Ibogaine Media

Ibogaine Media

Documentary film

Detox or Die (2004)

Directed by David Graham Scott. David Graham Scott begins videotaping his heroin-addicted friends. Before long, he himself is addicted to the drug. He eventually turns the camera on himself and his family. After 12 years of debilitating, painful dependence on methadone, Scott turns to Ibogaine. Filmed in Scotland and England, and broadcast on BBC One as the third installment in the documentary series One Life.

Ibogaine: Rite of Passage (2004)

Directed by Ben Deloenen. Cy, a 34-year-old heroin addict, undergoes ibogaine treatment with Dr. Martin Polanco at the Ibogaine Association, a clinic in Rosarito, Mexico. Deloenen interviews people formerly addicted to heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine, who share their perspectives on ibogaine treatment. In Gabon, a Babongo woman receives iboga root for her depressive malaise. Deloenen visually contrasts this Western, clinical use of ibogaine with the Bwiti use of iboga root, but emphasizes the Western context.

Facing the Habit (2007)

Directed by Magnolia Martin. Martin’s subject is a former millionaire and stockbroker who travels to Mexico for ibogaine treatment for heroin addiction.

Tripping in Amsterdam (2008)

In this short film directed by Jan Bednarz, Simon “Swany” Wan visits Sara Glatt’s iboga treatment center in Amsterdam. Current TV broadcast the documentary in 2008 as part of their “Quarter-life Crisis” programming roster.

I’m Dangerous with Love (2009)

Directed by Michel Negroponte. Negroponte examines Dimitri Mugianis’s long, clandestine career of treating heroin addicts with ibogaine.

“Hallucinogens” (2012)

In one of five segments from this episode of Drugs, Inc. on National Geographic Channel, a former heroin user treats addicts with ibogaine in Canada. He himself used ibogaine to stop his abuse of narcotics.

“Addiction” (2013)

This episode of the HBO documentary series Vice devotes a segment to the use of ibogaine to interrupt heroin addiction.

The Ibogaine Safari (2014)

A documentary by filmmaker Pierre le Roux which investigates the claims of painless withdrawal from opiates such as nyaope/heroin in South Africa by taking several addicts on an adventure “safari” while taking ibogaine. The documentary won the award for ‘Best Documentary Short’ at the 2014 Canada International Film Festival.

Print media

While in Wisconsin covering the primary campaign for the United States presidential election of 1972, gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson submitted a satirical article to Rolling Stone accusing Democratic Party candidate Edmund Muskie of being addicted to ibogaine. Many readers, and even other journalists, did not realize that the Rolling Stone piece was facetious. The ibogaine assertion, which was completely unfounded, did a significant amount of damage to Muskie’s reputation, and was cited as a factor in his loss of the nomination to George McGovern.^[79] Thompson later said he was surprised that anyone believed it. The article is included in Thompson’s post-election anthology, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 (1973). Author and Yippie Dana Beal co-wrote the 1997 book The Ibogaine Story. American author Daniel Pinchbeck wrote about his own experience of ibogaine in his book Breaking Open the Head (2002), and in a 2003 article for The Guardian titled “Ten years of therapy in one night”.

Television drama

Ibogaine factors into the stories of these episodes from television drama series:

• “Via Negativa“. The X-Files. Season 8. Episode 7. 17 December 2000. Fox Broadcasting Company.
• “Getting Off”. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Season 4. Episode 16. 26 February 2004. CBS.
• “Users”. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Season 11. Episode 7. 4 November 2009. NBC.
• “Echoes”. Nikita. Season 1. Episode 16. 24 February 2011. The CW Television Network.
• “One Last Time“. Homeland (TV series). Season 3. Episode 9. 24 November 2013. Showtime.
• “Bon Voyage”. Graceland (TV series). Season 3. Episode 7. 6 August 2015. USA Network.

Radio

• “Sink or Swim. Act Two. I’m Not a Doctor But I Play One at the Holiday Inn.”. This American Life. Episode 321. 1 December 2006. — A former heroin addict realizes that he wants to help other addicts kick their habits. The problem is, he wants to do this using a hallucinogenic drug – ibogaine – that is completely illegal, and which requires medical expertise he doesn’t have.