Psychedelische Homöopathen: Ausgetanzt (sueddeutsche.de) http://t.co/akS0HwGJwQ
This is what it looks like when a bunch of German homeopaths take actual drugs by accident.
Photos have emerged on Twitter of the scenes when a group of alternative medicine practitioners had to be rushed to hospital after apparently accidentally taking a powerful hallucinogenic drug at a conference near Hamburg.
Last Friday the 29 delegates were found sprawled around a field in the small north German town of Handeloh, suffering from “delusions, breathing problems, racing hearts and cramps [and with] some in life-threatening conditions”, according to the German public broadcaster NDR. The men and women “staggered around in front of the Handeloh convention centre, curled up in a field, talking nonsense and suffering violent convulsions”, NDR said.
The delegates tested positive for a drug called 2C-E, better known in Germany as Aqua Rust, which has been banned in the country since last year.
Amphetaminvergiftung? 35 Ärzte & Homöopathen sind teilweise schwer verletzt und halluzinieren http://t.co/aqSAtuasod
Torsten Passie, a member of a German federal government narcotics commission, said: “It appears to have been a multiple overdose. That is a reason to think that the people concerned did not take the hallucinogen deliberately. One must assume that people had not been made aware of its effects and potential risks.”
Aqua Rust causes vivid visual hallucinations and psychosis, as well as feelings of euphoria. It can also cause stomach cramps and diarrhoea.
Missglückter Selbstversuch: 29 torkelnde Heilpraktiker: Homöopathen im... http://t.co/6PgavijXdM
The president of the Association of German Naturopaths (VDH), Heinz Kropmanns, told NDR that if one of his members had deliberately taken the drug, they would be excluded from the association.
A VDH spokesperson said: “The organisers of this obscure conference are unknown to us and such events will not be tolerated by our association. Unfortunately, the conference in Handeloh has severely damaged the image of the alternative medicine profession … and we have clarified that such acts are not in the spirit of natural therapy, and contradict our values both morally and legally.
“The Association of German Naturopaths detests such misdemeanours.”
No arrests have so far been made.