Ibogaine Activist Weighs In On Presley Gerber’s Death

Well as we were telling you earlier this year, Presley left the country and went somewhere out of the country to get some treatment involving a substance called ibogaine. What is ibogaine? How does it work? And because the video it seems like it's a something he's inhaling. How does it work? Well the video that you're showing appears to be part of a ceremony that perhaps was performed at the clinic where he saw treatment. Ibogaine itself is an alkaloid which is derived from the iboga tree which is the most powerful psychedelic plant medicine on earth. 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 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. It's important to know that ibogaine comes with a very specific risk factor and that pertains to the potential to create the prolongation of the time in between heartbeats. Ibogaine is a very serious medication and an individual should receive it in a clinically controlled medical setting with the appropriate staff to make sure that there is cardiac screening and cardiac monitoring in order to prevent the onset of what is called torsades or an arrhythmia that can be fatal. Is there actually going to be some change that comes? Yes sir, the first job that we have at Americans for Ibogaine is to ensure that there is the emergence of a medical reality for the administration of ibogaine treatment to individuals who suffer from substance dependency as well as post-traumatic stress and any other neurological conditions for which it demonstrates efficacy. How effective is it? Obviously Presley is just one situation and I imagine you would say that's an anecdotal result here that you can't say that across the board this is the result for people who use ibogaine. Well what we can say is this, ibogaine is a beginning not an end. It is not a magic pill. It is not a now and forevermore cure. What it provides is an individual with a window of neurochemical restoration. If their brain has been impaired by substance dependency so that they have an opportunity to make a new set of choices that can rebuild a new life through which they can be free of substance dependency. We don't know what happened to Presley and I would never wish to speculate but I do want to affirm that for many individuals especially U.S. war fighters who are living testimonies to have against power we have an opportunity to improve therapeutic outcomes and what I hope that we can learn from Presley's passing is exactly the choices that were made after treatment the degree to which he was supported by educated providers and the degree to which ibogaine medicine in the United States needs to be informed so that it can prevent these sorts of tragedies as it is deployed in the future.