Dosed is a documentary that follows Adrianne, an opioid addict, in her search for a way out with plant medicine. You learn about her addiction, her heroin use, and follow along until a year after her last treatment. At first, she is not successful, but eventually, she finds a way to love herself again. This happens through a combination of psilocybin mushrooms, ibogaine/iboga treatment, and therapy plus support from her family.
Synopsis
“After many years of prescription medications failed her a suicidal woman turns to underground healers to try and overcome her depression, anxiety, and opioid addiction with illegal psychedelic medicine like magic mushrooms and iboga. Adrianne’s first dose of psilocybin mushrooms catapulted her into an unexpected world of healing where plant medicines are redefining our understanding of mental health and addiction.”
Ratings
Rotten Tomatoes – 69% critics, 100% audience
Blossom – 7/10
Extensive Review
We follow along with Adrianne for about two years. The first year consists of her search for a way out of her addiction. The second is covered in the last few minutes, it celebrates her success and her advocacy of introducing more plant medicine options.
The strongest message I got from the documentary is that the current system is broken. It leads people to keep on using drugs. This can start at street drugs (heroin) as it did for Adrianne, but more probably starts with prescription opioids. If someone is taking methadone, the chances of getting off it are very slim.
The documentary shows a possible way forward, that of ibogaine/iboga treatments. The method seems to be working (both for Adrianne, and in preliminary research) but is also not something that could be offered to the general public. The treatment in the documentary was given in a house and featured many shamanistic/traditional aspects.
For this to become more mainstream, a treatment centre structure needs to be built that is able to support people for the duration of treatment (up to 10 days at a time) and with the right medical supervision.
Costs can also be an issue as someone will have to be in treatment for that long. Of course, the costs of 7-10 days with a high rate of success, versus a life-long addiction (and associated costs for everyone involved) are probably negligible, but will the healthcare system be able to calculate it this way? Time will tell.
Dosed Walkthrough
Adrianne lives in Vancouver and is an addict. She uses opioids to make her pain go away. She avoids negative emotions this way.
The first thing she tries is magic mushrooms. She takes a full dose (2 grams). The setting is ok (outside, calm), but it seems both she and the filmmakers don’t know exactly how to get the most out of the situation. Although she gets a glimpse of seeing things from another (outside) perspective, seeing that she has no compassion for herself, a few days later she is using again.
During the documentary, we meet a variety of people working in the psychedelics field. Rosalind Watts, a researcher at Imperial College London, explains some of the underlying mechanisms of depression. She explains how depression can be seen as disconnection, and that psychedelics help you become connected again. It may help you find self-compassion after hating yourself for so long. This is in contrast to the cycle of pain and wanting to make it go away (with opioids). Adrianne explains that she felt that love that a child can feel, but it does fade over time (so multiple treatments may be needed).
Later on, we also meet Rick Doblin (MAPS), Paul Stamets (mycologist), Mark Haden (MAPS CA), Gabor Maté (physician, leads part of iboga treatment), and many more experts.
Rick Doblin stresses that magic mushrooms (psilocybin) may be good for if someone who has gone through withdrawal, but (as we learn) may not have benefits for more than a few days if someone is still addicted.
Adrianne tries a ‘normal’ detox but quits. She also does another magic mushroom dose. During this time she does also incorporate other good life choices like yoga, meditation, and seeing family more.
Garyth Moxey of the Inner realms Center and Mark Howard of IbogaSoul will feature as the experts who advise and lead the iboga/ibogaine treatment.
Before Adrianne goes to the iboga treatment, she also does magic mushrooms again (now 3.5 grams – ‘therapeutic’ dose)
At IbogaSoul, the treatment is described as akin to a computer getting wiped, someone being reset (as a baby) and being built back up. Adrianne wakes up and says that for the first time she isn’t withdrawing.
The first treatment takes up to 10 days. Part of the reason for this is that she lied about her heroin use the week before the treatment (it was double what she admitted – an amount that should never have let her be there).
But after the second week, she is really not addicted anymore. She stays clean and we get to see her 4, 7, 12 months later.
At 4 months she does 6 grams of magic mushrooms and this time can really learn from the experience. As cliche as it is, she says she felt love again, she feels connected to herself.
Currently, she is microdosing, alas there isn’t much explanation about how much or when (e.g. every 3rd day). The research around microdosing is also still quite slim but promising.
The documentary ends with the following two quotes:
“When used correctly, psilocybin mushrooms can successfully treat depression, anxiety, PTSD, and many kinds of addictions. They are ranked as the safest of all drugs [see this report, by David Nutt et al.]. Supervision is recommended when consuming therapeutic doses.”
“Iboga and ibogaine are about 10 times more effective for opioid addiction than conventional rehab, at a fraction of the cost. Medical supervision is necessary.”
Adrianna is now one year sober, working full-time, doing volunteer work, and has become an advocate for plant-medicine treatment options.
Type: Documentary
Director(s): Tyler Chandler
Runtime: 1h22m