Offshore Ibogaine Clinics In Mexico, Portugal, and Brazil


This is the first of a series of articles on ibogaine clinics. It provides a brief overview of currently active clinics in Mexico, Brazil, and Portugal, their histories and treatment protocols.
Therapeutic centers for the administration of ibogaine have been proliferating for over a decade, operating exclusively in countries with less reactivity to the treatment of patients with ibogaine for addictions and emotional trauma. Mexico is the primary offshore jurisdiction, although clinics have also been established in Portugal, Brazil, Eastern Europe, Thailand, Canada, the Caribbean, and other areas with less severe regulatory environments than the United States and Britain. Ibogaine is a Schedule 1 substance in the U.S. and no state has yet decriminalized its use.
For this series, phone and video interviews were conducted with the founders of the principle ibogaine clinics in Mexico. They include Beond in Cancun, Transcend (formerly Clear Sky) and Ambio Bio in Tijuana, Awakening the Dream in San Miguel de Allende, and Ibogaine Clinic in Playa del Carmen. I also conducted interviews with Bruno Rasmussen’s clinic in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Tabula Rasa in Quinta da Fe, Portugal. The present list is non-exhaustive, with additional ibogaine clinics emerging and which may be reviewed in the course of this series.
One positive discovery is that the clinics, while somewhat competitive, also aim to improve treatment protocols through sharing of their experiences. For example, with fentanyl dependency having effectively replaced classic heroin addictions, clinics say they are now seeing patients with polydrug mixtures in their bodies including the veterinary tranquilizer xylazine, many of whom are unaware their fentanyl is diluted with this drug.
Detoxification from such drug combinations presents continuing challenges to ibogaine clinicians, prompting the exchange of relevant data on treatment episodes to be exchanged among clinics. As noted in a recent story in the New York Times, “Ibogaine is known to induce arrhythmia, or an irregular heartbeat, which in severe cases can lead to fatal cardiac arrest.”
While hundreds of thousands of people are estimated to have taken ibogaine worldwide and research data is sparse, a total of 33 ibogaine-related deaths have been publicly reported to date. In contrast, the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration recorded 3,362 deaths among the more than 1.4 million people who sought non-ibogaine related treatment for alcohol or drug addiction from inpatient, outpatient and residential treatment programs in 2015.
Ibogaine treatment centers are often founded by those who have experienced ibogaine for the treatment of trauma or addiction, and by physicians who, in the course of their medical training, encountered ibogaine and recognize the promise of this class of compounds. Among offshore clinics, the field is rapidly maturing, protocols are becoming more refined and effective, and follow-up centers for integration are appearing.
Integration is now recognized as essential to successful ibogaine treatment, and select retreats in Mexico are referring patients to a month-long, drug-free, post-ibogaine setting in a remote area. Interestingly, several ibogaine facilities offer a 5-MeO-DMT followup experience after the “gray days” of ibogaine where people often feel sluggish after treatment. Although an unanticipated development among the centers, anecdotal reports affirm the validity of this approach.
Beond Ibogaine Clinic, established by Tom Feegel and Talia Eisenberg, is one of the largest treatment centers in Mexico that provides a model for other clinics. Beond’s clinical, scientific, and ethical foundations may be exemplary in terms of safety and effectiveness for those seeking to create ibogaine facilities. Beond has 8 full-time licensed physicians, 19 full-time ICU-certified RNs, and extensive adjunct therapeutic team members. Feegel notes that they are “one team, with one purpose: to help people benefit from ibogaine assisted therapy for health and optimization.”
Beond treats patients “no matter where they start,” says Feegel. “Chemical dependency, PTSD, traumatic brain injury, or none of these conditions.”
Beond’s patients include those addicted to opiates (primarily fentanyl), along with cocaine and methamphetamine, those with mental health issues, and those seeking to optimize their lives. A most promising aspect of Beond is its Horizons program designed to enhance cognitive abilities, this program aligns with the findings of a Nature Medicine paper published January, 2024, in which Stanford researchers, co-led by Nolan Williams, investigated magnesium-ibogaine therapy in veterans with traumatic brain injuries.
“Neuropsychological testing (NPT) revealed areas of improvement after treatment, particularly in processing speed and executive function, without any detrimental changes observed,” write the study’s authors.
Current Research Applied At Clinics
Beond is the first clinic to apply the Stanford observations to healthy adults seeking improvement in performance. The results of these treatments, like the outcomes of all of Beond’s patients, are recorded in detail to match U.S. standards (i.e. “HIPAA compliant”). The Beond database will not only serve as support for clinical trials of ibogaine in the U.S., but also potentially validate the Stanford observation on heightened cognition in adults.
Using robust digital technologies, Beond collects 176 data points on every patient and client throughout their visit, including a range of physiotherapeutic assessments, and employs a dozen standard diagnostic instruments for quantitative monitoring of common psychiatric disorders to measure treatment outcomes and improve efficacy.
