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Dana Beal <dana@...> wrote:
From: Dana Beal <dana@...>
Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2005 13:00:23 -0400
Subject: [mayday] GMM 2005 #46: Emery Makes NY TIMES; San Francisco Makes 95 Cities for May 6, 2006--the Million Marijuana March
Important: get your city on the list for the Million Marijuana March, May 6, 2006!So far we have confirmed 96 cities:
Albuquerque
Amsterdam
AntwerpAthensAtlantaAuckland
BakersfieldBaselBergenBernBirminghamBoiseBoone
BoulderBudapestBuenos AiresCalgaryCapetownChicoChristchurchCincinnatiColumbiaCordobaDallasDarwinDes MoinesDunedinEugeneFayettevilleFlorianopolesFt. SmithHachitaHalifaxHartfordHoustonKansas CityJyväskalaKnoxvilleKristiansandLausanneLethbridgeLimaLocarnoLondonLos AngelesLuxembourgLuzernLyonMinneapolisMoscowNagaokaNashuaNanaimoNashvilleNew YorkNicosiaNimbinOgdenOsloPaiaParisPhoenixPortlandPortlandPragueRaleighRapid CityRio de JaneiroRoanokeRomeRosarioRostockRotterdamSalemSan DiegoSan FranciscoSpokaneStavangerSteamboat SpringsSteven's PointSt. LouisStockholmTallahasseeTel AvivThunder BayTorontoTraverse CityTromsøeTrondheimTucsonTurkuViennaWarsawWashington, D.C.Wellington
Zürich---------
There is also some international MMM networking going on at
this CannabisCulture.com message forum:
http://www.cannabisculture.com/forums/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=current
-------------------------
Million Marijuana March. Banners, posters, handbills,
flyers for 2004 and 2005 MMM. Adapt for your needs! Click:
http://gallery.marihemp.com/mmm2004flyers
http://gallery.marihemp.com/mmm2005flyers
Or go to this other big MMM photo gallery. Click:
http://gallery.encod.org/mmm
and then click on "mmm2004"
and then "Banners Posters Handbills"
Many of the MMM 2004 banners, posters, flyers, and
handbills were converted from PDF files to the gif and jpg
images found here. The freeware Adobe Acrobat Reader and the
freeware IrfanView were used.
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
http://www.irfanview.com - IrfanView is a free image editor
that is useful for adapting these flyers and banners for
your needs. Download the full-size gif images since they use
far fewer kilobytes compared to the 640x480 and 800x600 jpg
versions of the same image. JPG image files are mainly for
photos and images with lots of color gradation. GIF image
files are much better for flyers and banners. IrfanView caneasily edit, reduce, or enlarge gif and jpg images.*****!!!Global Marijuana March--May 6, 2006: Updates, Reports!!!*****Pharmaceuticals, Israeli researchers
high on promise of cannabinoid drugs
By: Karin Kloosterman
TEL AVIV, Aug. 11 (JTA) - In the early 1960s, just before Flower Children started smoking pot, a young organic chemist with a fondness for medicinal plants isolated the first known cannabinoid, THC, from an 11-pound lump of hashish appropriated by Jerusalem police.
Mechoulam, now 70, went on to discover more than just the first active compound found in marijuana and hashish. In fact, the past 40 years of his career have laid the groundwork for how researchers work with a group of chemicals called cannabinoids, some of which occur naturally in the human body.
Affecting different parts of the organism, cannabinoids can be applied in areas such as pain relief, cancer treatment and diet suppression.
Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that terminally ill patients with doctors' prescriptions for marijuana will be prosecuted for violating federal drug laws - even if their home states allow marijuana use for medical purposes - a late June meeting of the International Cannabinoid Research Society in Tampa, Fla., showed how important cannabinoids are becoming for commercial drug research.
Hobnobbing with the research scientists were executives from drug giants Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Merck, Glaxo Smith Kline, Bristol-Meyers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis, who came to explore the society's latest research.
When the society first convened in 1991, it consisted of a small clique of esoteric scientists who shared novel research. Almost 15 years later, the group is grabbing the attention of billion-dollar drug developers and is sponsored by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Health Canada.
Richard Musty, the society's director and a psychology professor at the University of Vermont, told JTA that large pharmaceutical companies are eager to find a way to cash in on cannabinoid research. As early as next year, he noted, Sanofi-Aventis hopes to have the first synthetic cannabinoid drug on U.S. shelves. The pill currently is in advanced stages of clinical trials.
Drug developers at Sanofi-Aventis have studied and tweaked the chemical "handshake" that occurs between brain neurons and cannabinoids in the brain's reward centers. Through a process that essentially reverses the handshake, the company hopes to inhibit food intake in overweight people who may be at risk of cardiovascular disease - potentially giving Sanofi-Aventis a large chunk of a diet-pill market that Musty projects will reach $5 billion.
At the society meeting, Mechoulam handed the R. Mechoulam Annual Award to George Kunos from the National Institutes of Health for work in cannabinoid research. Ironically, the NIH was one of the first bodies to deny Mechoulam research money for isolating cannabinoids in the 1960s.
"Israeli scientists have a way of entering areas where others fear to tread," explained Bernard Dichek, publisher of the biotech monthly BioIsrael. "When Mechoulam's American contemporaries were either smoking marijuana or condemning those who did, Mechoulam forged ahead with the science and discovered the active ingredient anyway."
Mechoulam's seminal work has made the Hebrew University of Jerusalem an international research hub on cannabinoids, with drug developers and health professionals often coming to consult with Mechoulam. Mechoulam leads a team of doctoral students at his Jerusalem laboratories, and his patents are being commercialized by Pharmos, a NASDAQ-traded company with offices in Iselin, N.J. and Rehovot, Israel.
A new drug from Pharmos, Cannabinor, is to begin clinical trials soon in Munich. Cannabinor could fill a hole in the pain-relief market as doctors become reticent to prescribe Vioxx and other widely used pain drugs because of safety and other concerns.
Pharmos ultimately aims to use Cannabinor to treat moderate to severe post-surgery pain and alleviate lower back pain and pain associated with cancer. Today, patients rely mostly on opiates to gain even moderate relief, but opioid compounds have substantial unwanted side effects such as addiction and constipation.
Like the Sanofi-Aventis diet-pill formulation, Cannabinor is a synthetic compound that provides therapeutic benefits without the psychotropic effects associated with marijuana and hashish. Pharmos began collaborating with Mechoulam more than 10 years ago and has a large lead on any other cannabinoid pain-drug contender.
Some companies - such as the United Kingdom's GW Pharmaceuticals, which makes Sativex, now available in Canada - provide a natural cannabinoid plant extract for various therapeutic uses. But the synthetic compounds developed by companies such as Sanofi-Aventis and Pharmos are far more potent than plant formulations that have been used medicinally for millennia.
Reports indicate that as early as 2737 B.C.E., the emperor Shen Neng of China was prescribing marijuana tea to treat gout, rheumatism, malaria and poor memory. The drug's popularity as a medicine spread throughout Asia, Africa and later the Middle East.
Hashish has been smoked in the Middle East for centuries, Mechoulam notes, and the use of marijuana and hashish is very common among today's Israeli youth. But the synthetic products are much more effective as medicine, Mechoulam says.
