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his mind. At one point, he began to cry, say- effectiveness has spawned a cultlike following ing he just wanted to tell his dad that he loved among ex-addicts. The underground move- him. At intervals throughout, Kroupa took ment, made up of volunteer treatment provid- B.G.’s pulse and made sure he was hydrated. ers like Kroupa who are schooled in ’s When it was over, B.G. stood up, his long hair administration, has grown steadily and quietly mussed, the bathrobe flopping open to reveal into an army. Frank Vocci, director of treatment boxer trunks askew. He seemed alert and happy. research and development at the National In- Dawn was breaking outside. “This is fucking stitute on Drug Abuse, a federal agency that beautiful,” he said. “It’s gone, it’s really gone.” funds and monitors narcotics and addiction re- And just like that, B.G. was clean. He asked for search, has called it “a vast uncontrolled experi- some chocolate ice cream to celebrate. ment.” Or as Kroupa puts it, “Basically, in any big American city, you can find someone who To Its proponents in the rehab community, can get you ibogaine and help you take it.” ibogaine is the most important treatment Dr. Kenneth Alper, an associate professor of for narcotics addiction ever discovered. The psychiatry and neurology at Universi- trippy drug with the magical side effect is de- ty who has chronicled ibogaine’s social evolution, rived from the bark of the West African shrub compares the movement with the AIDS group Tabernanthe iboga. (Some tribes in Gabon and ACT UP in the 1990s. “As with treatments for Cameroon still use the drug as a sacrament.) HIV, ibogaine has been associated with a vocal According to a handful of devoted research activist subculture,” he wrote in a 2001 study, scientists, it has proved incredibly effective in “which has viewed its mission as advocating the alleviating the agonizing effects of withdrawal availability of a controversial treatment to a stig- from a wide array of hard drugs, most nota- matized and marginalized minority.” Though bly and . But to the disappoint- their work is illegal, people like Kroupa see them- ment of addicts across the country, ibogaine selves as clandestine foot soldiers in a new wave remains strictly illegal, leaving it up to a loosely of medical civil disobedience. Today there are organized network of activists to distribute the panacea in secret to desperate patients. Patrick Kroupa is one of those activists; using ibogaine to free the afflicted has become his life’s mission. Dressed in rumpled black clothes, he looks like an overworked grad stu- Basically, in any big dent as he guides me through his modest stuc- American city, co home in Coral Gables, Florida, just outside you can find someone Miami, to the kitchen and offers me a drink. He who can get you opens the refrigerator door, revealing shelves ibogaine and help stocked with cans of SoBe Adrenaline, Coca- you take it.” Cola Zero, and milk—for his coffee. “Basically, he night B.G. waited for detoxification regimen there is—except one. a lot of variations on caffeine,” he explains. My ibogaine “scenes” in the Netherlands, Denmark, Patrick Kroupa to show up, Kroupa, 39 with dirty-blond hair and an oval visit catches him just as he’s packing to move Great Britain, Italy, France, Slovenia, and Latin The he felt like he was going to face, finally arrived at about 9. B.G. lurched to to Woodstock, New York, with his wife, ending America. Still, despite the growing interest, Alper die. After staying clean for the door, 6 feet, 200 pounds of sweating, quiv- an eight-year run here as a research assistant estimates that only 6,000 people worldwide have 17 years, he had relapsed ering misery dressed in a black bathrobe and at the Brain Endowment Bank, jointly run by undergone the treatment. and spent the last couple fuzzy blue slippers. A walrus mustache framed University of Miami and the National Parkin- Electric In KROUPA’S CLUTTERED home office, the AC of months on a heroin jag. tightly clenched lips. son Foundation. The endowment’s director, Once again, his body had Kroupa pushed aside the beaded curtain Dr. Deborah Mash, has been studying ibo- constantly blows at a brisk 62 degrees. “I think become so accustomed to that led into the living room and walked past the gaine for almost two decades. better in the cold,” he offers. A silver short-barrel Kool-Aid the opiates coursing through his blood and into black leather couch into the bedroom, with its In fact, Kroupa met Dr. Mash, a petite and Stoeger Coach shotgun lies on top of a bare mat- This brain that it stopped producing endorphins, black carpet and black bed sheets. B.G. asked voluble scientist in her mid-50s, when she treat- tress tucked against the