Gabon longs to cash in on sacred hallucinogenic remedy

Summary

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Beneath yellow fruit, hidden within the roots of the iboga plant in the forests of Gabon, lies a sacred treasure that the country is keen to make the most of. For centuries, religious devotees have eaten it—a psychotropic shrub that users say has addiction-fighting powers. It fascinates foreign visitors, psychiatric patients and rich pharmaceutical companies that want to market it. Now this central African country, where its use is enshrined in ancestral tradition, is scrambling to avoid missing out on the boom. Teddy Van Bonda Ndong, 31, an initiate in the Bwiti spiritual tradition, calls it "sacred wood." He consumes it in small amounts daily, he said, for his "mental and physical health." "It has a lot of power to help human beings," added Stephen Windsor-Clive, a 68-year-old retiree. "It's untapped. A mysterious force lies within this plant." He traveled to Gabon from Britain and consumed iboga—in a powder ground from its roots—during a 10-day Bwiti ceremony. He tried it with a view to adopting it as a treatment for his daughter, who suffers from mental illness. Economic potential Given the interest, Gabon is seeking to channel the plant onto the international marketplace. Exports of iboga products, including its active ingredient ibogaine, are few and strictly regulated in the country. It grows mostly in the wild, but "more and more effort is being made to domesticate the plant," said Florence Minko, an official in the forestry ministry. Potentially toxic in high doses, ibogaine can have effects similar to LSD, mescaline or amphetamines, and cause anxiety and hallucinations. But users believe it can help drug addicts kick their habit and treat post-traumatic stress and neurological illnesses. Yoan Mboussou, a local microbiologist and Bwiti initiate, hopes to gain an export license for the 500-milligram ibogaine capsules he produces at his laboratory near the capital Libreville. He sells them in Gabon as a food supplement, decl...