The Elixir of Life

[miggeth]

In his apparently factual book Underworld of the East, James Lee describes a drug he made from a plant found in Samatra.

He named it the Elixir of Life, and claimed that it restored natural and perfect health from all kind of addiction without any suffering at all.

Has anyone else read this book, or belive the Elixir exists?

[ex-junkie]

sounds too good to be true doesnt it...

[Dickon]

I'm sceptical about the claims, although the existence of something like iboga/ibogaine not widely known is not impossible. Too many "miracle cures" for addiction come and go for me to set much store by such claims.

I looked up the book on amazon and it seems interesting. If you enjoyed this book you might consider writing a review for the book review section of this site. I just love the idea, mentioned on the description at amazon, that a guy who was injecting morphine was told by his doctor to inject some cocaine with it to stop him getting dependent! Another wonderful example of medicine in the "good old days". We should probably remember that both injecting and using heroin instead of morphine were once posited as non-addictive, and possibly even as "miracle cures for addiction" themselves!

Ho hum

Dickon

[bananaskin]

Originally Posted by Dickon

I just love the idea, mentioned on the description at amazon, that a guy who was injecting morphine was told by his doctor to inject some cocaine with it to stop him getting dependent! Another wonderful example of medicine in the "good old days". We should probably remember that both injecting and using heroin instead of morphine were once posited as non-addictive, and possibly even as "miracle cures for addiction" themselves!

As was cocaine itself, manufactured (perfectly legitimately) and sold as many things from toothache tincture to, indeed, a treatment for morphine addiction.

In 1885 the U.S. manufacturer Parke-Davis sold cocaine in various forms, including cigarettes, powder, and even a cocaine mixture that could be injected directly into the user’s veins with the included needle. The company promised that its cocaine products would “supply the place of food, make the coward brave, the silent eloquent and ... render the sufferer insensitive to pain.”

I wonder how much he is selling the 'cure' for?
It's really surprising that he hasn't been either bought out or murdered, or both.
It's highly probable that there is no such single cure, at least not known to man just yet.

[miggeth]

It's a unique book Dickon, his system, which took many years to perfect, was to gradually replace morphine with cocaine, then replace cocaine with smoked opium, then replace opium with hashish. Each one counteracting the adverse effects of the previous one. By which time he was free from addiction. Aparently he used this system many times and was able to stop and start at will with almost no suffering.

This of course would only be possible if a person was able to lay his hands on large proportions of all these things without any trouble, as was the situation before The Dangerous Drugs Act was introduced.