"The problem of medical marijuana and hashish in its pure form is that although it is a good drug in certain diseases, it cannot be used clinically because a patient may get a different concoction every time one inhales," he says.
Mechoulam rarely uses the raw material in his research today. He prefers to study endocannabinoids, which are cannabinoids that occur naturally in the bodies of humans and animals.
His most recent source of pride is doctoral student, Natalya Kogan, 25, who has developed a cannabinoid derivative that shows promise in fighting cancer by befuddling cancer cells' genetic material, leading to cell starvation.
Kogan, who works under Mechoulam at Hebrew U.'s School of Pharmacy, received a Kaye Innovation Award in June, an annual award for innovative research in Israel. Ironically, her prize was given within a week of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision outlawing medical marijuana.
The ruling did little to deter the researchers who met in Tampa. Musty, the professor from Vermont, says the society takes no official stance on medical marijuana.
"Any scientist that belongs to our society can voice a personal opinion," he says, "but in the medical applications of cannabis, most people would support that a non-smoked format would be the best way to go."-----------Cannabis May Help
Relieve Bowel Disease
By Anna Seward
The Telegraph - UK
8-1-5
Drugs derived from cannabis plants could help to relieve symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease, according to research published today.
Researchers examined anecdotal evidence that cannabis eases the unpleasant symptoms associated with the disease. Their findings, published in the journal Gastroenterology, will give hope for sufferers of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, forms of IBD which affect up to 180,000 people in Britain.
The disease causes recurrent bouts of severe abdominal pain, diarrhoea, fever and weight loss, and puts sufferers at a greater risk of bowel cancer.
Patients are usually treated with steroids to reduce the inflammation and surgery is sometimes required to remove damaged parts of the intestine, but there is currently no cure for Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis.
Dr Karen Wright, of the department of pharmacy and pharmacology at the University of Bath, who led the study, said that using cannabinoids, a cannabis extract, helped the body recover from some effects of the diseases and heal the gut lining.
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005.--------------------------------------------------------------From: rschimel@...Subject: Something more insidiousDear Dick;(I am CC'ing this to Dana as well, as I think he needsto be made aware of this, too.)I have been reading your great series on Marc and company's arrests.The articles are informative and revealing, as always.
The reason I am writing, however, is less enjoyable. I believe thatthere have been related incidents to Marc's arrest that go farther. I, and
many other local Global Marijuana March sponsors, received phone calls from
people who identify themselves as displaced medical marijuana users lookingfor marijuana.
I personally received three phone calls from a guy who claimed to bea patient with a valid medical card from CA. He claimed to be a stock broker
and offered me all manner of money (at one point, he tried to get me toaccept a couple thousand dollars to send him medicine).
I have spoken to other sponsors who also received very similarcalls. Every one of the calls was to numbers which had been listed either in
the Global Marijuana March advertisements that Cannabis Culture paid for inHigh Times, or from the list on the Cures Not Wars web site.
I know both sources were used, as there were some sponsors thatreceived calls on numbers that had been listed in the High Times ad and were
not on the web site (and vice versa). As my number was listed in both
places, I suspect that they called me from the web site first, then from theHigh Times ad, then from the web site (after the Mayday marches).
The other sponsors I spoke with had almost the exact same story asmine. The guy (in a couple cases it was a gal) calls, all nice and flowersand rainbows with super words about the movement.
Then, he goes into a sad tale about his illness, and how he needsmedicine real bad and "as a newcomer in New York, I have no connections."
We each told the caller that in NY, there are many more resourcesthan we have available, and that his best option was to try to find
connections in the city. He asked me if I knew anyone else who might sendhim some "medicine", and offers to pay for the information.
In my case, I told him I simply could not mail him cannabis, as thatwould be illegal, and would unfairly jeopardize my work here in Delaware. Itold him I knew no one who would send him marijuana.
This is where it got weird. He asked about where a good place to buyseeds was. I told him I had no idea, since that would be illegal, too. He
asked about Cannabis Culture seeds, would they send them to him in NY, and
were they reputable, etc. I said I did not know, as I had never mail ordered
seeds, and that I doubted anyone would mail them, because that would beillegal.
He became very angry and manipulative. Somewhere about this time isthe point where he offers to send a thousand dollars by Western Union, if hecould only get a promise to send him some marijuana.
This happened three times over the past six months or so. The latestcall came about a month ago.
I wish I had taken notes, like the name he used, phone number, etc.I do remember that the calls came from the same New York phone number each
time (though I don't remember the number right now = working on it). I also
recognized the guy's voice, although he seemed to not remember having called
me before, or at least he denied it when I mentioned that I remembered himcalling.
I just brushed it off as some jackass cop or scam artist who wasspinning their wheels trying to find some sucker to bait, and forgot about
it. I thought at the time that the calls were a bit odd. It became evenodder when I mentioned it to other sponsors and they had similar stories.
The thing that has me worried is that there are a few souls in themovement who may have fallen prey to this guy, and sent him pot, or seeds,or otherwise fell into his game.
I am trying to talk to a few other sponsors to see if others hadthis experience, and to find out if it was more wide spread. I would be glad
to step up my research and fill you in, if you wish.
Richard Schimelfenig
President - Delaware Cannabis Society - since 1968
--------------------------------------------New Listing by Phone--San Francisco: 888-347-0514 Hemp Evolution/Clark Sullivan http://hempevolution.org "freeman sullivan" webmaster@... [Postal: 490 Linden St., S.F., CA 94102]---------------------------------------------------------------------
August 13, 2005
This Johnny Appleseed Is Wanted by the Law
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
VANCOUVER, British Columbia
FRESHLY released on bail, Marc Emery faced the camera of his Pot-TV.net Web site the other day to make an urgent appeal for money to finance his legal struggle to avert extradition to the United States for trafficking marijuana seeds south of the border.
"Let me be the light that shines on the American gulag," he said, stern-eyed, pointing into the camera. Without notes, Mr. Emery sermonized for a half-hour about everything from the marvelous medicinal and spiritual qualities of pot to the greatness of Thomas Jefferson, "who gave America on hemp paper the Declaration of Independence."
"Marijuana made me a better parent, a better lover, a better businessman," he solemnly told his supporters. Immediately after the broadcast, he was quick to add, "a better driver, too."
At 47, Mr. Emery is known as the Prince of Pot, even in his recent federal indictment in Seattle for charges of conspiring to manufacture marijuana, launder money and traffic millions of marijuana seeds into the United States. At the time of his arrest, on July 29, he and his business were on a United States attorney general list of the 46 most wanted international drug traffickers, and the only one in Canada. But his clownish nickname provides a clue that Mr. Emery is not your typical drug kingpin from the movies who deals in the shadows.
A lanky Canadian with a taste for bland T-shirts and chinos, he proudly promotes himself as the leader of the sizable Vancouver marijuana counterculture that is condoned by the municipal government and much of the city's population. He postures as just a regular guy who loves the Vancouver Canucks, and rarely smokes more than a joint or two a day.
But he also freely says that, outside the Netherlands, he has sold more marijuana seeds and offered the largest selection of any seed bank in the world. He adds that the amount of seeds he has sold south of the border "qualifies me for the death penalty in the United States." (The first claim, of ubiquity, is accepted by American prosecutors, while the second, of a looming death sentence, is met with guffaws.)
