan poppy fields
 
@nhbbear I guess its open now and we can take up where we left off

In regards to pot. I know you cant use it due to the job but the way it is most effectively used is chronically and it takes some time of constant use for you to really adjust to it and be effective . Like if you are using pot as a pain reliever you have to have the tolerance to function high all day and have like a vape pen in your pocket. at least thats been my experience as someone who was a pill user and now has made the switch to just marijuana . basically you have to have the right job and the right physical tolerance for it to really do its magic . Ive been in the industry 6 years now and I have seen it be a wonder cure for some , a road to ruin for a few and others who see no benefits at all . just wanted to put that out there for food for thought really .





I dont see too many people that want to talk about the addict side of things. I didnt want to volunteer til I saw how the conversation was going but I have struggled with addiction to pain pills since 2006 and tomorrow if there isnt anyone else talking about it and there are any questions you want to ask me perhaps we can get a dialog going. Its been very interesting to hear it from a police officers point of view and I think it was brave to disclose that you are hurt and have danced with the devil yourself . With the stigma attached to pills these days it can be a hard thing to talk about or admit to.
 
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@nhbbear I guess its open now and we can take up where we left off

In regards to pot. I know you cant use it due to the job but the way it is most effectively used is chronically and it takes some time of constant use for you to really adjust to it and be effective . Like if you are using pot as a pain reliever you have to have the tolerance to function high all day and have like a vape pen in your pocket. at least thats been my experience as someone who was a pill user and now has made the switch to just marijuana . basically you have to have the right job and the right physical tolerance for it to really do its magic . Ive been in the industry 6 years now and I have seen it be a wonder cure for some , a road to ruin for a few and others who see no benefits at all . just wanted to put that out there for food for thought really .





I dont see too many people that want to talk about the addict side of things. I didnt want to volunteer til I saw how the conversation was going but I have struggled with addiction to pain pills since 2006 and tomorrow if there isnt anyone else talking about it and there are any questions you want to ask me perhaps we can get a dialog going. Its been very interesting to hear it from a police officers point of view and I think it was brave to disclose that you are hurt and have danced with the devil yourself . With the stigma attached to pills these days it can be a hard thing to talk about or admit to.

Yeah, I asked Cubo his opinion about my disclosure, and I am glad he encouraged me to do so.

And yes, if it were made legal here, and it is set to become medically legal, I would like to give it another try if it became recreational. I probably would not be able to risk a medical card, though my doctor would sign off on it, but I am sure my chief would directly address that being legal would not apply to us.

How did you first become addicted?
 
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How did you first become addicted?

I have had problems with my knees since my late teens ( late 90s) so I could get them if I needed them and had a family doctor but I only took them here and there

Fast forward a few years and I am in a super bad place with both my parents having died 2 years apart and I am starting to take more drugs drink more and probably starting to show all the warning signs of being hooked. I realized in this phase that taking a lot of pills formed a protective set of armor around me and I didnt hurt as bad . At this point I probably wasnt in trouble just yet but I was laying a good foundation

The final nail. I always smoked a lot of weed and it was my drug of choice. I broke up a fight when my neighbors were jumping a kid ( this is the 4 guys tried to force entry to my house story you may have seen me tell before ) I ended up pulling out my rifle they see it and scatter ..... Few nights later they basically swat me and say im brandishing my weapon and shooting it outside and describe it perfectly since they know damn well what it was.Police storm my house I end up on drug testing probation for loitering where drugs are present for having a few grams on hand ..... I could take all the perks I wanted but could no longer smoke weed so I really ramped it up . This was the point of no return and I think it went from a bad habit to a daily requirement .

Phase 1 phase 2 and phase 3 . By the time I really realized How deep I was in it was well past the just quit stage and I have been fighting it ever since. Ive been a functioning addict for a while now sometimes im clean and sometimes im not but I do try to keep it together .



I gave it up about a year ago I made just over 300 days and then like viva was saying it is just as bad on day 30 as 300 and I gave in to it and went on a 2 month run. I am currently at 10 days clean again. Ive done this so many times I have it mastered. Get sick for 3 days . recover for 5 then your body is mostly ok again and the real war is in your mind. I always try to make the streak longer each time but id be a fucking liar if I said I was positive that im good this time
 
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I gave it up about a year ago I made just over 300 days and then like viva was saying it is just as bad on day 30 as 300 and I gave in to it and went on a 2 month run. I am currently at 10 days clean again. Ive done this so many times I have it mastered. Get sick for 3 days . recover for 5 then your body is mostly ok again and the real war is in your mind. I always try to make the streak longer each time but id be a fucking liar if I said I was positive that im good this time

What do you think of using hallucinogens to rewire your brain?
 
