The discovery that ibogaine could block drug withdrawal is usually credited To Howard S. Lotsof - a New York based former drug user who took ibogaine in 1962. Lotsof, then a heroin user, took ibogaine believing it to be a new recreational drug. But, 30 hours later, he suddenly realized he wasn't experiencing heroin withdrawal and had no desire to get a fix. Subsequent casual experimentation revealed that this effect was replicated for other heroin users. Some 20 years later, Lotsof returned to his discovery and set about trying to bring it to the market. He formed a company, NDA International, obtained patents for the use of ibogaine in the treatment of addiction, under the name Endabuse, and began to carry out treatments to better evaluate the drug's potential.
By this time however, ibogaine had been made a Schedule 1 restricted substance in the USA. Consequently, Lotsof chose to carry out experimental ibogaine treatments in Holland.
In 1991 the US National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA), impressed by case reports and animal studies, began studying ibogaine with a view to evaluating its safety and creating treatment protocols.
In 1993 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) who oversee the development of new drugs approved clinical trials with ibogaine, to be carried out by Dr. Deborah Mash of the University of Miami School of Medicine, on behalf of Howard Lotsof's corporation, NDA International.
Up to this point, the development of ibogaine had been proceeding smoothly, But suddenly went sour. The death of a young female heroin addict during treatment in Holland brought an abrupt end to the Dutch project. A subsequent inquest did not find the project organisers guilty of negligence, but the lack of scientific knowledge about the effects of ibogaine hindered the establishment of the actual cause of death, though it was believed that she may have surreptitiously smoked opiates during treatment.
The approved clinical trials commenced, but contractual and funding problems that arose between NDA International and the University of Miami brought them to a close before completion, (note that the drug's safety was not an issue). A lengthy legal battle between the two ensued, and developmental work came to a standstill.
In March 1995, after several years spent progressively becoming more interested in ibogaine, a review committee at NIDA suddenly decided to suspend further activity with the drug, apparently having been influenced by critical opinions from pharmaceutical industry representatives. Officially it was reported that the death in Holland was of concern and that the government agency was disappointed that ibogaine was only shown to keep people off drugs for a period of months, not permanently. Howard Lotsof has subsequently pointed out that the death, whilst tragic, was likely caused by opiate use, and, with regard to the second point, that any drug that could put, say, cancer or AIDS into complete remission for a period of months would be being developed as a matter of national urgency.
Author: Nick Sandberg