Pubdate: Sun, 04 Feb 2001 Source: Observer, The (UK) Copyright: 2001 The Observer Contact: 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3ER, United Kingdom Fax: 0171 713 4250/4286 Website: http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/observer/ Author: Shane Collins IBOGAINE BENEFITS I would like to correct a point made in your ibogaine article (News, 14 January). Far from being dozens of deaths, there have only been three, none directly attributed to ibogaine, a new treatment for heroin addiction. The plant can be dangerous at the high dose used by the Bwiti for a 'once in a lifetime' religious initiation in Gabon, but not at the far lower dosages used to break opiate and methadone addictions and eliminating the usual withdrawal symptoms. Ibogaine is a plant medicine requiring extensive research, offering as it does a means of curing one of society's greater ills (and the crime associated with it). Shane Collins London SW2 - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom