Horizons 2017: THOMAS KINGSLEY BROWN, Ph.D. "Past, Present, & Future of Ibogaine Treatment"

"The Past, Present, and Future of Ibogaine Treatment – and Why it Matters for the Opioid Crisis"
SYNOPSIS: Why is ibogaine not legal in the United States? Why don’t people have convenient access to ibogaine for opiate addiction despite the evidence that it is effective as a treatment? Why, in this time of the opioid crisis, recently declared a “national emergency,” are we not using this valuable tool to address the problem of opiate addiction?
In this presentation I will provide an overview of the history of the development of ibogaine as a medicine for treating addiction, particularly opiate addiction. I will also consider the economic, legal, and political forces hindering research into, and access to, ibogaine treatment in the US and globally. Along the way I will outline the current knowledge about ibogaine’s efficacy in treating addiction, paying particular attention to recently completed studies based in Brazil, Mexico, and New Zealand. I will also examine recent legislative efforts in Vermont and New York aimed at quelling the opioid epidemic in the US, as well as models of ibogaine treatment in other countries. Finally, I will explore the possible future of ibogaine treatment (and legislative efforts) in this regard.

THOMAS KINGSLEY BROWN, Ph.D.
Researcher at Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) and Coordinator of McNair Scholars Program at UC San Diego

BIOGRAPHY: Dr. Thomas Kingsley Brown has been researching ibogaine treatment for substance dependence since 2009, when he began conducting interviews with patients at a treatment center in Playas de Tijuana, Mexico and collected data for the purpose of studying quality of life for those patients. In 2010 he began working with MAPS (the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) on a Mexico-based observational study of the long-term outcomes for people receiving ibogaine-assisted treatment for opioid dependence. That study is complete, and the first research article from the study has been published (Brown and Alper, American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 2017). In 2013, he published a review article on ibogaine treatment in Current Drug Abuse Reviews. Dr. Brown is an academic administrator at the UC San Diego. His academic training is in chemistry (B.S., University of Pittsburgh and M.S., California Institute of Technology) and anthropology (M.A. and Ph.D., UC San Diego).

Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics is an annual forum that examines the role of psychedelic drugs in science, medicine, culture and spirituality.
More information at HorizonsNYC.org