Substances

All the substances used in Substance-Assisted Therapy (SUT) alter consciousness, i.e. they pharmacologically influence the way our brain functions. This change itself is consciously perceptible. There are substances that tend to dampen perception (e.g. alcohol, nicotine), and there are those that expand it. Only the latter are used in SUT. Most of those that are classically used in SUT were placed under the Germany’s Narcotics Drugs Act in the 1970s and 1980s, and so they cannot be legally handled or used. The most important substances for SUT are:

LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) (prohibited) and its legal analogs

MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) (prohibited)

Methylone (3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylcathinone) (prohibited)

Mescaline (prohibited)

Psilocybin, psilocin or mushrooms of the genus Psilocybe (prohibited)

Ayahuasca (prohibited)

Iboga or ibogaine (legal in Germany and Austria, prohibited in Switzerland)