"I have a master plan," Mr. Emery said in an interview in the offices of his magazine, Cannabis Culture. "I've wanted to be the Johnny Appleseed of marijuana, so if we produced millions and millions of marijuana plants all over the world, it would be impossible for governments to eradicate or control all of it."
In other words, he added, he wants "to overgrow the governments" that punish marijuana users.
In his crusade to make marijuana completely legal everywhere, not just in Canada, where anti-pot laws are already more lenient than in the United States, Mr. Emery has marketed his seeds and anti-prohibition message on his Web site and magazine and traveled around the country smoking marijuana in front of police stations.
As leader of the British Columbia Marijuana Party, he has run candidates across the province and has himself run for mayor twice in Vancouver on the platform of disbanding the police force and remaking it from scratch. Armed with a speaking style that resembles a tommy gun firing off sound bites, he came in a respectable fifth out of 16 candidates in the last mayoral election, in 2002.
To the growing annoyance of American law enforcement, he has been openly selling seeds to American growers and counseling them how best to cultivate his product and avoid the attention of the police - all with only minor harassment, until now, from Canadian law enforcement.
According to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, Mr. Emery has sold millions of dollars worth of seeds to growers in California, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, North Dakota, Tennessee and Virginia.
"He operated his business very efficiently, making a lot of money at the expense of our kids and the American public," Rodney Benson, special agent in charge of the D.E.A. field division in Seattle, said in an interview.
Now, his master plan is in serious jeopardy. In July, the Canadian police, working with D.E.A. agents, arrested Mr. Emery and raided his headquarters at the request of the American government, so that he might be extradited for trial in Seattle. Last week, he was freed on bail; the extradition process could take years. It is bound to stir a debate in Canada about whether it should permit a Canadian to stand trial in the United States for an offense that is essentially tolerated here.
But for the time being, Mr. Emery's empire is in tatters. He has been forced to lay off workers at his magazine and Web site, and because he can no longer sell seeds, his ability to finance marijuana-legalization causes has dried up. He says he must move to a smaller apartment, give up his car lease and live on the equivalent of $32 a day from donations.
"Lets face it," Mr. Emery said in an interview. "I've sold millions of seeds and I've been doing it every day of my life the last 11 years. I'm so transparent that everyone from the prime minister to the guy on the street knows it."
He says he has made $4 million in profit since 1996 selling seeds in his Vancouver store, by mail and on the Internet. But he says he has not saved a dime, does not own a share of stock or bonds, does not even own a piece of property.
ALL the money he has made, he says, has gone into his magazine, his Internet Pot-TV news channel, his British Columbia Marijuana Party, various referendum initiatives for marijuana legalization in the United States, legal fees for marijuana growers in several countries and support for his wife, various ex-lovers and four adopted children.
He also claims to have paid nearly $600,000 in taxes from the proceeds of his seeds, noting openly on his tax returns that he worked as a vendor of marijuana seeds.
Mr. Emery describes himself as "a responsible libertarian, not a hedonist," who extols the virtues of capitalism, low taxes, small government and the right of citizens to bear arms.
He said he grew up a social democrat, influenced by his father, who was active in trade union work. But he said his life changed in 1979 when he began reading the works of Ayn Rand, who championed individual freedom and capitalism.
"The right to be free, the right to own the fruits of your mind and effort now all made sense," he recalled. Only a few months after discovering Rand, his girlfriend at the time offered him a joint and he smoked marijuana for the first time.
IT was an epiphany," he said. "I had a sixth sense added to my five senses. The silence sounded different, smells were more nuanced and the brightness of the moon made it look bigger and more substantial in the sky."
The combination of Rand's philosophy and the marijuana set him on a course of advocacy in which, he said, "I decided to dedicate my whole life to repudiate the state."
Then living in London, Ontario, he sold banned marijuana and pornography books and magazines, contested laws limiting the right of stores to open on Sundays and led a municipal tax revolt. He even resisted a municipal garbage strike, by renting a truck and picking up the garbage himself.
After traveling for a while in Asia, however, he has dedicated his efforts to promoting marijuana and its culture."Now the Goliath, now the evil empire has made its move on me," Mr. Emery told his Web site audience. But he promised that his crusade would continue "till liberty or till death."Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company---------------------------------------------------------------------2006 MMM world map. May 6, 2006 Million Marijuana March. Cities sorted by region. World Cannabis Day. Cannabis Liberation Day. Global Marijuana March. Worldwide since 1999. The first Saturday in May, or that weekend, or thereabouts. Rallies, marches, concerts, events, meetings, parties, raves, info-tables, stands, booths, etc..http://www.geocities.com/tents444/mmm2006map.htm and
http://corporatism.tripod.com/mmm2006map.htm andhttp://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/mmm2006map.htm andhttp://members.fortunecity.com/multi19/mmm2006map.htm
Click the region names in the left chart column to go to their city lists.Click the "countries" link to go to the list of countries.Worldwide.
MMM (Million Marijuana March).City list and world map:Yahoo Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cannabisaction
************************* BUSHWHACKED!! ***************************************************William Rivers Pitt | Bush Is No Nixon
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/081005I.shtml
No mother who lost her son to this Iraq war should be made to stand in a ditch, writes TO contributor William Rivers Pitt. And yet that is exactly where Cindy Sheehan stands today, by the side of the road in Crawford, Texas.
9/11 Panel: 'Did Pentagon Withhold Hijacker Files?'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/081005J.shtml"I think this is a big deal," said John F. Lehman, a Republican member of the commission. "The issue is whether there was in fact surveillance before 9/11 of Atta and, if so, why weren't we told about it? Who made the decision not toCIA Commander: We Let bin Laden Slip Away
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080705A.shtmlBerntsen says he had definitive intelligence that bin Laden was holed up at Tora Bora - intelligence operatives had tracked him-and could have been caught. "He was there," Berntsen tells NEWSWEEK.Stirling Newberry | Baghdad Putsch
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/081105A.shtmlStirling Newberry claims that if there were any doubt about whether Iraq is headed down the road to being a failed state, yesterday's deposing of the Mayor of Baghdad by the city council, backed by the military arm of the Shi'ite-controlled Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, should be the clincher. The prosecution can rest.
GOP Paying Legal Bills of Alleged Vote Tamperer
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/081105C.shtmlThe Republican Party has quietly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide private defense lawyers for a former Bush campaign official charged with conspiring to keep Democrats from voting in New Hampshire.
Canadian Sent to Syria Sues US over Rendition Policy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/081105D.shtml
Maher Arar said US officials nabbed him in JFK airport in Brooklyn as a presumed Al Qaeda terrorist in October 2002 and sent him to Syria where he was tortured for 10 months. Arar, who denies any terror links and was never charged with a crime, charges the US government with violating the Torture Victim Protection Act and his Fifth Amendment right to due process.Sidney Blumenthal | The Informer
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/081105E.shtml
Sidney Blumenthal says that for nearly 50 years, Robert Novak badgered and bullied his way to the top of Washington. His disgrace in the Valerie Plame affair has brought him crashing down - and he has only himself to blame.Frank Rich | Someone Tell the President the War Is Over
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/081405Z.shtml****!!! IBOGAINE TREATMENT NOW EURO 1500 IN HOLLAND--CALL SARA, 0113134-624-1770 !!!****From:vector620022002@... Subject:[Ibogaine] Gallo Research Center studies cause and treatment of alcohol, drug addiction
Gallo Research Center studies cause and treatment of alcohol, drug
addiction
http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?SectionID=67&SubSectionID=785&ArticleID=18724&TM=80591.59
Gallo Research Center studies cause and treatment of alcohol, drug
addiction
Chip PowerCalifornia Staff Writer
With more than 4,600 employees, the Modesto-based Gallo company and its
brand lineup extends into 90 countries, making it one of the largest
wine companies in the United States.
