Research for a film on ibogaine has taken me to the UK, Spain, Portugal, Greece, South Africa, the US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. I have seen light and shadows along the way. Ibogaine was studied through the MKUltra programme by Harris Isbell. In 1955, Isbell studied the effects of ibogaine in 8 detoxified subjects. I’ll explore ibogaine failing to medicalise in the 1990s examining what happened at the NIDA meetings. Was funding for ibogaine stopped for scientific reasons, a lack of commercial incentives, or more shadowy “political” reasons: Big Pharma investing in opioid-based drugs? Ibogaine went underground. A network of over 90 clinics around the globe are treating thousands of people with a specific condition, with the number of clinics growing rapidly. Safety from clinic to clinic lies along a spectrum: many 1000s of clients have had their addiction interrupted (at least temporarily), while 10s of people have died during (or immediately after) treatment. I will end with a discussion of the supply chain, with large quantities of iboga root bark smuggled out of Gabon: the plant is now threatened. I shall ask what it will take to raise more awareness of ethically and sustainably sourced ibogaine and closer relations to forest communities in Gabon.