Addiction and detox
Iboga is known for one thing above all: interrupting dependence. Our detox programs put that in a medical frame, with a physician on site day and night, and inside the Bwiti tradition, so that what the medicine interrupts, the ceremony and the three months after help you keep interrupted.
Programs
Detox is not a separate product with a fixed price. It is a standard ten- or fourteen-day program, private room, to which the physician adds three to five days of medical detox when your screening calls for it. Those days are billed on top of the program, $600 to $800 per day, typically $1,800 to $4,000 in total, and confirmed in writing before you pay.
| Program | Price, US dollars | Typical fit |
|---|---|---|
| Ten-day retreat with medical detox | $9,300 plus detox days | Alcohol, stimulants, cannabis, prescription misuse, and dependence that is not physically complex |
| Fourteen-day retreat with medical detox | $13,000 plus detox days | Opioids and other dependencies where stabilization, tapering or a longer recovery window is needed before and after the ceremonies |
| Medical detox days | $600 to $800 per day | Three to five days, decided case by case by the physician after screening; typically $1,800 to $4,000 |
The physician decides the program length and the number of detox days with you on the medical screening. All prices all inclusive from Cancún airport; laboratory tests before travel are paid separately. Full pricing.
What iboga does
Iboga is not a cure for addiction. What it does, and what makes it unlike anything else, is interrupt: the withdrawal, the craving, and the loop of thoughts that drives both. What you do with the interruption is the work of the weeks after.
For opioids in particular, guests describe going through the ceremony with withdrawal symptoms markedly reduced. For alcohol and benzodiazepines the physical withdrawal is managed medically before the ceremony, never by the medicine alone.
Many guests report a reset of craving that lasts weeks to months. That window is why the three months of continuing care are not optional: it is when new habits are built.
The night is a life review. Guests see the events, the people and the reasons behind the use with a distance they never had. The practitioners guide the review the next day; the psychologist works with it in the weeks after.
Substances
Each dependence has its own medical logic. The physician decides case by case; this is the general picture.
Acute alcohol withdrawal is dangerous on its own. Guests with daily heavy use are tapered under medical guidance before travel or stabilized on site during the first days; the ceremony comes once the body is safe.
Heroin, oxycodone and fentanyl users can usually go into ceremony after a short, planned interval. Methadone and buprenorphine need to be switched to a short-acting opioid weeks before, with the prescribing doctor. This is why the two-week program exists.
Stopped before travel; the heart is watched closely because stimulants and iboga do not mix. The ceremony works mostly on craving and on the life behind the use.
Iboga is not given during benzodiazepine withdrawal. A slow taper with your doctor comes first, sometimes over months. We help plan it; we do not shortcut it.
No medical taper is needed. Both are stopped before travel per the preparation guidelines, and both respond well to the reset and the follow-up.
No substance to detox from, but the same loop. The psycho-spiritual programs are usually the right frame; the psychologist helps decide.
How it unfolds
Arrival, intake, vitals, bloodwork review. The physician manages withdrawal medically, rest and food come first, and the practitioners meet you around the fire without medicine.
The Bwiti ceremonies, each followed by a processing day and an integration day. Cardiac telemetry, IV access and the medical team in the palapa every time.
Sleep returns, appetite returns. With Tania and the medical team you build the plan for home: people, places, triggers, support, medication if any.
Four integration calls, the medical team reachable, wearable data reviewed. Relapse is not treated as failure; it is treated as information, quickly.
Who it is for
You have tried to stop and could not hold it. You are willing to be honest about everything you take. You have, or will build, some support at home. You accept that the retreat is the start, not the end.
You are in acute withdrawal, you are pregnant, you have a heart condition, you are on a medication that cannot be tapered in time, or you are coming because someone else insists. We will tell you on the discovery call, and often propose a later date.
Questions about detox
It depends on the substance. Alcohol and benzodiazepines require a medical taper or on-site stabilization; opioid users follow a short planned interval; stimulants and cannabis are stopped before travel. The physician gives you exact instructions after screening. Do not attempt a cold stop on your own.
Guests consistently report that withdrawal symptoms are markedly reduced during and after the ceremony. It is the best-known effect of the medicine, and the reason it is studied. It is not a guarantee, and it does not replace the stabilization days or the follow-up.
We do not publish a percentage, because the honest answer depends on what you count and how long you follow people. What we can say: we measure, we follow every guest for three months, and we tell you what we see. Anyone who quotes you a high round number is selling.
Not during the retreat. Family can be part of the preparation and of the integration calls if you want them to be, and Lisa can talk to them before you fly.
Yes, on any open retreat date, subject to the private rooms available. Detox guests are part of the same group of eight, with their own room and their own medical plan.
You've carried this long enough. Start with a conversation with our medical team.