Less visible, perhaps, is its longtime association with addiction
research at the University of San Francisco
The Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center was established in 1980 to
study basic neuroscience and the effects of alcohol and drug abuse on
the brain. And, according to its scientists, it is the only center
studying alcoholism in the United States that is based in a department
of neurology.
In the 20 years since it began, the center has swelled to a staff of
more than 150 and occupies nearly 77,000-square-feet of office space in
Emeryville, Calif.
The center's stated goals:
n To understand the cellular, molecular, and behavioral basis of
alcoholism, alcohol abuse and drug abuse.
n To develop cellular, molecular, and behavioral technologies to
identify alcoholics and individuals at risk because of genetic
vulnerability.
n To use advances in cellular, molecular, and behavioral neuroscience
and genetics to develop new therapies.
Earlier this year, one of its studies showed that a controversial drug
acted on brain protein to cut alcohol use.
A naturally occurring hallucinogen advocated by some clinicians as a
potent anti-addiction drug was studied, confirming its ability to block
alcohol craving in rodents, and clarifying how it works in the brain,
the university said.
The new research findings about the drug Ibogaine open the way for
development of other drugs to reverse addiction without Ibogaine's side
effects, researchers said.
Derived from a West African shrub, Ibogaine has been championed for
years by some clinicians and drug-treatment advocates impressed with
its ability to reverse withdrawal symptoms and craving for alcohol and
various drugs of abuse. It has been used by American and other
clinicians outside the United States to treat addiction. But its side
effects, including hallucinations, which made it popular in the 1960s
drug culture, and evidence of toxicity to certain nerve cells in rodent
studies have discouraged studies of its clinical potential against drug
and alcohol addiction.
The FDA has not approved use of Ibogaine in the U.S.
Scientists at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center said they
have shown definitively, in experiments with mice and rats, that
Ibogaine does reduce alcohol consumption, doing so by increasing the
level of a brain protein known as GDNF.
"By identifying the brain protein that Ibogaine regulates to reduce
alcohol consumption in rats, we have established a link between GDNF
and reversal of addiction - knowledge of a molecular mechanism that
should allow development of a new class of drugs to treat addiction
without Ibogaine's side effects," said Dorit Ron, PhD, UCSF associate
professor of neurology and also principal investigator at the Gallo
Center.
"If we can alter the GDNF pathway, we may well have a new treatment
against alcohol and drug addiction without the unwanted side effects of
Ibogaine," Ron said.
The research was published in the Jan. 19 issue of "The Journal ofNeuroscience."
Ron is co-senior author of the paper with Patricia Janak, PhD, UCSF
assistant professor of neurology and also principal investigator at the
Gallo Center.
The research also showed that Ibogaine was quite effective in
preventing relapse, or "falling off the wagon" - the vulnerability of
recovered alcoholics or addicts to return to uncontrolled drinking or
drug use when exposed to the drug of abuse months or even years after
breaking the habit.
The researchers provided alcohol to rats until they had become
"experienced" daily drinkers. They then withheld alcohol for two weeks,
which normally leads to greatly increased drinking when alcohol is
again available. When they administered Ibogaine, they found that the
heightened craving and consumption was significantly reduced.
The research was supported by funds provided by the State of California
through UCSF for medical research on alcohol and substance abuse, andby the Department of Defense, the university said.From:freedomroot@... Subject:Re: [Ibogaine] Gallo Research Center studies cause and treatment of alcohol, drug addiction
From the piece on Gallo funding of addiction research: "But its side
effects, including hallucinations, which made it popular in the 1960s
drug culture, and evidence of toxicity to certain nerve cells in
rodent studies have discouraged studies of its clinical potential
against drug and alcohol addiction."
Howard or someone else scientific: is the nerve cell toxicity related
to the hallucinations? What do we do to our nerves with chemicalabuse anyway? thanks, rachelFrom:bleshins@... Subject:Re: [Ibogaine] Gallo Research Center studies cause and treatment of alcohol, drug addiction
The nerve toxicity is related to dosage levels, apparently. Came across this trying to find an answer to my previous question.
In the study below, in rats, no observable damage* with a 25mg/kg dose.
At 50mg/kg 2 out 6 rats showed partial damage.
75mg/kg and 100mg/kg dosages caused more serious damage, area of damage apparently proportional to the dosage increase.*Damage being "neurodegeneration of Purkinje cells and gliosis of Bergmann astrocytes in the cerebella"
"Toxicological Sciences 57, 95-101 (2000)
Copyright © 2000 by the Society of Toxicology
Neurotoxicology
A Dose-Response Study of Ibogaine-Induced Neuropathology in the Rat Cerebellum
Zengjun Xu*, Louis W. Chang*,{dagger}, William Slikker, Jr.{dagger},{ddagger}, Syed F. Ali{dagger},{ddagger}, Robert L. Rountree{ddagger} and Andrew C. Scallet{dagger},{ddagger},1
* Department of Pathology and {dagger} Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas 72205; and {ddagger} Division of Neurotoxicology, National Center for Toxicological Research, Jefferson, Arkansas 72079
Ibogaine (IBO) is an indole alkaloid from the West African shrub, Tabernanthe iboga. It is structurally related to harmaline, and both these compounds are rigid analogs of melatonin. IBO has both psychoactive and stimulant properties. In single-blind trials with humans, it ameliorated withdrawal symptoms and interrupted the addiction process. However, IBO also produced neurodegeneration of Purkinje cells and gliosis of Bergmann astrocytes in the cerebella of rats given even a single dose (100 mg/kg, ip). Here, we treated rats (n = 6 per group) with either a single ip injection of saline or with 25 mg/kg, 50 mg/kg, 75 mg/kg, or 100 mg/kg of IBO. As biomarkers of cerebellar neurotoxicity, we specifically labeled degenerating neurons and axons with silver, astrocytes with antisera to glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), and Purkinje neurons with antisera to calbindin. All rats of the 100-mg/kg group showed the same pattern of cerebellar damage previously described: multiple bands of degenerating Purkinje neurons. All rats of the 75-mg/ kg group had neurodegeneration similar to the 100-mg/kg group, but the bands appeared to be narrower. Only 2 of 6 rats that received 50 mg/kg were affected; despite few degenerating neuronal perikarya, cerebella from these rats did contain patches of astrocytosis similar to those observed with 75 or 100 mg/kg IBO. These observations affirm the usefulness of GFAP immunohistochemistry as a sensitive biomarker of neurotoxicity. None of the sections from the 25-mg/kg rats, however stained, were distinguishable from saline controls, indicating that this dose level may be considered as a no-observable-adverse-effect level (NOAEL).
