Dr. Alan Davis

Yeah.

Gosh, has it been that long?

And somehow that feels like 10,000 years ago.

It does.

Certainly on the darker side, you know, these are the experiences that Ibogaine brings about in people are typically referred to and discussed as very challenging and difficult experiences.

I almost, you know, in fact, when you started to bring up the metaphor of superhero, actually, the first person that came to my mind was Loki.

Wait, I'm sorry.

Well, Loki is actually more of like a villain in the superhero universe.

But the reason that comes to my mind is because it is a rather, you know, it can be a rather dark experience for people.

Well, people report that it has a pretty profound impact on their craving and their withdrawal symptoms.

And so 80% of the people in our study said that there was a large decrease in those components of their detoxification.

Oh, yeah, that it was much better or eliminated completely.

What was pretty profound, you know, at the time to see that, you know, so many people had said that there was this huge impact on their functioning really quite immediately.

You know, especially coming from where I came from with my, you know, experience in substance use treatment and trying to help people in that space.

Well, you know, the main finding was that about 30% of people were still completely abstinent from opioids up to two years later.

I don't think it was a letdown necessarily, but I think what it did for me is it really further solidified the point that this is not going to be a magic bullet for people.

It's kind of amazing, right?

It's kind of amazing that that was possible.

It's more likely to bring about an experience of euphoria and mystical experience and kind of almost like a positive transcendent experience.

It's almost like you can take someone now they've been broken down by Ibogaine and give them this other thing that'll kind of lift them back up and kind of propel them forward.