All language subtitles for VICE - S01E07 Tobaccoland - Underground Heroin Clinic

This week on "Vice,"
Thomas heads to Indonesia,

where they think smoking doesn't
cause cancer, it cures it.

_

And I travel
from New York to Mexico,

where an addict tries to kick the
most addictive drug in the world

by using the scariest
drug in the world.

I just want to be
happy, you know.

I just want to wake
up in the morning

and, you know,
not want to fucking

blow my brains out every day.

That would be nice.

The world is changing.

Now, no one knows
where it's going,

but we'll be there
uncovering the news...

This is World War III.

culture, and politics

that expose the absurdity
of the modern condition.

That little child
has a huge gun.

This scene isn't really kosher

by American standards.

I was interviewing suicide
bombers, and they were kids.

This is the world
through our eyes.

We win or we die!

This is
the world of "Vice."

Sync & corrections by honeybunny
www.addic7ed.com

Hi. I'm Shane Smith
and we're here in

the "Vice" offices of
Brooklyn, New York.

For our first story this week,
we go to Indonesia.

Lucy.
Yes, dear.

Get me a cigarette,
will you, hon?

Don't say cigarette. Say Philip Morris.
Oh?

Before we
woke up to the fact

that smoking is actually
very, very bad for us,

it used to be everywhere--

movies, TV, advertising,
even doctors' offices.

Everybody smoked.
Then landmark legislation

made it much harder
to promote cigarettes here,

and as a result, tobacco use
is on the decline.

But there are still
places in the world

where no such legislation
was enacted,

and as such, smoking has been
left to evolve on its own,

completely unchecked.

So, we sent Thomas Morton
to Indonesia

to see what happens to a country

that refuses to regulate
its tobacco.

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It's Thomas. I'm in a
clinic in Indonesia.

I'm being cured
of my acne by smoking

and having something
sucked out of my ear.

This is also good for cancer.

Curing cancer, not causing it.

While smoking's been
on steady decline in the West

from close to half of all adults
to 1/5

in the course of 40 years,

the East still loves
their cigarettes.

In 2005, Philip Morris
bought Sampoerna Cigarettes,

the third-largest cigarette
maker in Indonesia,

for $5 billion.

Why spend that much money
on a runner-up tobacco company

in a country on the opposite
side of the Earth?

Simple--because Indonesia
is a smoker's paradise.

2/3 of Indonesian men smoke,

this in a country of
a quarter-billion people.

And not only does
everyone here smoke,

it's also home to the biggest
tobacco industry in Asia,

so cornering the market is just
a simple matter of buying in.

Roy Anise was senior
vice president of Philip Morris

during Big Tobacco's
darkest hour,

during the eighties
and nineties.

It was a difficult period.

When the lawsuits came,
restrictions came,

taxation came, it was difficult

for the company to really
internalize because

it was a legal product, it was
recognized as having harm,

but yet it was considered
to be acceptable.

It started to become
denormalized,

and then demonized,

and it moved much
quicker than I think

than many people
had anticipated.

It just changed the game.

It needed to become more
creative in a different way.

Unlike in the United
States, where cigarettes

had been declining since
the early 1980s,

in many other parts of the
world, cigarettes were growing

and growing quite well for
Philip Morris International,

and continue to do so.

Despite having some of the
lowest cigarette taxes in the world,

the average Indonesian household
spends more money on smokes

than anything else but rice.

It's a boom town for tobacco.

Tulus Abadi heads the National
Commission for Tobacco Control.

He's one of the only guys
in the Indo government

fighting against smoking.

How big is the problem?

How many Indonesians smoke?

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When this video of
Indonesia's famous baby smoker

hit YouTube,

most Westerners were aghast,

but Indonesians just shrugged.

By the time they're 16, one
out of every 4 Indo teenagers

is a regular smoker.

Half if you just count the guys.

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The average
pack of cigarettes

costs less than a dollar here,

and you can pick up loosies
for a few cents.

So, most kids can afford them

on their milk money allowance,

like our 9-year-old buddy Rifki.

