SHANE: This week on "Vice," Thomas heads to Indonesia,
where they think smoking doesn't cause cancer, it cures it.
_
SHANE: 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.
♪
SHANE: 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.
SHANE: 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.
SHANE: This is the world through our eyes.
MAN: We win or we die!
SHANE: 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?
SHANE: 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.
_
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.
♪
THOMAS: 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.
♪
ANISE: 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.
THOMAS: 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?
_
THOMAS: 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.
_
THOMAS: 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.
_
So, uh, Rifki's picking up his morning pack of cigarettes,
and then we're off to school.
[Speaking native language] [Laughs]
THOMAS: Do you think you'll ever be able
to get Rifki to quit smoking?
_
Why do you think Rifki started smoking?
Like, who do you think is to blame for that?
_
♪
THOMAS: 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?
_
THOMAS: 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?
_
What do you like about smoking?
_
Do grownups here care if you smoke?
_
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.
THOMAS: 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.
THOMAS: Why did you start smoking?
_
What--what do you like about smoking?
_
Do--do girls typically like boys who smoke?
_
♪
THOMAS: Smoking's manly image is reinforced by
pervasive advertising.
American banned cigarette ads on TV and radio in 1971.
MAN, VOICE-OVER: No, you don't see many wild stallions anymore.
Come to Marlboro Country.
♪
THOMAS: 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.
THOMAS: 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.
♪
THOMAS: How hard is it to, like, fight tobacco use?
_
THOMAS: 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?
_
♪
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.
[Speaking native language] Oh, thank you. Cool.
What are these fancy cigarettes?
_
Is it all types of cancer or is it just, like, specific ones?
No. All the cancer.
_
THOMAS: 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. [Speaking native language]
Ahh.
THOMAS: 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.
♪
THOMAS: Hello. Heh.
So, so, what is happening right now?
_
OK. Thank you.
Thank you, doctor. Yeah.
THOMAS: 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?
_
Can I ask you, are you a smoker?
_
Um, do you have any problems with,
with people who are critics of balur?
_
THOMAS: 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?
_
THOMAS: Even though it's not medically recognized or sound,
the poor and gullible still flock to these clinics.
What--what happened with your son?
_
THOMAS: 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.
♪
_
WOMAN: Whoo!
SHANE: This is a Bwiti healing ceremony
at a harm reduction center in Harlem.
WOMAN: [Speaking native language] Whoo! Whoo!
SHANE: 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.
SHANE: 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!
SHANE: 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.
[All shouting indistinctly] ♪
SHANE: 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.
SHANE: 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.
MAN: He's like our baby and we'll take really good care of him.
JOAN: 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.
SHANE: 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.
♪
[Laughs]
SHANE: 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.
♪
SHANE: 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...
[Both speaking native language]
SHANE: 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.
SHANE: 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.
JEFF: 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.
SHANE: 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.
SHANE: 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--
♪
DIMITRI: 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.
♪
[Men chanting in native language]
♪
[Speaking native language]
DIMITRI: 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.
SHANE: How many times have you tried to get clean?
Uh, at least 30.
30 times. At least.
SHANE: What do you hope happens now?
MATT: 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.
SHANE: 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?
DIMITRI: 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.
SHANE: 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.
JEFF: 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.
♪
[Blowing]
♪
[Puffing]
[Matt retching]
JEFF: 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.
MATT: 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.
JEFF: 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.
JEFF: 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.
SHANE: 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.
[Indistinct chatter]
SHANE: 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.
[All speaking native language]
DIMITRI: 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.
SHANE: 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.
MAN: You feeling good?
Good. Really good, man. Really good.
_
Sync & corrections by honeybunny www.addic7ed.com