What do you think of using hallucinogens to rewire your brain?

I think that if theres even the slightest chance that that shit can cure an opiate addiction that it is down right criminal not to be doing tests , and experiments and figuring out if this is viable / making this widely available

I would try it in a heartbeat if it was an option here . From my standpoint it looks to me like the worst that can happen to you is a bad trip(who hasnt had one) and the best is to be cured

I tried to do something like it with mushrooms recently where I took a huge dose and then sat by myself and tried to think about not being an addict but I think theres more to it than that and you need a guide to ask questions , help you explore and help you make sense of your thoughts
 
I think that if theres even the slightest chance that that shit can cure an opiate addiction that it is down right criminal not to be doing tests , and experiments and figuring out if this is viable / making this widely available

I would try it in a heartbeat if it was an option here . From my standpoint it looks to me like the worst that can happen to you is a bad trip(who hasnt had one) and the best is to be cured

I tried to do something like it with mushrooms recently where I took a huge dose and then sat by myself and tried to think about not being an addict but I think theres more to it than that and you need a guide to ask questions , help you explore and help you make sense of your thoughts

You can go to Mexico to get this.

Americans going abroad for illegal heroin treatment

As America's opioid and heroin crisis rages, some struggling with addiction are turning to a drug illegal in the US. Jonathan Levinson went to one clinic offering the treatment in Mexico.

At the end of a dead end street in a town near the US-Mexico border, Emily Albert is in the basement of a drug treatment clinic, hallucinating about her son as a heroin addict. She imagines him going through rehab and desperately trying to get clean.

But Albert is the one with the addiction. She's in the middle of a psychedelic treatment for opioid addiction.

Through tears after the treatment is over, Albert recalls the vision of her son.

"I could just tell that he was older and going through whatever I'm going through," she explains. "It was like, basically, if I don't do this then he's going to have to."

Albert is among a growing number of opioid addicts from the US going to clinics in Mexico to get treated with a psychedelic drug called ibogaine.

The drug is illegal in the US, but several studies have suggested it is effective in alleviating opioid withdrawals and curbing addiction.

And unlike daily replacement therapies like buprenorphine or methadone, ibogaine only requires a one-time treatment.

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Ibogaine risks and legality

  • Ibogaine has been associated with at least 19 deaths. Given it is largely unregulated, the actual toll could be much higher
  • In New Zealand, the only country to have regulated the drug, the medical advisory board Medsafe reported that "the number of deaths due to methadone, the most controlled substance, were a little higher that those associated with ibogaine"
  • Ibogaine is illegal in the US, France, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Poland, Croatia and Switzerland and strongly restricted in the UK under the 2016 Psychoactive Substances Act
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Ibogaine, along with other hallucinogenics, such as LSD and psilocybin (magic mushrooms), are schedule I substances in the US - drugs which have no medical application and are not safe for use, even under medical supervision.

The drug's side effects include hallucinations ,of course, but also seizures and in rare cases, potentially fatal cardiac complications.

Still, there is a growing body of evidence suggesting the FDA's label isn't accurate.

"Essentially, it's because of the backlash against the psychedelic '60s," says Dr Thomas Kingsley Brown, an anthropologist and chemist at the University of California, San Diego.

In a study spanning eight years, funded by the Multidisciplinary Association on Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS, Brown tracked outcomes for addicts who were treated with ibogaine .

"About 90% of the people in the study had a dramatic reduction in their withdrawal symptoms at the point when you'd expect they'd be at their worst," he says.

Brown says the severity of their addictions were reduced throughout a 12-month follow-up period and their relationships with family and loved ones improved as well.

Two days after her own ibogaine treatment, Albert is sitting on a deck at the clinic overlooking the Pacific Ocean when it dawns on her that she hasn't even thought about getting high in two days.

That hasn't happened in 10 years.

"It's like they took my addiction and put it in an elevator and sent it a hundred floors down," she says.

When Albert was 14, she had minor surgery on her big toe after a basketball injury. The doctor prescribed Percocet for the pain.