wall. On a table along the natural painkillers emitted to block out the Kroupa to load the CD player with Hendrix, ed his own heroin addiction with controlled another wall is his MacBook Pro, loaded with Acid Cure daily nuisances of being alive. In the eight Led Zeppelin, and the Beatles. doses of ibogaine eight years earlier, effectively about $12,000 in additional components. As An obscure and hours since his last fix, everyday existence had Then Kroupa handed him several capsules freeing him from a 16-year habit. It was such he maneuvers through his files, which are all suddenly become excruciating—his muscles containing ibogaine hydrochloride—by his own a profound experience that Kroupa signed on encrypted, he is constantly prompted to reen- powerful ached; his bones felt brittle; his skin alternated admission possibly the most dangerous hallu- to help Mash in the laboratory. According to ter his password. “I’m paranoid,” he explains— from Africa might between hot and cold—all of the signals collid- cinogen in existence—in a dosage correspond- Mash, the drug creates an “immediate cessa- baggage from a former life. ing at once, threatening neural overload. ing to B.G.’s body weight. B.G. lay back on his tion of craving.” This is not a cure for addiction, Kroupa is a first-generation computer geek. just hold the cure to But B.G. (who didn’t want his name or iden- bed, gulped down the pills, and hoped for the she warns; there are lifestyle and psychological As a teenager, he went by the cyber sobriquet addiction. So why tifying details used) was determined to quit her- best. After the first hour or so, he noticed the issues at work with each addict. But it provides Lord Digital and helped found the online- oin, and Patrick Kroupa was going to help. As pain vanishing. Then the lingering phantom of a very big window of opportunity. hacker and “phone phreak” group Legion of won’t the government instructed, the aging hippie hadn’t scored any craving dissipated. And this was just the begin- Like Mash, Kroupa has labored to make ibo- Doom, which famously ravaged the databases let you have it? junk all day and was entering the phase where ning. For the eight hours, B.G. was in a gaine a legal treatment for addicts. In the eyes of of major corporations like AT&T. By 1992, By Tristram Korten just being awake is agony. Withdrawal is the big- deep trance, immersed in a full-on psychedelic the government, however, it remains a dangerous at age 23, Kroupa had turned his computer gest hurdle junkies face when trying to get clean. trip. He grew quiet as a kaleidoscope of colors, hallucinogen, a Schedule 1 controlled substance exploits into something tangible by cofound- It’s also the unavoidable reality central to every intense images, and memories slipped through that is illegal to use or possess. But its reputed ing MindVox, one of the first service

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providers on the planet (back when domain how IBOGAINE works remains a mystery. before Mash closed it in 2005. In 2007 she sub- And then there is the long and complex battle names had to be registered with the Depart- Mash’s theory is that the alkaloid converts into mitted her data to the FDA, after it was clear that over the medical use of marijuana. ment of Defense). MindVox raked in thou- the metabolite noribogaine, which fits into the private industry would not get involved. The The idea of using a drug to reset the sands of dollars a month in consulting fees brain’s opiate receptors, effectively blocking results, she says, were astonishing. “We demon- brain’s response to intoxicants troubles many (they brought Playboy, among other compa- them. It wasn’t until 1962 that a young drug strated that ibogaine can be administered safely in abstinence-based recovery communities, nies, online). Kroupa drove a BMW and flew enthusiast and heroin addict named How- and is extremely effective.” who believe that addiction cannot be cured all over the world, dressed in Armani. At the ard Lotsof accidentally discovered ibogaine’s By then, Lotsof’s patent had expired, and with a magic bullet. Even ibogaine’s standard- same time, he was spending as much as $1,500 anti-addictive properties. After tripping on the drug’s application to treat addiction entered bearers acknowledge that addicts have psycho- a day on heroin and cocaine, disappearing for ibogaine, he realized that his heroin craving the public domain. This was a commercial death logical issues that need to be addressed. Some— weeks at a time into a narcotic oblivion. Kroupa dissipated without withdrawal symptoms. He knell as far as Big Pharma was concerned. It Kroupa, predictably, but also the conservative says he still remembers the sensation of his first then tried a crude experiment, giving