By the time Sheldon Pelletier turned 25, he thought he had only a few weeks left to live. A heroin addict for the past six years, living on the streets of Vancouver, he had lost count of the number of times he'd tried to kick the habit and failed. "Usually, I'd make it to day four," he recalls. "On the fourth day, you get through most of the physical pain and then your brain clears up. That's the worst, because you have to deal with your life." Then he heard about a mysterious drug that could help people like him. Called ibogaine, it wasn't available from doctors, but an underground clinic in Vancouver was offering it to those in need. Pelletier eventually took three doses of the capsules. The second time, they triggered a bout of intense hallucinations. He saw scene after scene from his past experiences -both pleasant and unpleasant ones. When he came round, Pelletier had lost all desire for a fix of heroin. That was last September, and he's been off heroin ever since.
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