IBOGAINE –
Rite of Passage
by Ben De Loenen
(Director and Producer)
posted at DrugWar.com
July 26, 2005
In September the documentary about the use
of Ibogaine
for the treatment of addiction, "IBOGAINE-Rite of Passage"
premiered at the Dutch Film Festival in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Ben De Loenen, of the Dutch film production
company LunArt
Productions,
produced and directed this film in co-production with Triomf Productions.
Since then the film has been showcased at several film festivals
and conferences, and in January of 2006 it will play at the International
Film Festival in Rotterdam.
Ibogaine
Ibogaine is a substance which is derived from the root of the
'Tabernanthe Iboga', an African plant that grows in Gabon. This
plant is originally used during initiations of the
Bwiti culture, to get in contact with the ancestors. These
initiations are conducted for healing purposes and as a ritual
when a child becomes an adult. This holy plant has become the
core of this Central West African culture.
After the ingestion of the grinded root of
the plant, the initiated enters dreamlike visions, in which he
or she commonly re-experiences elements of his or her past and
in this way gains insight in their own personality. This psychoactive
phase lasts about 36 hours and has its peak about four hours after
ingestion, where after the effect slowly decreases to end in a
short sleep.
In the beginning of the sixties, a young
American man called Howard
Lotsof discovered that after ingesting Ibogaine, he could
instantly stop his heroin use without having any withdrawal symptoms
or craving. Next to that he had gained more insight in the cause
and nature of his addiction because of the psychoactive phase
he had gone thru.
He started to investigate this discovery,
despite the lack of interest of the pharmaceutical companies and
the government of the US. After he started NDA International Inc.
(New Drug Application) in 1986, he
finally patented Ibogaine as an addiction interrupter with
the name 'Endabuse'. The Ibogaine molecule on its own cannot be
patented, because it's a natural substance. This is, according
to some people, one of the reasons why the pharmaceutical companies
are not interested in the development of this substance. Also
the findings of a research
the CIA conducted in the sixties are according to some kept strictly
confidential.
Addict-care organizations rarely if ever
want to have anything to do with Ibogaine, and the people who
conduct treatments are often not taken seriously by the "regular"
treatment providers. In America Ibogaine is classified as 'Schedule
1', which means that it is drug without any medicinal value that
is considered dangerous, with serious abuse potential. It is scheduled
the same as LSD, heroin, cocaine and other narcotics. That's why
people such as the neurologist Dr.
Deborah C. Mash conducts her treatments outside the borders
of the American law. Also, in Belgium, Ibogaine was made illegal
shortly after the negotiations between the Belgian
pharmaceutical company Omnichem, at that time the most important
producer of Ibogaine, and NDA International started.
Ibogaine is surrounded by controversy, and
the decisions about the use of Ibogaine in the treatment of addiction
appear to be made on a political and economical, instead of a
rational, basis. Despite the results that show that Ibogaine is
often a very useful tool for the treatment of addiction that can
enhance the quality of the life of many heroin and poly-drug addicts
(without functioning as a maintenance drug, as in the case with
methadone and other anti-addiction drug currently used), the
pharmaceutical companies and the government show no interest and
stay very skeptical. Is it because of the economic interests or
because it is a psychoactive substance?
Ibogaine has provided us with more insight
into the mechanisms of addiction and the question of whether it
needs to be used for treating this huge Western problem gets more
and more acknowledgement.
The film
About three years ago, Ben De Loenen read an article about Ibogaine
in a Dutch magazine. The cultural/spiritual
background of this substance and the economical interests of the
pharmaceutical companies in particular caught Ben's attention.
Ben was a second year student at the Utrecht
School of the Arts at that moment, and decided to dedicate
his final exam project to this subject. This was the beginning
of a long research period in which he managed to get the cooperation
of many people in the field. In particular Howard Lotsof has been
very supportive in the realization of this project.
Three treatments were recorded for the film; one in Sara’s
House in Breukelen (The Netherlands), one in the Iboga
Therapy House in Vancouver and the third one in the Ibogaine
Association in Mexico. Because of the large amount of footage
shot for the film, only the last treatment was finally used in
the final edit. Also a lot of interviews were conducted with ex-addicts,
treatment providers, the father of an ex-addict, a psychotherapist,
scientists, a Bwiti shaman and Howard Lotsof. And finally a traditional
Bwiti initiation in Central West Africa was shot in June of
2004.
What’s finally used in the film brings
the spectator close to the personal experience of the (ex-) addict
and focuses less on the science behind Ibogaine. Next to that,
the spectator becomes a witness of the spectacular traditional
Bwiti-ritual, which contrasts very much to the use of Ibogaine
in the Western World. Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to get
people of pharmaceutical companies and regular treatment centers
in front of the camera, as they didn’t react on the invitation,
or stated that they "had no comments." For more information
on the film, go to www.ibogainefilm.com.
DVD’s of the film can be ordered from
the website.
LunArt Productions
LunArt
Productions is a film production company that focuses on social
documentaries. With these documentaries, they try to inform people
about important social issues. With this film, LunArt Productions
tries to inform people about the existence of Ibogaine worldwide,
in order to start up more discussion about this very subject.
Next to that they hope to break
the stigma around drug addiction and the use of psychoactive substances
for spiritual/medicinal purposes. LunArt Productions gives
presentations of the film followed by more information and discussions
about Ibogaine. For more information, go to www.lunartproductions.com.
