Why is ibogaine [1] still a fringe treatment for opiod addiction? It seems like a heroin -> methadone -> ibogaine treatment could get the vast majority of addicts cured. Instead, on one end of our medical system's pipeline we get people addicted to opiods, and on the other end we've created so many addicts we have to save them from overdosing. In this domain our "medical" pipeline is actually a disease-creating pipeline that's clogging itself up at the end... Research is still ongoing, but it seems likely that even the majority of opioid painkiller prescriptions can be replaced with cannabis.
It seems then, that we can empty the pipeline by adding less opiod addicts in, by prescribing cannabis when possible instead of opiods, and clear out the end by actually effectively treating addicts.
Unfortunately, our federal government is so out of touch with reality that it classifies both ibogaine and cannabis as Schedule I drugs, substances with "high potential for abuse", "no accepted medical use", and "lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision". The irony is devastating, and it's ruining countless lives.
It seems then, that we can empty the pipeline by adding less opiod addicts in, by prescribing cannabis when possible instead of opiods, and clear out the end by actually effectively treating addicts.
Unfortunately, our federal government is so out of touch with reality that it classifies both ibogaine and cannabis as Schedule I drugs, substances with "high potential for abuse", "no accepted medical use", and "lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision". The irony is devastating, and it's ruining countless lives.
[1] http://ww.iceers.org/docs/science/iboga/Alper%20et%20al_1999...
[2] https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/11/a-new-tes...