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So, uh, Rifki's picking up
his morning pack of cigarettes,

and then we're off to school.

Do you think
you'll ever be able

to get Rifki to quit smoking?

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Why do you think
Rifki started smoking?

Like, who do you think
is to blame for that?

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After school let out,
Rifki and his pals

took us to their neighborhood
smoking spot,

the old Chinese graveyard.

Just take a right at the

cigarette-sponsored
badminton court.

So, this is the--
this is the cool kids' spot.

So, what's up, guys?

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This is a real
all-ages group.

This is like, kind of like

the cast of, like, Indonesian
"Little Rascals" here.

How long have you smoked?

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What do you like about smoking?

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Do grownups here
care if you smoke?

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This scene isn't, uh,

really kosher by
American standards,

but a number of
adults have walked by

and a couple of them have
kind of, like, clucked,

but nobody's--nobody's
ringing the alarms.

While smoking is firmly
entrenched with Indonesian males,

only about 5% of girls
have picked up the habit.

Oliva here is 12 and has been
smoking since she was 9.

Why did
you start smoking?

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What--what do you
like about smoking?

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Do--do girls typically
like boys who smoke?

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Smoking's manly image
is reinforced by

pervasive advertising.

American banned cigarette ads
on TV and radio in 1971.

No, you don't
see many wild stallions anymore.

Come to Marlboro Country.

Indonesia not only still
advertises on TV and radio,

they advertise it everywhere.

You see cigarette ads
on every street corner,

on playground basketball courts,

on posters for major concerts
and sporting events.

They even sponsor schools,
like the Sampoerna Academy,

named after the same family
that sold Sampoerna Cigarettes

to Philip Morris.

It's as if we had a school
called Marlboro Prep.

We've seen Marlboro-branded
baby clothes and toys.

Chris Bostic
is deputy director

of Action on Smoking and Health,

one of the biggest anti-smoking
lobbyist groups in the U.S.

They can target children
and use cartoons.

I mean, target children
in ways that would be

unstomachable here anymore.

How hard is it to,
like, fight tobacco use?

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The government's
kid glove approach makes sense

when you consider tobacco here is
a $100 billion a year industry

and is the second-largest
employer in the country.

They're basically too scared of
disrupting their revenue stream

to rock the boat,

which makes the country
a play place

for foreign tobacco companies,

especially ones used to the
anti-smoking atmosphere of the West.

In the late eighties,
early nineties,

the United States was involved
in several lawsuits

against particularly
Asian countries

uh, about market access
for big tobacco firms

like Philip Morris,

and won all of them.

Philip Morris buying Sampoerna
in 2005

was a bit of a game changer.

Now as a foreign investor,

Philip Morris can tap
all those trade treaties.

So, even if Indonesia did want

to suddenly move forward
on tobacco control,

they would face
all the litigation

under every treaty that
Indonesia is involved in.

It must be
extraordinarily frustrating

trying to do this.

Like, how do you feel
about the work you do?

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So, not only do Indonesians
think smoking's, like, OK,

a lot of them actually
think it's good for you.

People here believe
smoking cures toothaches,

clove tobacco cigarettes
are good for your breath,

hookah water's an antiseptic.

And on top of all that,
they have clinics that treat

smoking-related illnesses
with smoking.

This clinic practices
a New-Agey sort of therapy

called balur, which uses
clove cigarettes

to cure a whole host
of diseases.

Dr. Soebagio opened it in 2007

and has so far treated
over 30,000 patients.

Is it OK? It's all right?
Oh, yes.

Oh, thank you. Cool.

What are these
fancy cigarettes?

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Is it all types of cancer or is
it just, like, specific ones?

No. All the cancer.

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The clinic makes their
own brand of cigarettes.

These Divine Kreteks are made
from tobacco and cloves

and have a special filter
soaked in

some sort of amino acid broth,

which supposedly sops up all the
free radicals in your bodies,

which supposedly is what's
causing all that cancer.

