Ontario Wants Forced Treatment? Then Research Ibogaine. Further Dependence Helps No One.

 Researched and written by ChatGPT with my prompts.

I had a very short term roommate once who was on the Methadone program for opiate addiction. She was a PSW with a work related back injury -- a common thing.  

She used to walk all the way downtown for her drink each day and one day she missed it. The predicament was, spend the night detoxing or get an oxy. 

If this is the fix in the minds of Ontario's Involuntary Drug treatment then they need to find better ways than more addiction.

Maybe you haven't heard that while Texas, Arizona and Colorado are putting real money into ibogaine research for trauma and addiction, Ontario is floating a very different kind of experiment: forced treatment.

In May 2025, Ontario announced it would study how to introduce involuntary addictions treatment for people in jail, on parole or probation — in other words, people inside the correctional system who can be mandated into programs whether they consent or not. (qpbriefing.com) Around the same time, big-city mayors were publicly pushing the province to review mental-health laws and consider expanding the scope of involuntary treatment for people on the streets with addictions. (Global News) The Associate Minister for Mental Health and Addictions has already said that forced treatment “should be studied,” even as they admit Ontario doesn’t have enough capacity for voluntary care as it is. (thetrillium.ca)

So we’re talking about compulsory treatment in a system that can’t even meet voluntary demand. That alone should raise alarms.

If Ontario insists on marching down the road of involuntary treatment, then at minimum it should be honest about the quality of the tools it’s planning to use. More of the same — detox, short-term rehab, opioid agonist prescribing with no deep work on trauma — is exactly what has already failed thousands of people.

Meanwhile, south of the border:

• Texas has committed $50 million in public funds for ibogaine clinical trials targeting PTSD, traumatic brain injury and addiction, especially in veterans and first responders. (Texas.gov)

• Arizona has set aside $5 million for ibogaine research grants, again focused on PTSD and TBI. (Reason Foundation)

• Colorado is actively reviewing ibogaine for inclusion in its regulated “natural medicine” therapy framework, with its advisory board already recommending therapeutic access. (Bloomberg)

• A Stanford-linked study of Special Operations veterans treated with ibogaine (plus magnesium) in Mexico reported large reductions in depression, PTSD symptoms and suicidality — in people who had already burned through conventional options. (Stanford Medicine)

None of this makes ibogaine a magic bullet. It has real cardiac risks and must be delivered under serious medical screening and monitoring. But it does make one thing painfully clear:

If you’re going to override someone’s autonomy “for their own good,” you’d better be reaching for the most powerful, transformative tools available, not just recycling whatever’s cheapest or most politically comfortable.

Right now, Ontario is talking about expanding coercion without any sign it’s willing to expand the toolkit to match what the evidence — and lived experience — are pointing toward.

If the province is determined to trial involuntary addiction treatment anyway, then ibogaine should be on the table:

• As part of tightly regulated, medically supervised programs,

• With informed consent as the default and coercion as a true last resort,

• Integrated with long-term psychotherapy, housing and community support, not a one-and-done chemical “reset,”

• And in honest conversation with the Indigenous and traditional lineages that carried this medicine long before Western labs noticed it.

Anything less is just old-system control dressed up as innovation.

Ontario doesn’t get to talk about “compassionate” or “involuntary” treatment with a straight face while ignoring the very medicines that are finally giving people their lives back elsewhere. If you want to force people into care, you have a moral obligation to make sure that care includes the best tools we’ve got, not just the most familiar ones.