Key Words: ibogaine; Purkinje neuron; Bergmann astrocyte; neurodegeneration; calbindin; GFAP; NOAEL; cerebellum."BorisFrom:ptpeet@... Subject:Re: [Ibogaine] oxycontin withdrawl & Bupe
did you see "What the bleep do we know"?
there are some interesting animations about addiction.
go slowly but firmly, recover your hijacked brain chemistry.
keep tapering benzos. I know nothing about bup.<
Literallly just finished a book published by the Disinformation Company (same folks putting out my books) called "Beyond the Bleep," by Alexandra Bruce, and it explains a lot of the theories proposed and discussed in this movie mentioned above. I haven't yet seen the film, but a three hour version is supposedly in the works for Theatrical release later this year, and a bigger DVD version for early 2006. It sounds like a film I do want to see, and yes, they do discuss, in some parts apparently, addictive behavior, and not just to drugs but to others things too, including even emotions.
Peace and love,PrestonFrom:bleshins@... Subject:Re: [Ibogaine] what the bleep
that book really good (looked it up on Amazon), will have to check it out.
This film has been mentioned on pretty much every mailing list and forum I am on I (and thats a few), its certainly kicking up a bit of a storm.
here's an interesting article about I found quite illuminating:
from salon.com
"Bleep" of faith
An indie film gets buzz and a big rollout. But "What the Bleep Do We Know!?" uses questionable on-screen experts -- and appears to be an infomercial for a controversial New Age sect.
- - - - - - - - - - - -By John Gorenfeld
Sept. 16, 2004 | Last week, the national release of the independent film "What the Bleep Do We Know!?" seemed to be just the latest success story in the Year of the Documentary -- a little movie that could, launched into 60 theaters across the country by Samuel Goldwyn Films after selling out small theaters for months. The film's co-director, William Arntz, has called it "a film for the religious left," an answer to "The Passion of the Christ." It presents itself as the thinking rebel's alternative to Hollywood pabulum: a heady stew of drama and documentary, starring Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin as a Xanax-addled photographer who discovers joy when she learns that quantum mechanics makes spiritual wonders possible.
But the film -- buoyed by a slew of stories in regional and national outlets (including Salon) about its supposed grassroots success -- has largely avoided much skepticism. And as the distributors launched a national advertising campaign, on NPR's "All Things Considered" among other outlets, and earned respectable reviews from a number of critics (the San Francisco Examiner calls it a "smart film," and Roger Ebert, while not thrilled, gave it a thoughtful two and a half stars), their movie has managed to avoid much scrutiny of what, exactly, it's really about -- and who is behind it.
That has meant little attention has been given to either the film's agenda, or its questionable use of supposed experts. At least one scientist prominently interviewed in the film now says his words were taken out of context. And two other key subjects in the film are not fully identified: a theologian who, the film fails to divulge, is a former priest who left the Catholic Church after allegations of sexual abuse; and a mysterious woman identified only as Judy "JZ" Knight, who is actually a sect leader claiming to channel a 35,000-year-old warrior spirit named Ramtha. [/b]The film's three co-directors are among those who follow Ramtha and look to Knight's channeled maxims to decipher the mysteries of life.[/b] These Ramtha followers reportedly number in the thousands. But critics call the sect a cult.
In the movie, the 58-year-old Knight, whose accent is as thick as her mascara, makes the boldest statements -- pronounced with long, rolling R's -- about particles and God. "We have grrreat technology. But we still have this ugly, superrrstitious, backwahds cohncept of Gahd," she says, adding that "the height of arrrrrrogance is the belief of those who would see Gahd in their own image." Musing on the unity of consciousness and matter, she reminds us that "it only takes a fantasy for a man to have a harrrd-on." In her normal mode, Knight speaks the plain talk of her native Roswell, N.M., but in the manly presence of Ramtha, said to have conquered the continent neighboring Atlantis, Knight's jaw juts and her voice deepens into something magisterial and brash. Her Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, on a $2 million compound based in Yelm, Wash., boasts followers -- including celebrities like actress Shirley MacLaine (who attended Knight's seminars in the late '80s) and "Dynasty" star Linda Evans -- willing to pay up to $1,600 for a seminar.
Reached by Salon, Meyer Gottlieb, president of Samuel Goldwyn Films, says he's seen "Bleep" about eight times. Its fledgling distribution company Roadside Attractions had its first real hit earlier this year when it launched festival favorite documentary "Super Size Me" and is hoping for a similar sleeper hit with " Bleep." Asked what he thought of the expressed desire by filmmaker Mark Vicente (on a Ramtha Web site, BeyondTheOrdinary.net) for his viewers to emerge from his movie in an "almost trance-like state," Gottlieb only laughed.
"The question is, Is this movie promoting a cult?" he said. "The only thing we're interested in from a marketing perspective is creating a cult status for the film ... cults, from my perspective, they deal with groups and leaders and that stuff. This movie is about individual thinking. Individual control over your future -- and your own reality."
But not everyone involved in the movie has good things to say about that message.
David Albert, a professor at the Columbia University physics department, has accused the filmmakers of warping his ideas to fit a spiritual agenda. "I don't think it's quite right to say I was 'tricked' into appearing," he said in a statement reposted by a critic on "What the Bleep's" Internet forum, "but it is certainly the case that I was edited in such a way as to completely suppress my actual views about the matters the movie discusses. I am, indeed, profoundly unsympathetic to attempts at linking quantum mechanics with consciousness. Moreover, I explained all that, at great length, on camera, to the producers of the film ... Had I known that I would have been so radically misrepresented in the movie, I would certainly not have agreed to be filmed."
"I certainly do not subscribe to the 'Ramtha School on Enlightenment,' whatever that is!" he finished. Albert provided Salon with an excerpt from a piece he's writing on the subject, in which he says, in part, "I'm unwittingly made to sound as if (maybe) I endorse its thesis."When told of Albert's complaints, Gottlieb said, "I certainly don't see it," but acknowledged he's "not into the science 100 percent." At press time, the filmmakers issued an angry "Open Letter to the U.S. Media" in which it attacked the "intellectual smugness and superiority" of its critics. (You can download the PDF file here.)
Knight's role as the voice of Ramtha is the most striking -- but hardly the only -- omission of the film, which could easily be interpreted as a full-blown infomercial for Ramtha. Two other on-screen experts are not identified as Ramtha associates: Dr. Joe Dispenza, chiropractor and mystic, listed as a student on the Ramtha Web site; and a man identified only as "Dr. Miceal Ledwith."
Ledwith (at one time Monsignor Michael Ledwith) was once on track to be the next archbishop of Dublin, but the theologian stepped down as president of Maynooth College in 1994, after a complaint that he had sexually harassed a young seminarian. It was later revealed that Ledwith had allegedly paid an six-figure sum to a man who accused him of sexual abuse. Ledwith has maintained his innocence but left Ireland for the more placid confines of Monterey, Calif. On the "Bleep" Web site, Ledwith's relationship with the Catholic Church is only alluded to in a claim that he was once "charged with advising the Holy See on theological matters," but he is not identified as ever having been a priest, or even as a lecturer at the Ramtha school. According to a Ramtha Web site, Ledwith has joined "Ramtha's core of appointed teachers." (The Ramtha school and Ledwith have not responded to requests for interviews. The "Bleep" Web site recommends that journalists contact an independent publicist, but the movie previously listed as its P.R. contact Pavel Mikoloski, also director of public affairs for Ramtha's school.)
