Read and expand your awareness: Two new books deal with all kinds of “drugs”: “Coffee Poppy Cactus” by Michael Pollan and “Yoga, Tea, LSD” by Andrea Jungaberle.  This article describes both books and their commonalities.

Drugs have always been with mankind. And yet they have a miserable image. Nevertheless, scientists have long been certain that under certain circumstances we can make use of certain psychedelics. Today, we are on the verge of therapeutic approval for MDMA, psilocybin and LSD. Do we need to change our relationship to certain drugs?

Should all drugs be legalized and regulated? Together with “Simplicissimus”, the SWR documentary shows surprising facts about drug prohibition.

Drugs kill people, create dependence and lead to ruin. But experts believe that drugs also have an enormous therapeutic effect. Especially in the treatment of psychological suffering or physical pain, they could help where established procedures fail. PLANET WISSEN explores the question of whether there really are drugs that have a healing effect.

Self-experience reports about psychedelic experiences with ecstasy, LSD or magic mushrooms are booming on the Internet. Anyone who uses drugs risks damaging their physical and mental health. However, researchers are also investigating the chances of therapies with psychoactive substances, for example for severe depression.

When the topic of addiction comes up, many people immediately think of alcohol and hard drugs, of dependence and physical decline. But addictions are much more widespread in our society: Cell phone addiction, gambling addiction, shopping addiction, work addiction or sports addiction are just a few examples. At what point is one an addict? Are some addictions better than others? What about cannabis? The drug is soon to be legalized. Is that rather good or bad for society?

Psychedelics such as LSD are considered illegal substances in Germany. This makes research with them difficult. Yet such intoxicants could become cures for depressives. Others want to optimize their everyday lives with LSD. Quark’s helps to look through the studies. A program that intoxicates with knowledge.

The documentary provides information on various contexts of useful substance use: ketamin-assisted psychotherapy, LSD and psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy, and cannabis (CBD oil) as a treatment for several conditions.

Ketamine is primarily known as an anesthetic for animals and is often misused as a mind-expanding drug in Berlin’s club world. Dr. Andrea Jungaberle is convinced that the substance can also be used therapeutically for people. The specialist in anesthesia and psychotherapy runs the Ovid practice in Friedrichshain. Here she proposes new treatment methods – including ketamine.

The effect of so-called “magic mushrooms” is intoxicating. As early as the hippie movement – in the 1960s and 1970s – people experimented with these psychoactive substances. Originally, indigenous people of Central America used the mushrooms for spiritual purposes. Today, hopes are pinned on psychoactive ingredients of these so-called “magic mushrooms” for the therapy of depression, for example with psilocybin. It is believed that the substance can be successfully used in psychotherapy.

Berlin’s “Berghain” is a place of longing and cult for techno fans worldwide: sex, drugs, and excess – countless myths surround the techno temple on the Spree.

A film team accompanied Karin (80) who suffered from treatment-resistant depression since she was a child.
Karin is one of the first patients who received ketamin-assisted therapy at the OVID Clinic in Berlin Friedrichshain.
In the documentary, she shares her experiences.

The method is called “Augmented Psychotherapy” and shows how depression can be treated when psychotherapy and psychopharmacology are combined. This is exactly what Andrea Jungaberle, MD, and her colleagues do in their Friedrichshain group practice. The esanum team visited the practice and learned about the innovative procedure.

Drugs as a cure for the soul? Gülseren Ölcüm meets activists who use psychedelics to expand their consciousness. And doctors who want to use them to treat the mentally ill. They are fighting for easier access. Some of them go further than the law allows.

One in ten people in Germany suffers from depression. Many are considered to be “therapy-resistant”. For up to 50% of those affected, the hoped-for improvement does not occur after two attempts at treatment with the available classic antidepressants. But there is now a new source of hope for this group: psilocybin – the active ingredient in magic mushrooms.