Ibogaine Milkshakes: A Psychedelic Trip to Sobriety

Ibogaine, a West African hallucinogen originally used in root form (iboga) during Bwiti ceremonies in Gabon, and first popularised in Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, is now available in New Zealand by prescription to help cure drug users of their addictions.

The drug is already available in some international rehabilitation centres, like Pangea Biomedics in Tijuana, Mexico - where it is taken in a milkshake - but remains illegal in the United States. According to one Ibogaine user quoted in the LA Weekly: "It was outrageously powerful ... [i]t was like the inside of my eyeballs was an IMAX screen. It was all-encompassing, just a multitude of images, like 80,000 different TVs, all with a different channel on – just jillions of images, shapes, and colors."

After the trip, most users reportedly feel no compulsion to feed their addiction. Scientists are still unsure as to whether the trip is merely a side effect, or an important part of the process, but have created a derivative that will not induce hallucinations and are waiting to test its efficacy in ending addictions.