ibogaine costs somewhere around $300 to $500 million Dr. Mash—think there’s some therapeutic ben- experience with heroin, at age 14. “It was, ‘This to 20 people, seven of whom were hooked on to shepherd a prospective drug through the clini- efit to the hallucinatory powers of ibogaine, that is what it feels like not to hurt; this is what it feels heroin. All seven reported that their physical cal trials required by the FDA. And no company the trip might actually help people confront the like to be normal,’ ” he recalls. “All the noise in addiction ceased after just one dose. wants to spend half a billion dollars on a product demons in their personalities. my head stopped and everything was perfect.” Over the years Lotsof fought to bring ibo- to which it will have no exclusive rights. Kroupa likes to say he would probably be By 29 the car, clothes, and money were gaine mainstream. In 1985 he patented the dead if it weren’t for ibogaine. “He was one gone, and Kroupa was homeless. On the eve- drug’s use as a “rapid method for interrupt- Even if the patents were still available, ibogaine of the most severe heroin addicts I have ever ning of his 30th birthday, he was arrested for ing narcotic addiction syndrome.” He formed would be a tough sell to mainstream drug manu- encountered,” says Mash. “And he’s a unique possession in . “I turned 30 in the a private company that helped fund studies at facturers, which at first seems counterintuitive study because he’s intellectually gifted.” She was Tombs,” he says, referring to the notorious jail Albany Medical College, which showed the given the potential market. NIDA estimates impressed enough to give him a job, which is not beneath the criminal courthouse. In the dank drug’s efficacy on animal subjects. His com- there are as many as a million heroin addicts out to say they always agreed. Mash feels strongly concrete cell, the magnitude of what he had lost pany teamed up with a university-run clinic in there, and twice that many abusing prescription that the grassroots movement jeopardizes ibo- overwhelmed him, and he resolved to quit. Rotterdam, Netherlands, where ibogaine could opiates like oxycodone. There are other drugs, gaine’s slim chance of gaining legitimacy. “It’s It wouldn’t be his first effort. “I probably be administered to humans. For a while the approved by the FDA and sold commercially via going underground because people are desper- tried 18 to 20 medically supervised detox pro- campaign seemed to be working. Both Dutch prescription, that interrupt opioid signaling— ate,” she sighs. “The point is, this works, but grams over the years, and maybe another 75 and U.S. governments monitored the trials with most notably naltrexone (marketed as ReVia, we’ll never be able to show that because halluci- do-it-yourself attempts,” he says. Among the interest, but momentum stalled in 1993 when a Depade, and Vivitrol), which is used to treat al- nogens have such a damaged reputation.” programs he tried: substitution therapies like patient in the Rotterdam clinic suddenly died, cohol and narcotic addictions, and acamprosate Without government support, ibogaine’s fu- methadone and buprenorphine, which replace and the Dutch government withdrew support. (marketed as Campral), which is used primarily ture as a treatment lies almost solely in the hands heroin with a milder opiate; ultra-rapid detox, (What role, if any, ibogaine played in the death of its shadow brigade of medical vigilantes. A few in which the addict is anesthetized to help with remains uncertain.) fledgling clinics have opened in Mexico, includ- the withdrawal process; and a medical proce- body weight of ibogaine hydrochloride in cap- In the U.S., the National Institute on Drug ing one in Tijuana where a patient died after tak- dure in which electrical currents stimulate the sule form, all the while attached to a bank of Abuse was intrigued enough to initiate its own the bottom line is that ing ibogaine in 2006. (According to Baja’s attor- brain. But with each method, withdrawal was machines that monitored his vital signs. “Within clinical studies. From 1991 to 1995, the agen- ibogaine gives people ney general, the patient’s death was apparently unavoidable, and Kroupa winces at the memo- 30 to 35 minutes, this ball of heat went up my cy spent millions on ibogaine research. But in their lives back. caused by health complications unrelated to the ries: “All of them just meant pain, real pain.” spine and the pain just let go,” Kroupa recounts. 