MDR Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk
Leipzig (ots)
According to the Federal Ministry of Health, 2.3 million people in Germany are drug dependent. Significantly fewer people – 1.6 million – are addicted to alcohol. How easy is it to get original medicines on the digital black market? What plan does politics have to educate young people better and make access more difficult? And what role do young German rappers like 21-year-old t-low play, who treat their love-hate relationship with “Downer” in their songs? Reporter Milan Schnieder investigated these and more questions in a new episode of the MDR report series “exactly” – to be seen from Monday, March 20, 2023, 10:00 a.m. on the YouTube channel “MDR Investigativ” and on “Exakt – Die Story” on Wednesday, March 29, 8.45 p.m. on MDR television and in the ARD media library.
“In times of crises like Corona or the Ukraine war, drugs like benzos and opiates are in demand to calm down and relax. Young people hope that this will take them away from insecurities and problems,” explains Matthias Rost from the youth drug advice center K(L)ICK in Leipzig. Minors seek their way into his counseling room because they realize: I’ve gotten into an addiction.
It all starts off seemingly harmless, as with Emma*, who was 16 at the time, who “just wanted to try it out”: “I think if I hadn’t taken drugs, maybe my depression wouldn’t have gotten so bad. It got to the point where it definitely hurt me a lot.” The now 18-year-old would like to repeat a school class in order to get a better technical qualification sober. The will is there, but she relapsed again and took the opiate Tilidin. The drug requires a prescription, but many young people know how to get hold of it, explains Matthias Rost: “Prescriptions are then stolen from doctors’ surgeries. We still have medical practices where the prescriptions are signed and stamped at the counter, including private prescriptions. It’s amazing that some pharmacies don’t get suspicious when 16-year-olds get three packs.”
Benzodiazepines such as diazepam or Xanax are called “downers” by young users. They reach dealers via detours. The camera team was able to meet such a person in a sales center in a large Saxon city. He has benzos and opiates in his range as well as illegal drugs. Reporter Milan Schnieder interviewed him and his supplier. Business is good because the drugs can become highly addictive after just a few weeks of daily use. Consumers describe the physical and, above all, psychological withdrawal symptoms as hellish agony.
Elsa*, the mother of 20-year-old Maurice*, who is addicted to medicines, says: “I’m always afraid that he’s taking too much. And I don’t want to have that situation where he’s lying in his bed like that and either I or his siblings, my husband, whatever, find him in that condition or in no condition at all.”
Cases such as that of 20-year-old Joshua* end up in inpatient facilities such as the clinic and polyclinic for psychiatry, psychotherapy and psychosomatics at the University Medical Center Halle. After three years of almost daily benzo use, he came to the conclusion: “You can no longer feel love , no hate. Important things in life don’t matter and even if some bad things happen, you still carry on.” His addiction cost him his school leaving certificate and he was fired from his job.
The station’s chief physician, Dr. medical Michael Brütting wishes that more attention would be paid to prevention at an early stage: “A healthy balance between stress and relaxation, how to deal with your psyche is of course an area that occupies me a lot. What is self-awareness? How can I protect myself if, for example, I am subject to bullying and and and…”
*Names changed
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Original content from: MDR Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, transmitted by news aktuell