So, this is the prep room
for my balur treatment,

which is basically
they rub stuff on you

to open up your pores,

and that breaks up
the free radicals

that are collecting
in your cells.

At some point,
the tobacco comes in

and sucks it out
and makes you healthy.

OK. Um, so this is--
what am I signing?

I guess I've signed it
so it doesn't matter.

Ha ha! Yeah.

I was never really big
on Eastern medicine, but

so far, this beats my
usual doctor's visit.

OK.

Ahh.

The traditional
part of balur is pretty much

just a vigorous full-body rub

with Tylenol, red onions,
and a few other household goods.

This clinic's balur, however,
adds a few steps,

like basting your skin and pores
with divine cigarette smoke.

Then a second rubdown, this time
with scalding hot water

mixed with urea, the same urea
that's in our urine.

This is so painful.

Hello.
Heh.

So, so, what is
happening right now?

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OK.
Thank you.

Thank you, doctor.
Yeah.

While I was doing balur
to try to clear up

my embarrassing
late-twenties acne,

the other patients
in the clinic were there

for far graver illnesses.

So, what are-- what are
you being treated--

Hodkin.
Oh, Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Do you do--do you do
any other treatment?

Do you do, like,
chemotherapy or radiation?

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Can I ask you,
are you a smoker?

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Um, do you have
any problems with,

with people who are
critics of balur?

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All the free radical
talk and baked potato foil wraps

were already major red flags
for pseudo-scientific hokum,

but throwing miracles
into the works

really piqued my skepticism.

So, we asked a radiologist on one
of Jakarta's biggest cancer wards

to explain how legit
this business really is.

Does this hold up
against medical science?

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Even though it's not
medically recognized or sound,

the poor and gullible
still flock to these clinics.

What--what happened
with your son?

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Despite
the astronomical cost,

both on healthcare
and individual lives,

it's unlikely that any effort
is gonna get

2/3 of Indonesian guys
to quit smoking.

The only real way
to break the cycle

is to keep the next generation
from starting.

As bad as it is now, they're actually at
the beginning of their epidemic curve,

because it has one of the largest
youth populations in the world,

and most people start smoking
when they're youths.

So, you got a combination
of a large youth population,

absolutely no regulations
on advertising,

including advertising to youth,

and a growing per capita income.

That is a recipe
for a massive increase

in the number of smokers
in the next generation.

If you go back in time and try to find a
tobacco company that has gone bankrupt,

you'd be hard pressed
to find one.

It's a business that's gonna
continue to be successful

for decades.

Heroin is bad.

In fact, it's so fucking bad

that once you get hooked on it,

you basically only
have 3 options.

One, you can quit, which is
almost impossible,

as evidenced by
the over 90% relapse rate;

two, you can take so-called
replacement therapy drugs

like methadone, that are
just as addictive;

or 3, you can die.

And as such, hardcore addicts
will do

almost anything
they can to quit.

But with so few options
that are actually viable,

they started turning toward
more obscure and extreme cures.

One particular method uses
super-powerful hallucinogens

that shock the body so much
that it actually interrupts

the addiction to heroin.

_

Whoo!

This is
a Bwiti healing ceremony

at a harm reduction center
in Harlem.

Whoo! Whoo!

And this is
Dimitri Mugianis,

and he cures people
of heroin addiction.

He does so using a special
voodoo ritual--

somewhat like this.

The main difference is,
when it's for kicking heroin,

he also incorporates one of the
most powerful drugs on earth--

ibogaine.

What is ibogaine?

Ibogaine is a hydrochloride,

meaning a extract

from a plant called iboga.

One of the properties of iboga

that was discovered
in the early sixties

was that it interrupts

physical dependency on opiates

without withdrawal.

That happened for me.
I was a heroin addict

and a methadone addict
for 20 years.

How many times
did you try to get clean

before ibogaine?

I probably went
cold turkey 50 times.

Right. So, the only thing that
ever worked in 20 years...

The only thing that
ever worked in 20 years.