1995 it determined that further study would be and no, it’s not perfectly treatment.) But these options are open only to And none of them worked. “Nothing has ever done that. It was like my habit too expensive. Alper notes that pharmaceutical safe, but neither is those who can afford private care. If you’re an Then he heard about Dr. Mash, who ran was a bad dream, a mirage. And before I can fo- companies played a key role in the govern- shooting things into addict of last resort or modest means like B.G., a treatment center on the Caribbean island of cus on what just happened, I start tripping. Eight ment’s decision. who Kroupa reports has stayed clean, you must St. Kitts. In October 1999 Kroupa rounded up and a half hours later, they take the blinds off.” In 1995 Mash received FDA approval to your veins that you take to the underground. the $10,000 necessary to enroll. When he first Kroupa says he felt cured. He no longer conduct low-dose tests on cocaine-dependent cop on a street corner.” Back at his house, smoking a Camel Wide, arrived, he was in the throes of withdrawal— craved heroin. But it didn’t change 16 years of human subjects at the University of Miami, Kroupa takes the long view. “The purpose of cramping, cold sweats. “My spine felt like it was behavioral patterns that led him to heroin in the but the project was stymied when she couldn’t for alcohol. All have a far less dramatic effect a pharmaceutical company is not to cure any being crushed,” he recalls. first place. On his way back to the U.S., Krou- raise grant money from either private industry than the one reported by ibogaine users. specific disease or help people,” he says with- Kroupa’s treatment consisted of wearing a pa’s plane stopped over in Puerto Rico, and he or the government. Her solution was to create Yet ibogaine remains off-limits, primarily out rancor. “The purpose of any corporation is blindfold on a bed in a darkened room, listen- promptly copped a bag of heroin. A month later, an offshore clinic on St. Kitts in 1996, in es- because no one has been able to divorce the hal- to generate revenue. The question is not, ‘Can ing to soothing music through earphones, and strung out again, he returned to St. Kitts for an- sence self-funding her study by treating paying lucinogenic effects from its addiction-blocking we solve a problem?’ It’s ‘Can we make a lot ingesting about 12 milligrams per kilogram of other treatment. He’s been clean ever since. customers. Mash recruited Dr. Jeffrey Kamlet, properties. “The pharmaceutical giants in the of money solving a problem?’ ” In this case, an addictionologist and former ER doctor, to world today aren’t interested in looking at hallu- probably not. “You’ve got a drug that cannot assist her at the clinic. Kamlet says he was ini- cinogens as therapeutic entities,” says Dr. Vocci, be patented for drug dependence; you’ve got tially skeptical. “I told Deborah I wanted to see pointing to the strong societal bias and safety a single-dosage modality, you’ve got the psy- a patient using right up to the day of treatment. concerns. (Although no causal link between chedelic side effect; oh, and by the way, it’s a And afterward, if he tells me he’s not craving, I’ll ibogaine use and death has been determined, Schedule 1 drug offense!” He laughs. “Every- believe,” he recounts. Kamlet took a patient with about 11 people died within 72 hours of tak- thing that can be stacked against ibogaine is a $600-a-day heroin habit to St. Kitts with him. ing the drug as a treatment between 1990 and stacked. You’re fucked.” After treatment, he watched the patient simply 2006, according to Alper’s studies.) It’s also a But like a true evangelist, he is undeterred. “If stop using heroin. He left convinced it was the one-treatment option, and the assumption is something is effective, who the fuck cares about most powerful tool in existence to treat opiate that drug companies like repeat customers. the paperwork? The bottom line is, ibogaine gives dependency. Today Kamlet, the former presi- In its exile, ibogaine shares the fate of other people their lives back. And no, it is not perfectly IBOGAINE EVANGELISTS (Top) The West African dent of the Florida Society of Addiction Medi- compounds stigmatized for their close associa- safe, but neither is shooting things into your Tabernanthe iboga. (From left) cine, says simply: “In my opinion, this is one of tion with drug culture. Psychotherapists used veins that you cop on a street corner.” For now, Dr. Alberto Sola, Howard Lotsof, Patrick the most important discoveries in the history of MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, as a while the research community “spins its wheels,” Kroupa, and Dr. Adolfo Martinez are addiction medicine.” The clinic treated about therapeutic tool for patients with mild psychiat- Kroupa will continue to sow the seeds of revolu- at the forefront of a growing movement. 400 patients, mostly heroin and cocaine addicts, HOLLENBECK LAURA ric disorders before the drug was criminalized. tion. “I help the fucked get unfucked,” he says. R