Howard Lotsof

In the mid-'60s, it was discovered through an individual who had had long-term heroin addiction that the consumption of Ibogaine essentially resolved the individual's desire to use heroin and prevented the precipitation of withdrawal.

This one individual, whose name is Howard Lotsof's experience, touched off what has now been decades' worth of observational field studies, many of those outside of the United States, which suggests that Ibogaine has a profound capacity to interrupt physiological substance dependency, primarily with opioids.

But also evidence suggests that that interruption of addiction extends to methamphetamines, cocaine, crack cocaine, alcohol, and tobacco.

Uh, it's important to know that Ibogaine comes with a very specific risk factor, and that pertains to, uh, the potential to create the prolongation of the time in between heartbeats.

Ah, here's where it gets really interesting.

It happened in 1962 entirely by accident in a Staten Island apartment.

Which brings us back to the 19 year old from our cold open, Howard Lotsoff.

Howard Lotsoff's story is the inflection point for all modern Ibogaine research.

In 1962, the American counterculture was really just beginning to explore psychedelics.

Lots of was heavily involved in that scene.

Some countries like New Zealand and South Africa eventually permitted it under very specific medical exemptions.

But for the most part, this became a vast, uncontrolled offshore experiment.