Later in the film, a "scientist" explains that, thanks to the strangeness quivering below the subatomic level, meditating monks have lowered the crime rate in Washington, D.C. But not until the end of the film do we learn that the scientist making this claim, John Hagelin -- who once ran for president -- conducted the research while teaching (until 1999) at Maharishi University , the school named for the Beatles' guru. In JZ Knight's own publications, Ramtha's existence, too, is frequently explained in terms of quantum mechanics.
Funding for the $5 million "Bleep," according to various published interviews with the film's creators, comes not from Ramtha but the software fortunes of director Arntz, who designed the job-management application AutoSys. Now popular in Unix environments, the program sold for more than $14 million in 1995. ( Eerily, the startup money for AutoSys was also of Atlantean origin, or so the original investor claimed. A 1999 piece in Wired by David Diamond described the life and suicide of Frederick Lenz III, a guru in his own right, who called himself not Ramtha but Rama. The software mogul told those who rendezvoused with Rama that he'd taught meditation classes on Atlantis. Later, Lenz said his students were bent on his murder, and he plunged himself into the waters of Long Island Sound with a $30,000 watch on his wrist and 150 tabs of Valium in his bloodstream.)
On the film's Web site FAQ, the filmmakers answer the question of whether "Bleep" is a recruitment film coyly, stating that "the short answer is no. During the making of the film [originally to be titled 'Sacred Science'] it was decided that what was important was the message, not the messenger -- whoever that may be. Some people may be inspired to check out RSE, and some people may be inspired to major at MIT in quantum teleportation." (At press time, MIT was not yet offering such a major.)
.Ramtha's School of Enlightenment had previously promoted itself in its own films, but those had a lower budget. One was "Bleep" director Mark Vicente's 2002 "Where Angels Fear to Thread." Its trailer (available here) introduces Ramtha in the fashion of "Lord of the Rings," swinging a blade and raising a goblet to "the challenge of being an individual."
"Bleep" is a much slicker introduction. Its success relies heavily on word of mouth, accelerated by the use of "Bleep Teams" organized by Captured Light Industries, the production house set up by Arntz to create "Bleep." (The film's other production house, Lord of the Wind, is named for Ramtha himself.)Heading the Bay Area street team is Kathy Vaquilar, who organized regular "Bleep" events in at least two cities a week during August. On Saturday, Aug. 14, she helped organize a discussion in Berkeley that featured a Ramtha representative, Cindy, "who told us more about the film's background, how it got started, and about the school," she posted on the "What the Bleep" forum the next day, when the movement was spreading to nearby Walnut Creek. The next night, a meeting was slated for San Francisco.
Vaquilar told Salon that she coordinates the "Bleep" campaign with a representative of Captured Light. "I don't know that much about the Ramtha school," she wrote in an e-mail to Salon, and hastens to defend its role. Knight, she writes, "was only used as an interview subject. What is taught at the school might seem weird to most mainstream people, but for those who study or read the same materials on their own without any connection to the school or to JZ Knight, their stuff is not considered unusual, but rather part of what's already cutting edge."
That edge is something Vaquilar is familiar with. In August she promoted the film at the Bay Area's UFO expo in Santa Clara, serving double duty with the International Contact Support Network, which comforts those who say they've encountered extraterrestrials. Vaquilar herself has written about meeting insectoids, who treated her fairly well; but Knight, speaking in the voice of Ramtha, has warned her own followers of the "Gray Men," a clique of hostile off-worlders controlling Earth's banks.On the surface, the movie doesn't seem to be targeting the E.T.-obsessed; in fact, it seems to follow in the footsteps of Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" by asking us to thrill to the tapestry of space-time. But it has very little patience for Enlightenment concepts like measurable results and scientific proof. In the new science of "Bleep," symbolized by disembodied equations and CG bubbles flying at us like stars at warp speed, we're past all that.
We're also told that when Columbus came to America, the natives literally couldn't see his ships. They couldn't think outside the box of Indian life. And in a subway that seems like one of many conceits borrowed from the "Matrix" movies (whose metaphor has similarly been borrowed by David Icke, the British author who says the world is controlled by lizard men), the heroine learns that you can see chi energy particles of love, that they've been captured in photographs of water blessed by Buddhists. At this juncture Matlin hears a voice in her ear: "Makes you wonder, doesn't it?" It's Quark, the greedy alien from "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"! Actually, it's the guy who plays him, Armin Shimerman, as one of several mysterious strangers guiding her to the truth.
The impression left from sitting through a screening of "What the Bleep" is that a lot of people enjoy hearing their griping about religious fundamentalists reflected back to them, backed by science. There's also plenty of stroking of lefty values; Ramtha has declared that all world religions have in common "the suppression of women," adding, with the brashness surely fashionable in the 33rd century B.C., "No woman who had an abortion has sinned against God. Fuck all those assholes who tell you that." On the other hand, papers from Knight's 1992 divorce case with Jeffrey Knight hint that Ramtha is an ancient homophobe, who allegedly declared that AIDS was Mother Nature's way of "getting rid of" homosexuality and told Jeffrey Knight he should reject modern medicine and overcome the disease using the school's breathing techniques, according to court testimony. Tom Szimhart, a "deprogrammer" who testified on behalf of Knight's husband (who eventually died of the disease) called the Ramtha school a cult with an anti-scientific bent.The "backward" religion of Christianity, Ramtha explains in the movie, doesn't appreciate how the parables of Jesus are explained by photon waves and probability -- just as creationists suggest that the latest archaeological science can explain Noah's Ark and a very young Grand Canyon. The cumulative effect of "What the Bleep" -- whose co-director, Betsy Chasse, produced the evangelical teen comedy "Extreme Days" (2000) -- makes you wonder if it isn't as fundamentalist as the Christianity and Islam that Ramtha inveighs against.
Even the father of the Isn't the Universe Amazing genre, the late Sagan, called Ramtha out. He opened his 1997 book "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" by asking why, if Ramtha is 35,000 years old, he gives us only "banal homilies" (sample: "I have come to help you over the ditch ... It is called the ditch of limitation") instead of telling us, say, about the currency, technology, social order and use of birth control in prehistoric Lemuria -- a country popularized by Madame Blavatsky, the turn-of-the-20th-century psychic. Sagan's argument, which couldn't be further from the movie's, is that science has exposed so many natural wonders, there's no need to gild the lily with gray aliens, telepaths and the spirits of Cro-Magnon shoguns roaming the Evergreen State.
Needless to say the book isn't on the film's reading list, which instead suggests reading the works of Ramtha
---------------
the United Church of Religious Science, of all things, has released this attack on the film, which is also an interesting read:
http://religious-science.com/askland0405-science.pdf
(or from:)
http://www.religious-science.com/message-board-forum/viewtopic.php?t=49
"Report on the Perversion of Science to Support Mysticism"
Purpose: To assist in retarding the spread of pseudo-science and misinformation, to present topics currently circulating our churches and to encourage critical thinking.
