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. Lotsof¹s 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. Lotsof¹s 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.