I am in two minds about the clinical setting. It is after all a trip and for most addicts not the most pleasant experience in the first place, so putting this into a clinical setting can be counterproductive.
I agree. Even though my setting was the complete opposite approach. for me it's the only way. mutual conformation was booking a hotel on an amazing part of the gold coast for a week. Perfect view, q size bed opposite a big double sliding door, which when opened allowed you to see the tv and closed for privacy, and the balcony next to the bed. more importantly it allowed the sitter to turn the couch around and watch me closely in the initial 24 or so hours. from eating cannabis to help alleviate my lower back pain, getting an hour long remedial massage booked in for the afternoon to having a couple of joints with J on the balcony on day 3 and 4 and by day 6 we did sushi, sashimi, smoke and cinema.... was fucking stella
The nice thing about some of the mexican places is that they have a very homely feel, but with enough personal space so you don't have to deal with anyone else's dramas. They have big burly bouncer type male nurses who make sure that EVERYONE is safe. ie, they keep the staff safe from the clients, the clients safe from each other, and the clients safe from themselves.
I've been to a conventional rehab and i think other 'clients' can be distracting, so again i'm not sure if a clinical environment would suit me for Iboga, but i could see how it would be effective for people that aren't familiar with psychedelic drugs. Ibogaine was very smooth trance state, which was surprising because of how heavy the body load is. I think it was 6 hours before i got up the first time and they were very cautious about me standing. I said i could do it myself and getting up and going to the toilet was very awkward. It was like i was staggering drunk, but feeling awesome. not sick at all being already 36 hours off oxy. But yeah, walking around is a no no. probably only the 7 day duration could have been more, and thats where a clinic could be more appropriate also, as you might need/want longer therapy
Personally [besides the nurse] I'd like to have a paramedic or doctor within a couple of minutes reach and a hospital within 5 minutes reach.
Why? Ibogaine felt way smoother than mushrooms ever had for me. I asked about if there were any 'bad treatments' they've done and only one time had they needed to dull/kill the trip. I mean, if your ECG and LFT are sweet and you've at least prepared yourself a bit... tapering from 100mg of methadone to 40 for example. Seriously, the trip itself is the easy part.
Sadly the sessions that were done in australia completely failed to address safety issues. Some of the people involved even claimed that a herb can't kill you. Well, newsflash, but some of the most toxic substances to humans are plants. Also, the bwiti fully realise that ibogaine can kill and it is deeply structured into their belief system.
Modern medicine can however save most such potential fatalities, which is why I think it is prudent to keep such services close by. It's one thing to die in the gabonese jungle while doing a ritual initiation, but it's another thing entirely to foolishly give a bad reputation to such an important anti addiction substance in a western setting.
there are more and more voices here calling for there to be trials and they are starting to get noticed from what i've been told. After reading up about potentially dying from it i wasn't convinced that it be bad for me in any way, and i think people that choose to do Ibogaine are willing to risk the unknown as their addiction is killing them anyway. Having said that, I agree about how important the level of care is, and WD'ing from opiates in a gabonese jungle wouldn't be ideal. I'd imagine those shaman's load up with huge doses, and administer huge doses. I had 1.3g (0.9g Ibogaine/400mg Iboga) and i also was left with a 400mg booster of iboga to do at my on leisure
Besides the obvious damage control issues I mentioned, there is also the preparation. I have yet to hear of one australian group that advises liver function tests [LFT] and ECC before even considering iboga/ibogaine. Also, no one I have come across here has ever considered the importance of doing an allergy exposure test. Iboga contains some very unique and pharmacologically potent proteins which can easily trigger anaphylactic shock in the right person. A microdose test is simple, cheap and can be done even with opiates in the system [ie days/weeks/months before the session].
As i said i had those tests done and e-mailed them so they could show their Doctor friend. I also had one test capsule of ibogaine before i took the rest naturally, but nowhere near considered a microdose
There is so much to consider, but luckily there are websites that have been dealing with this on an experiential basis for the better part of the decade. I think any aussies who want to offer this amazing healing herb should make themselves intricately familiar with the safety issues as not doing so will only jeopardize the availability for the rest.
Not really. It's more of a matter of being in the position to do it. My approach was always spiritual. long term, well thats where it really does it's magic. It's a catalyst for change, and there is a certain attitude you need to have for it to do what you ask it to do