Addressing the topics of:
Page 3 - Opening Quotes
Page 4 - Introduction and Address to the Religious Science Community
Page 5 - Responsibility and Reputation of Church Leaders
Page 6 - Defining Critical Thinking
Page 7 - What Is Science?
Page 9 - What The Bleep Do We Know movie
Page 11 - JZ Knight aka Ramtha
Page 17 - What The Bleep Do They Know? - Expert Resumes
Page 18 - David McCarthy - A Letter to Current Members of Ramtha's School
Page 19 - Masaru Emoto Water Healing
Page 23 - Christopher Columbus Historical Facts
Page 24 - The Maharishi Effect
Page 26 - Sai Baba
Page 36 - Manifestations
Page 44 - Architecture Retaining Positive or Negative Energies
Page 45 - One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge
Page 46 - What The Bleep Do We Know Receives Pigasus Award
Page 46 - Anticipation of Flawed Logic Responses
Page 48 - Closing Remarks
With writings and excerpts provided by Ernest Holmes, Robert L. Park, James Randi, Dr. Kathryn Turner (Director of Education, United Church of Religious Science), the Google Answers research team, Columbia University athematics Department and others notated and credited.
A copy of this report is available free of charge E-mail Conrad Askland at askland@...
Please include name and mailing address
Or download a PDF copy at www.Religious-Science.com
Author's Note: There are frequent references in this report to "RSE" which stands for the Ramtha School of Enlightenment led by JZ Knight, aka "Ramtha". RSE has NO affiliation with Religious Science, Science of Mind or the teachings of Ernest Holmes. Sometimes Religious Science will be referred to as "RS" or the United Church of Religious Science as "UCRS". Please make note of this very important distinction.This report released April 20, 2005From:bleshins@... Subject:Re: [Ibogaine] Gallo Research Center studies cause and treatment of alcohol, drug addiction
---- HSLotsof@... wrote:
Since non-N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors
mediate Purkinje cell excitation by climbing fibers, we hypothesized that
1-4-aminophenyl-methyl-7,8-methylenedioxy-5H-2,3-benzodiazepine (GYKI-52466), which
antagonizes non-NMDA receptors, may have a neuroprotective effect by blocking
glutamatergic excitation at climbing fiber synapses. To test this hypothesis,
rats were administered systemic ibogaine plus GYKI-52466 and the degree of
neuronal injury was analyzed in cerebellar sections. The results indicate that
the AMPA antagonist GYKI-52466 (10 mg/kg i.p. x 3) does not protect against
Purkinje cell injury at the doses used. Rather, co-administration of GYKI-52466
with ibogaine produces increased toxicity evidenced by more extensive Purkinje
cell degeneration.
Does the above property extend to other benzodiazepines?
ie. could taking Valium with Ibogaine lead to greater brain damage?
Or am I completely off the mark here?
cheersBorisFrom: HSLotsof@...Subject: Re: [Ibogaine] Gallo Research Center studies cause and treatment of alcohol, drug addiction
If it is not stated it should not be presumed. For example, I was researching benzodiazepine potentiation of opioid analgesia and thought there would be a good deal of work but not only were there few papers on he issue, they were divided as to outcome: potentiate or antagonize. Molliver's work is very complex stuff for us lay people and none of us are taking 100 mg/kg of ibogaine or the doses of whatever exotic benzodiazepine he is reporting on SO, there is no data to go on when it comes to therapeutic doses of ibogaine and therapeutic doses of benzodiazepines in combination except that they have been used for decades without overt signs of toxicity. That does not mean that Molliver could not discover them to be neurotoxic. But, be skeptical. Low dose ibogaine in combination with low dose valium class drugs are widely used.Howardbleshins@... Subject:[Ibogaine] ibogaine neurotoxicity
I just looked this up for myself, and here's what I found.
------------------------------
the following from
http://userpages.umbc.edu/~jfreed1/Ibogaine.html
...
Of more importance to the general population than these isolated incidents, are recent reports of ibogaine neurotoxicity. There are, however, some discrepancies among these reports. Dhahir (1971) found no pathological changes in the liver, kidney, heart or brain of the rat following chronic intraperitoneal ibogaine administration (10 mg/kg for 30 days, and 40 mg/kg for 12 days.) Likewise, Sanchez-Ramos and Mash (1994) found no evidence of gross pathology in African green monkeys given ibogaine in oral doses of 5 - 25 mg/kg for four consecutive days.
In higher doses, though, ibogaine has been shown to cause definitive neurotoxic effects. At a single intraperitoneal dose of 100 mg/kg, ibogaine was shown to cause marked degeneration of Purkinje cells and activation of microglia in discrete radial bands of the rat cerebellar cortex (O'Hearn and Molliver, 1997). In support of these findings, Xu et al (2000) found that degeneration of Purkinje cells was visible at intraperitoneal doses beginning at 75 mg/kg, showing increasing damage at 100 mg/kg. This study revealed that the neurotoxicity of ibogaine is dose-dependent, a finding also supported by other investigations (Molinari, Maisonneuve, and Glick, 1996).
O'Hearn and Molliver (1997) propose that ibogaine is not directly toxic to Purkinje cells, but rather causes Purkinje cell degeneration through sustained activation of the olivocerebellar projection. Scallet et al (1996) reported that activation of serotonin receptors in the forebrain is the initial site of ibogaine neurotoxicity. Cortifugal axons could then stimulate the inferior olive and its excitotoxic climbiner-fiber pathway to the cerebellum (Xu et al, 2000). This lends support to O'Hearn and Molliver's theory of trans-synaptic excitoxicity mediated by the olivocerebllar projection.
In light of these findings, a number of researchers have recently been studying the effects of a synthetic congener of ibogaine, 18-methoxycoronaradine, more commonly known as 18-MC. Similar to ibogaine, 18-MC decreases levels of extracellular dopamine in the nucleus accumbens (Szumlinksi, Maisonneuve, and Glick, 2000). Likewise, 18-MC has similar effects to ibogaine on the attenuation of morphine and cocaine self-administration (Glick et al, 1996) and alcohol intake (Rezvani et al, 1997). However, unlike ibogaine, 18-MC is non-tremorigenic, does not induce brachycardia, nor does it cause damage to Purkinje cells, or the brain in general (Glick et al, 1996; Molinari, Maisonneuve, and Glick, 1996; Glick, Maisonneuve, and Szumlinski, 2000). FDA protocol studies of human toxicity had been approved and were underway at the University of Miami, under the direction of neurologist Deborah Mash, but the trials were discontinued due to lack of funding. However, should future studies deem ibogaine too hazardous for clinical use, 18-MC could represent a viable alternative.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary on Ibogaine Neurotoxicity from the Ibogaine Dossier:
http://www.ibogaine.org/neurotoxicity.html
IBOGAINE NEUROTOXICITY
Michael Bosman
Editor, The Ibogaine Dossier (retired)
Revised August 26, 2001
Howard S. Lotsof
Ibogaine Consultant
Concern has been expressed regarding ibogaine neurotoxicity.