Beond also is politically involved with several states’ legislators and governors, and actively engages in discussion with Native American tribes and universities to expand ibogaine treatment for fentanyl addiction.The clinic also treats a variety of law enforcement and special forces combat veterans. Beond, in a remarkable act of transparency, recently publicly offered an ibogaine retreat to congressional and government officials. Beond carefully refers patients to Inscape Recovery after their ibogaine experience, where Carlos Lopez, MD and staff encourage extensive drug-free reintegration.
Ambio Life Sciences, co-founded by Jonathan Dickinson, Trevor Milnar, and Jose Inzunza, provided patients for the study at Stanford conducted by Williams. In this study, special forces veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) from blast exposures were given psychometric testing at Stanford before and after treatment with ibogaine. With no university involvement in handling ibogaine, Williams and Ambio provided a path for accelerated study of novel drugs by not requiring FDA approval for human research. This work was supported by Marcus and Amber Capone, the founders of Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions (VETS).
Mission Within, also in Tijuana, was founded by Martin Polanco, MD, and similarly focuses on special forces veterans. Together with Jesse Gould of the Heroic Hearts project, the clinic is supporting a study at the University of Texas in Austin for addressing prolonged grief among families of deceased warfighters through treatment with psilocybin or 5-MeO-DMT.
Awakening the Dream (Botanicos Desintoxicacion Tratamiento Natural S.C.), operated by Rocky Caravelli, provides comfortable but mandatory detoxification prior to the ibogaine experience.
Tabula Rasa, directed by the Alvaro de Ferranti, applies rational and more holistic treatments, with extensive aftercare at its facility and upon return to the community.
The primary clinic in Brazil is directed by Bruno Rasmussen, MD in Sao Paulo. Now Chief Medical Officer at Bienstar Wellness, Dr. Rasmussen has worked with ibogaine for 28 years and has treated over 2000 patients. His treatment cohort is composed primarily of those addicted to crack and powder cocaine endemic to the region. Rasmussen also conducts the MAPS study in Brazil on the use of MDMA for PTSD in Latin America.
New in Cancun is Transcend, still under reformation from the prior Clear Sky clinic. As one staff member explained, “We are applying everything that we’ve learned from 12 years in Clear Sky.” Dr. Fernando Rivas, the Chief Medical Officer at Transcend, has an ICU trauma background and is a specialist in critical care. “We have the best of Clear Sky, at an upscale facility, and intend to lift the bar for safety and monitoring by utilizing best-in-class technology.”
Before inexplicably shutting its doors, Clear Sky treated “4,800 patients, with no fatalities.” Transcend then acquired Clear Sky’s intellectual property after being founded by Jon Vinnik, a Wharton MBA. Vinnik worked for the late international financier and trader Marc Rich in Switzerland as head of Rich’s investment operation in Moscow before Rich’s conviction for tax evasion and his eventual pardon by Clinton. Vinnik, the founder of the Vinnik companies and Rock Spring Investments currently also serves as the consul general for the Republic of Serbia to the State of Wyoming.
Until government regulation and mandated treatment regimens are adopted after rigorous clinical trials, several other clinics also remain quite varied in their character, approaches, and beliefs. The cordial Rabbi David Dardashti and his son Gavriel operate the retreat “Ibogaine Clinic by David Dardashti” in Playa del Carmen. Notably, the Playa del Carmen staff suggests that detoxification protocols are unnecessary, and that patients are directly exposed to ibogaine and withdraw during the event. Many are alleged to report “no withdrawal symptoms.”
According to Dardashti, tuning into the lunar cycle may have an impact on ibogaine treatment’s efficacy. “Our findings suggest that the combination of quantum electrodynamics and the gravitational pull of the moon can have an incredibly powerful impact on electrons,” Dardashti wrote in an article for Yahoo Finance earlier this year. “We believe that this discovery could provide useful insight into the production of glial cells and determine the best times to use ibogaine.”
Summary Thoughts
This overview of the most prominent ibogaine clinics suggests that, while treatment centers are in their infancy, most appear to be guided by rigorous principles of effectiveness and patient safety. Notably, and to the benefit of patients, clinics compete to acquire competent staff from each other, with high value placed upon the more experienced and credentialed. Clinics often exchange information on refining treatment protocols and accessing the most advanced technologies, support and advise academic research, and retain records pertinent to eventual clinical trials in the U.S.
The clinics I spoke with emphasize the importance of vetting those with cardiac conditions or who are too debilitated for treatment. They also assist with political aspects of supporting ibogaine treatment for warfighters and the public, and research new applications of ibogaine for trauma, TBI, addictions, and cognitive performance.
This series will explore details of the most recent treatment protocols developed by ibogaine clinics and also offer perspectives from those following this rapidly growing market. It will examine the future of ibogaine treatment, both abroad and in the U.S.
Disclaimer: William Leonard Pickard is an advisor to JLS, a venture capital fund that invests in plant-based and psychedelic medicines. JLS has invested in Universal Ibogaine, a Canadian company which seeks to provide ibogaine therapy.