OK. So, was ibogaine
illegal at this time?

Ibogaine has been
illegal since Nixon.

Ibogaine was
made illegal in 1969

at the height of
the hippie movement,

and today, lives
right along heroin

as a Schedule 1 drug.

And although it's legal
in most countries,

ibogaine has some of the
stiffest legal penalties

here in America.

So, if you want to use it
to get off heroin,

you have to leave the States
to do so.

After Dimitri used ibogaine to
successfully beat his addiction,

he became kind of
an evangelist for the drug

and illegally administered
hundreds of treatments

to addicts in hotel and motel
rooms across the country.

But after a very close call where
one of his patients nearly died...

Hey. Hey. Hey.

he realized that he had to
find out more about his drug.

So, he went to Africa.

He traveled to Gabon and became
an initiate in Bwiti,

which is a religion
that uses ibogaine,

or rather iboga,
the indigenous plant

that ibogaine is made from,
to talk to their ancestors

through hallucinations,

which in turn induces
spiritual enlightenment.

Since then, Dimitri's
been incorporating

elements of Bwiti rituals
while he illegally administers

ibogaine to heroin addicts.

That is, until he got busted by
the DEA in a sting operation,

and since then,
he's been conducting

a kind of Bwiti self-help group

every week at a drug clinic
in Harlem

with all of the freakiness
but none of the ibogaine.

♪And I want you
to open up!

Even though Dimitri's
ceremonies can look as though

the lunatics have
taken over the asylum,

people continually seek him out
to ask him for his help,

because heroin is the most
addictive drug on earth.

Now, take Matt,
for example.

He looks like
a linebacker for Purdue,

but in reality, he's been
a hardcore junkie

for over 10 years.

I was sniffing
in the back of the car

on the way here.

In fact,
Matt is so far gone

that his own mother is
willing to give him up

to a bunch of New York
voodoo fruitcakes

and let them take him to Mexico

and give him one of the most
powerful drugs on Earth.

That's how bad heroin is.

We're very excited about this.

He's like our baby and we'll
take really good care of him.

It's so sad
to me, though,

that it can't be done here,

that it's--I--just
angers me

to my--bottom of
my soul.

And when you see
that level of desperation,

you realize why people
put so much faith

in New Age healers like Dimitri.

Thank you, son.

We'll take good care
of him, OK?

All right. Call us, too.
Anytime.

This is your new path, honey,

and I can't wait to see

the amazing things
that are gonna

happen in your life.

I love you with
my heart and soul, baby.

OK, ma.

God bless you, baby.

All right.

To avoid prosecution
by the American government,

much of the ibogaine
underground community

has actually moved just
south of the border to Mexico,

where the drug is still legal.

So, we're about
an hour south of Tijuana

in a very upscale neighborhood.

It's interesting, because when
you start doing a story about

underground heroin clinics using

sort of tribal
African rituals...

You kind of have
an image in your head of

sort of dank basements
on the Lower East Side,

and then all of a sudden,
you're in a really fancy

Mexican villa by the sea.

It's not what I had in mind.

The reason we came down here

is to work with Jeff
Israel and his clinic,

is because what we're gonna
try to do is combine

our ritual with the medical ritual.
Right.

Jeff Israel runs
a more medical approach

to ibogaine at his clinic,
and as such

incorporates a lot of
safety equipment

in case anything goes wrong.

If we don't like
where the pulse is

or starts to go low
or gets irregular,

we'll slap these on them
with 3 leads.

If somebody
vomits or aspirates,

we can suction them out.

If somebody codes
or anything like that,

we have oxygen and...

if there is
an emergency, you know,

we have an intubation kit.

For Matt's treatment,
they're gonna combine

his clinical approach
with Dimitri's ceremony.

And it was finally time
for that ceremony to begin.

But first we had to pick up

a longtime heroin user
from Brooklyn named Nicole,

who's a friend of Jeff Israel's

and happened to be in Mexico

and also wanted to use ibogaine
to try and get clean.

For the first ritual,
we had to find a tree

by the side of the highway.