However, an intra-peritoneal dose of 40 mg/kg for 12 days, or 10 mg/kg for 30 days caused no significant pathologic findings in rat heart, liver, kidneys, and brain. (Dhahir 1971) No neurotoxicity was observed after 5-25 mg/kg ibogaine for 4 days per os in African green monkeys. (Sanchez-Ramos 1994)
While O'Hearn and Molliver describe that ibogaine and harmaline have selective neurotoxic effects, leading to degeneration of Purkinje cells in the cerebellar vermis, (O'Hearn 1993a, 1993b) Molinari et al. subsequently report that ibogaine induced neurotoxicity is dose-dependent, not causing pathological changes at therapeutic doses in the rat. (Molinari 1996)
Glick shows that 18-methoxy-coronaridine, a novel, synthetic iboga alkaloid congener, mimics ibogaine's effects on drug self-administration without evidence of cerebellar toxicity at a high dose (100 mg/kg). (Glick 1996) Popik states that ibogaine exhibits neuroprotective properties in cultures of cerebellar granule cell neurons. (Popik 1995)
Further, to the matter of neurotoxicity, Helsley shows no significant differences in Purkinje cell numbers between ibogaine and control groups (Helsley 1997) while Xu in work jointly performed at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the Division of Neurotoxicology, National Center for Toxicological Research, an FDA laboratory showed no neurotoxicity above controls at human therapeutic doses of 25 mg/kg of ibogaine in the rat. (Xu 2000)
Literature
1. Methods for the detection and determination of ibogaine in biological materials. Dhahir, H.I., Jain, N.C. and Forney, R.B. J Forensic Sci 16:103-108, 1971.
2. Ibogaine research update: phase I human study. Sanchez-Ramos, J. and Mash, D.C. Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies 4:11, 1994.
3. Ibogaine induces glial activation in parasagittal zones of the cerebellum. O'Hearn, E., Long, D.B. and Molliver, M.E. Neuroreport 4:299-302, 1993.
4. Degeneration of Purkinje cells in parasagittal zones of the cerebellar vermis after treatment with ibogaine or harmaline. O'Hearn, E. and Molliver, M.E. Neuroscience 55:303-310, 1993.5. Ibogaine neurotoxicity: a re-evaluation. Molinari, H.H., Maisonneuve, I.M. and Glick, S.D. Brain Res 737:255-262, 1996.
6. 18 Methoxycoronaridine, a Nontoxic Iboga Alkaloid Congener: Effects on Morphine and Cocaine Self Administration and on Mesolimbic Dopamine Release in Rats. Glick, S.D., Kuehne, M.E., Maisonneuve, I.M., Bandarage, U.K. and Molinari, H.H. Brain Res 719:29-35, 1996.
7. NMDA Antagonist Properties of the Putative Antiaddictive Drug, Ibogaine. Popik, P., Layer, R.T., Fossom, L.H., et al. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 275:753-760, 1995.
8. Effects of Chronic Ibogaine Treatment on Cerebellar Purkinje Cells in the Rat. Helsley, S., Dlugos C.A., Pentney R.J., Rabin R.A., Winter J.C. Brain Reseach 759(2):306-308, 1997.
9. A Dose-Response Study of Ibogaine-Induced Neuropathology in the Rat Cerelellum. Xu Z., Chang L.W., Slikker W. Jr., Ali S.F., Rountee R.L., Scallet A.C. Toxicol Sci 57(1):95-101,2000.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
and from http://www.ibogainetreatment.com FAQ:
Toxicity:
Medication Development of Ibogaine as a Pharmacotherapy for Drug
Dependence,Deborah C. Mash, Craid A. Kovera, Billy E. Buck, Michael D. Norenberg,
Paul Shapshak W. Lee Hearn and Juan Sanchez-Ramos, (1998) Ann. NY AScad Sci,
844:274-291.
"...toxicological studies conducted in primates have demonstrated that
oral ibogaine administration, given at doses (5 x 25 mg kg) recommended for
the treatment of cocaine and opiate dependence appear to be safe and free of
behavioral or cerebellar toxicity."
In the same paper the authors discuss the autopsy of a patient dying of
natural causes who had received four ibogaine treatments of between 10
mg/kg and 29 mg/kg. "There were no degenerative changes seen in the
cerebellum; cerebellar Purkinje cells were normal and there was no evidence of anysignificant cytopathology or neurodegeneration in any other brain areaFrom:slowone@... Subject:Re: [Ibogaine] Gallo Research Center studies cause and treatment of alcohol, drug addiction
"Ablation of the inferior olive affords protection against ibogaine-
induced neurotoxicity leading to the interpretation that ibogaine
itself is not directly toxic to Purkinje cells."
I.e. the only known form of ibogaine-induced nerve damage is the
result of a cascade of effects. I wonder if ablation of the
inferior olive would affect ibogaine's ability to interrupt
addiction. Addiction interruption could even be the result of a
different cascade of effects (rather than directly caused by the
ibogaine). Someday science may sort these things out.. hopefully inmy lifetime. Thanks for posting this, Howard.From:dana@... Subject:[Ibogaine] Forwarded from a yippie@ibogahouse
From: Robert.Weppler@...
Subject: Information!!!!!!!
Hi I hope this letter actually makes it to Dana's eyes.
Hi my name is Robert Weppler and I have been influenced by you since before I was a teen. And I did not even know it. LOL
Through friends in the early 80's I was exposed to the power of punk and the Anti-racist movement. My two fisted bibles were Maximum R&R and Overthrow.
Later I was lucky enough to buy a copy of the Black Listed news and began to know the history of the youth movement I was involved in.
Marches against Cruise missile testing and Legalizing Pot opened me up to the power of the people.
Thanks to the School stoppers news. My friends and I put out a school zone called NO and by May day 87 we closed the whole school with a Sit In.
Well fast forward through the rest of those evil days and I find my self in the Down town east side strung out and bitter at the beginning of a new millennium.
After finding the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users I became interested in organizing and working with my peers to fight this War on Freedom and genocide of the Poor called the War on Drugs.
In 2001 I became president of this group and began to work with Marc Emory in helping establish the Iboga House up here.
Although there was some problems around safety and success protocols, you know how demanding we can be.LOLThe house has been a minor miracle. Especially hopeful with MAPS involvement.
Since Marcs insane arrest last month on behalf of the DEA some of are worried how this is going to affect the house and any free treatments that were in the works.
Well I just wanted to write and thank you for the long and inspiring work that you have done.
I also am wondering how to get back issues or re-prints of the Yipster Times and Overthrow.
We need their great news again.
Love and Solidarity
Robert Weppler
Peer 2 Peer
Vancouver Union of Drug UsersNo one do Voodoo like VUDU
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******************************************************************************The following list is for internal use of Million Marijuana March Organizers. Many [personal addresses] in brackets are listed so that our affiliates can mail posters, buttons, etc. to each other, BUT are not for posting on websites. If you wish to put this list up on a website, consult with www.cures-not-wars.org to see what we've actually displayed. To get on the poster for 2006-update your contact details & add your city to this List:-----snip-----------end of forwarded email-----
Christianists, Zionists, and Islamists all support Drug Wars and "Holy" Wars.
Braindead spiritless fundamentalists hogtied to their texts.
Most were civilians:
MMM (Global Million Marijuana March).
First Saturday in May, or that weekend, or thereabouts.
Hundreds of different cities worldwide. Email list and public archive:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cannabisaction
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