"I remember the very first time I tried one. I didn't know if it was the antibiotics my mom had given me or what it was from those bottles, but I was like 'that is great. I'm going to figure out what that was.'"

Over the next few days she tried one, then another. When she finally figured it out, she says, "it was game over from there".

She quickly went from pills to heroin. And when she had to worry about passing drug tests she'd huff cans of compressed air - sometimes up to 16 cans a day.

Because ibogaine is illegal in the US and not well known, the people with addiction who end up in Mexico seeking treatment are typically there as a last resort.

Two days before Albert's treatment she was coming off a stretch of homelessness, barricaded in a hotel room north of San Diego. She wasn't answering the door or her phone and an employee from the clinic, sent to pick her up, feared she might have overdosed.

When she finally did answer, a brief stand-off ensued.

"She's going to have to leave with you or leave with the police," Thom Leonard, who owns the clinic, told the employee over the phone.

She chose rehab.

Treatment at this clinic costs between $5,000 and $12,000, depending on the length of stay and programme. Emily's parents ended up paying for her treatment, but Leonard says he does discounts and pro-bono treatments for those who can't afford to pay. Those who pay full price subsidise those efforts.

While this clinic has a good reputation among independent researchers, ibogaine treatment clinics in Mexico and elsewhere are unregulated, making it difficult to determine the level of medical knowledge and safety on offer.

And while Ibogaine shows promise, it comes with risks. People have died while taking it.

Between 1990 and 2008, 19 people are known to have died within 72 hours of taking Ibogaine.Researchers at NYU looked at autopsy and toxicological data from those deaths and found that most patients had pre-existing cardiac or liver conditions, or still had opioids in their system, all of which are contraindications for Ibogaine.

A 2015 review found similar issues in three additional deaths, and reports of dangerously slow heart rate associated with taking the drug.

And so the morning after she arrived, Albert was taken to get blood tests and an EKG exam to make sure she was healthy enough for treatment.

That night, in a dimly lit room, a nurse inserted an IV, hooked Albert up to an EKG for monitoring throughout her treatment. Then a doctor gave her three ibogaine pills.

With calming, instrumental music playing, Albert appeared to fall asleep.

Aside from the occasional bathroom break or scream you might expect to hear from someone having a bad dream, she stayed like that for more than 24 hours.

Meanwhile she was experiencing vivid hallucinations.

"There was a childhood memory that I didn't know was there," she recalled. "It kept going around and around and every time I'd get a little more."

Leonard says that's an important part of the process.


"You revisit your traumas, but you see them from a new perspective. And you get to make peace with these things - or at least move past them."

The science behind ibogaine's efficacy in treating addiction is up for debate.

A 2008 study in mice by neurologist Dorit Ron found ibogaine increased the level of a brain protein called GDNF, which prevents the development of addiction.

There are drugs that mimic some of ibogaine's effects.

Savant HWP, an American pharmaceutical company, is scheduled to begin human trials next year on a drug called 18-MC, which claims to have ibogaine's desirable effect on addiction - without the hallucinogenic component.

But people familiar with ibogaine's use in treating addiction believe the psychedelic experience is critical to the treatment.

Brown says the drug is probably allowing new nerve connections to be formed. But, he adds, "psychological experiences are also creating changes in the brain".

"It's not quite as simple as, once this is in your body it's helping to rewire things. There is an interplay with the psychology."

Brown, Ron and other researchers who are interested in ibogaine say there's still more research needed on safety and whether the hallucinations are critical to curbing addiction. Its status as an illegal drug, however, makes that difficult.

So what are the prospects of a hallucinogenic, schedule I substance being approved for medical use in the US?

Not as slim as one might think.

The FDA just approved Phase III trials for MDMA - the active component in Ecstasy - to study its use in treating post-traumatic stress. Brown believes it is likely to show good results and be approved.

If it does, he says, that will have an enormous impact on public opinion.

In the meantime, while the opioid epidemic in the US has slowly raised awareness of ibogaine, Leonard says that as an industry primarily run by former addicts, legitimacy has been a struggle.

To his dismay, he says Google Ad Words banned ibogaine ads last year. Leonard estimates he lost 60% of his referrals.

"There is so much stigma around being an addict and so it's hard for people to take us seriously sometimes."

Meanwhile, two months after her treatment, Emily is still clean.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-us-canada-43420999
 
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