Howard Stephen Lotsof (3/1/1943 - 1/31/2010)

National Alliance for Medication Assisted Recovery
Press Release

Contact Persons:
Joycelyn Woods, Executive Director, edirector@methadone.org
Roxanne Baker, President, president@methadone.org
Phone/Fax: 212-595-NAMA

For Release:
February 15, 2010

Howard Stephen Lotsof (3/1/1943 - 1/31/2010)

It is with great sadness that NAMA Recovery announces the passing of our long time board member and fellow advocate Howard Lotsof. He passed away Sunday, January 31, 1010 at 6 PM in Staten Island University Hospital.

Howard was an important part of NAMA Recovery and methadone advocacy. He came to us because of his experience in developing Ibogaine and having to work with methadone programs. They had sure changed since he was a patient many years before. He believed that treatment should be a positive experience and so in typical Howard fashion he could not hold himself back to set things right. He helped a lot of people with issues and problems that they had during the years that he was with NAMA Recovery and his presence will be greatly missed.

But Howard also had another life as an Ibogaine advocate. He single handed -- as a citizen with no background in drug development -- convinced the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) to provide funding for Ibogaine studies in the US. Only large pharmaceutical companies have the resources to accomplish this -- and of course Howard Lotsof.

The funeral was Friday, February 5, 1010 at Harmon Funeral Home in Staten Island. He will be intered at the Fairview Cemetery, 1852 Victory Blvd., Staten Island.

He was a nobel and inspiring man and we send Norma and his family our most heartfelt sympathy on his passing. We will miss him very much.

Note: His wife Norma Lotsof is asking for assistance for the gravestone. Donations can be sent to: Ms. Norma Lotsof, 46 Oxford Place, Staten Island, NY 10301

Obituary

Howard S. Lotsof, 66, discoverer of the anti-addictive effect of ibogaine, died of liver cancer on Sunday January 31, 2010 in Staten Island.

Mr. Lotsof was the first individual to observe the effect of ibogaine, a naturally occurring plant alkaloid with a history of use as a ritual hallucinogen in Africa, in detoxification from heroin. He subsequently originated patents for the use of ibogaine in treating addictions, including opioids, cocaine and amphetamine, alcohol, and nicotine.

Mr. Lotsof’s work initiated substantial research into ibogaine and related compounds in the mainstream scientific community. He provided pilot data to the National Institute on Drug Abuse that became the basis for a program of research on ibogaine that generated scores of peer-reviewed publications and led to the approval by the US Food and Drug Administration of a Phase 1 clinical trial. Beginning with research funding provided by Mr. Lotsof 25 years ago, Stanley D. Glick, M.D., Ph.D., Professor and Director of the Center for Neuropharmacology and Neuroscience Albany Medical College, has produced a body of work on ibogaine and related compounds that presently includes over 60 peer-reviewed publications and has been supported for more than two decades by the National Institutes of Health. Mr. Lotsof himself authored or coauthored scientific papers on ibogaine in respected academic publishing venues such as the Journal of Ethnopharmacology and the American Journal on Addictions. These accomplishments are all the more extraordinary in view of the fact that Mr. Lotsof, a graduate of NYU who majored in film was without a doctoral level degree.

The FDA-approved clinical study was never completed due to contractual disputes, which was Mr. Lotsof’s deepest professional disappointment. Nonetheless, an expanding global context of ibogaine use for the treatment of addiction continues to exist in medical and non-medical settings across the world, and ibogaine continues to be studied as a paradigm for fundamental research and the development of new treatment for addiction.

Mr. Lotsof is survived by his wife, Norma, and two sisters Rosalie Falato and Holly Weiland.