Unregulated use of psychedelic in the treatment of mental health

Although psychedelic drugs are illegal in South Africa, many self -appointed healers and shamans based in Cape Town have openly advertised that they are included in their therapies.

Anyone convicted of their commercial use is a fine, a sentence in prison for up to 25 years or both.

Photographer Stuart Dods is one of those wishing to take treatment from Shaman.

In an elegant wooden cabin nestled in the forest on the outskirts of Cape Town, he is about to undergo his second psychedelic attempt to treat a series of mental health problems he suffers from. He has tried prescription drugs, but is convinced that the psychedelic hold the key to his healing.

“Mom died suddenly, so it was hell.

At a price of about $ 2,000 (£ 1,500), its psychedelic experience includes doses of psilocybin (also known as magic mushrooms) and MDMA (also known as the Drug Party, Ecstasy). The organizers claim that the fee also includes accommodation and a package of maintenance services.

There is increasing part of research and tests in their effectiveness in the treatment of conditions of mental health, but there are warnings for their use beyond controlled, clinical conditions.

Megan Hardy, who refers to herself as a “woman of the drug” and is responsible for the session with the dods, also takes a smaller dose of the two medicines before the ritual. She claims that this helps her to “move to the same frequencies” as the person she cures.

“The shamanic term is a foot in every world,” she says.

D -Ja Hardy is aware of the illegality of the use of these types of drugs, but she claims that use is a “righteous civil disobedience”.

Asked what qualified her to determine the correct dose of administration, she said that she had tested medicines over the years, “learning what works in what situation.”

More awareness of mental health problems, combined with the increase in clinical trials, including psychedelics, nourishes the public interest in the use of these drugs for the treatment of conditions such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSR).

One in two people around the world can develop a mental health disorder throughout his life, according to studies by Harvard Medical School and the University of Queensland, his treatment has become a multimillion-dollar business.

Before the psychedelica ceremony that Stewart agreed to the BBC World Service to shoot, Da Hardy reassures his customer that he could stop at any time.

“If any of them feels uncomfortable or it is a trigger … He announced this and say,” Okay, stop. “

Her colleague Kate Ferguson also has micro -dosage to MDMA and Magic mushrooms. None of the guide had official medical training.

Dods lies on a thin mattress on the cabin floor covered with a gray blanket. He wears an eye mask. As drugs begin to take effect, it seems alternating between the states of calm and moments of shivering and rattling.

“Allow yourself to feel it,” he whispers, Hardy, and hugs him.

The two women move around the room, burning herbs and trembling shamanic rattles as they sing and chant in a purification ritual known as “blur”. G -Hardy fans, the body of G -n -dods, using a bird’s wing, in what she says is an attempt to clear “negative energy”.

She then offers him more MDMA. He has already agreed to this before the ritual begins, but when I g -Hardy asks him if he needs him, he shrugs and says, “I don’t know.”

The BBC then questions d -N -DODS about how he can agree to take more drugs when he was already in a changed condition.

“There was no coercion. Soon I just found out in this space, did I want to take this? I had every opportunity to say,” Yes, “” No, “or” Yes, I’ll take it, “he says.

But there are many people in the professional world of psychiatry who point to the dangers of this unregulated industry.

“To consent, you need to contact reality,” says Dr. Marcel, Congress of the South African Society of Psychiatrists.

“If a person has already had Psilocybin and MDMA, he or she is not related to reality. They are intoxicated, they are high.

The BBC asked D -Hardy whether to be under the effect of the drugs itself, while leading the psychedelic experience, it does not compromise its ability to take care of G -n Dodd.

“This is based on the assumption that the sober state of mind is more desirable,” said the self-styled healer. “We work in ways that the Western mind does not understand and may seem scary.”

There is an increasing part of studies that look at whether psychedelics can be a viable alternative treatment for conditions such as depression or anxiety and substance abuse.

In 2022, one of the largest reviewed studies on the therapeutic use of psychedelic involved the giving of 233 participants synthetic formulation of psilocybin.

He found that a dose of 25 mg administered with the psychological support by trained therapists leads to an improvement in the patient’s depressed measure.

However, a review study published in 2025 by the European Drug Agency, which examines a total of 595 participants in eight completed studies, recommends “more clinical evidence” before allowing it for sale.

He also warned that taking psychedelic could cause “increased heart rate, blood pressure and levels of anxiety”, emphasizing the need to apply these substances in a “controlled environment”.

The psychedelic substances remain illegal around much of the world. However, this has not limited the growth of the industry in South Africa, proven by the growing number of services that are advertised online.

“I think this is a huge problem,” said Dr. “This has certainly exploded in Cape Town, especially.

A few years ago, Sonette Hill, another self -apparent Cape Town guide, gave his patient Ibogaine, a powerful psychedelic extracted from plants endemic for the tropical forests of Central and Western Central Africa.

He unleashed an unexpected effect.

“He grabbed me by my throat,” says G -Ja Hill. “He wanted to kill me. Something over him and he just wanted to kill me.”

Ibogaine can be used as a powerful detox medicine for people suffering from addiction. It is illegal to buy or use in South Africa and to be allowed only in strict medical and pharmaceutical regulation.

No criminal case has been found against Da Hill and since then it has moved away from the administration of psychedelic drugs of other people. But this has not changed her opinion on the industry itself.

“I, honest to God, I think psychedelic can cure the world. I have no faith in the medical world,” she says.

In another case, 26-year-old Milo Martinovic traveled to South Africa, seeking help to addictions to substances. He found himself in an unregistered facility treated by a dentist and was given Ibogaine.

Six hours later he was dead.

The unregistered clinic had missed that he was addicted to Xanax, benzodiazepine, which could not be mixed with ibogaine.

In 2024, dentist Dr. Anuar Jea was found guilty of numerous accusations, including guilty murder. The death was just one of the dozens of registered casualties related to Ibogaine worldwide.

“You can’t call something medicine if it’s not,” says D -R Stasta. “I have seen new patients who have been dissociated for prolonged periods after using a psilocybin trip.”

The evidence surrounding the use of psychedelic as a medicine may be nascent, but the online market of self -proclaimed healers offering cure trips, including various illegal substances, flourished.

“They just know that they have taken a trip, they felt great and want to help people,” says Dr. Stasy. “These are the best of them. The worst of them is this type of narcissistic inflation, where they go:” I can help people, I can do better than psychiatrists. “

Returning to the forest cabin in Cape Town, the effects of Stuart Dodd’s “journey” are beginning to wear out. He says he does not feel “cured”, but believes he is on his way there.

“I wanted to get (more) self -awareness and to understand myself,” he says. “I feel it is something like opening things where I will probably do another trip after that.”