So, do you guys
know what we're doing now?

Uh, we're going
to the tree, right?

Yeah.
Yeah.

I don't know exactly what
we're doing there, but--

So, you
give this as offerings

to the ancestors
and to the tree,

because this stuff is good.

Everyone likes Fanta,

everyone likes booze and candy,

so, you offer it up.

I think that
for a drug user,

I mean, their whole life
revolves around ritual.

The ritual of copping,
of getting the drugs,

procuring the drugs,
getting the money,

and I think that even
problematic drug use

is a quest for deeper meaning.

How many times have
you tried to get clean?

Uh, at least 30.

30 times.
At least.

What do
you hope happens now?

I hope
I stay clean.

I just--I just want
to be happy, man.

You know, I just want to
wake up in the morning

and, you know, not want to

fucking blow my brains
out every day.

That would be nice.
Nice change of pace.

Are you worried about
what you guys are doing?

Are you worried
that the rituals

get sort of bastardized and--and
morph into something else?

Yeah,
it is a worry,

and it is a criticism of me,

but that's what culture does, right?
Right.

And the thing about an African
religion and an African music--

it's very plastic, it bends
and molds and shapes,

and it'll be different.

Our Bwiti is different.

With all of this, the second
they take a test dose,

their withdrawal will be gone.

That is fucking for sure.
Every time.

The rituals
of the afternoon

fed into the ibogaine use
of the evening,

and that's when things started
to get a bit heavy.

When the first ibogaine
test dose was administered,

Nicole, who was still suspected
of being on heroin,

showed little reaction,

whereas Matt, who was
already in full withdrawal,

felt it immediately.

And after another
quick round of medical tests

to check his vital stats,

they administered Matt
the flood dose,

and it was not an easy trip.

This is probably between
80% and 90% ibogaine,

and we gave it to him
in, like, a cocktail,

so it got in his system quicker
without a capsule.

The most important bit of
equipment in this place

is the vomit bucket.

Bless you.

Probably 15 hours
into this now.

Just gave him
some more ibogaine.

This is common.
What he's experiencing now

is 15% of what he would have

if he was home trying
to kick an opiate habit.

OK, this is nothing.
This is baby food.

Just thinking about,
like, this crazy...

crazy life, you know,

and...I just kind of
hope I don't

have to go back to it anymore.

But as of right now, I mean,
I don't want to.

That in itself is a miracle.

An addict goes
from being completely numb

physically and emotionally
for, you know,

one, 5, 10, 20 years

to finally feeling
their body again

and feeling emotions again,

and it's like,
uh-uh, unacceptable.

With ibogaine, sometimes it's
not a favor, you know,

You get kicked in the face.

It's iboga saying, "Hello."

Mama Bwiti saying,
"Hello. What's up?"

You know, like a good parent
telling you something.

This stuff is miraculous
and he's doing--he's doing fine.

It's just, you know, it's just
not a fun experience.

You know, there's no--
there's no easy landing.

Even with ibogaine.

Nicole, who was suspected
of still being on heroin,

did not take her flood dose
that night,

but instead opted to take
her full dosage of ibogaine

a few days later without
Dimitri's Bwiti ceremony.

It was actually amazing to
see the transformation of Matt.

He was healthy and smiling,

and he hadn't used drugs
since Mexico.

The ibogaine had done its job.

Everything looks so different.

It's just nothing looks the same.
It's weird.

You know, Matt was really
suffering in his addiction.

But the difference
is just profound.

Just the way he looks,
his skin color,

the way he's talking.

You know, this is
sort of like a textbook example

of what iboga can do for
a suffering drug addict.

I must admit that
at first seeing the rituals

and craziness of Bwiti

that I was bit skeptical.

But when I saw Matt
literally reborn,

I was happy to be proved wrong.

And I can only hope that he,

like a lot of ibogaine users
before him, stays clean.

You feeling good?

Good. Really good, man.
Really good.

_

Sync & corrections by honeybunny
www.addic7ed.com