Attachment Files

Ibogaine: Interview with Dr.Deborah Mash

Summary/Abstract

In July 1996, Dr. Deborah Mash was interviewed by Pacifica radio reporter Paul DeRienzo. This is a transcript of that interview, which was broadcast on Let 'em Talk over WBAI-99.5-FM in New York.

Content

Dr. Deborah Mash is a faculty member in the Department of Neurology of the University of Miami, School of Medicine with a secondary appointment in Cellular Molecular Pharmacology. Dr. Mash's area of expertise is called Neuropharmacology and Neuroscience and her doctoral dissertation was on Alzheimer's disease and the study of how the brain degenerates and how to restore function to the brain. Mash completed a fellowship at Harvard University and joined the faculty at the University of Miami in 1986, and currently runs one of the nation's largest post-mortem programs, a human brain bank consisting of tissues from people suffering degenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders. Dr. Mash has studied brain illnesses such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, but much of her work has centered on drug abuse, how drugs affect the brain and why certain people are more vulnerable to addictions. She is currently studying Ibogaine, a drug originating in the Iboga plant, which grows in Central Africa, primarily in Gabon and Congo. In those countries Iboga is used in religious ceremonies but the active ingredient in Iboga, which is called Ibogaine, has been shown by anecdotal evidence and some animal tests to have anti-addiction properties. Transcript from Interview in attached PDF below.