Author | Lightnews

Mattha Busby @matthabusby.bsky.social · 3d

There were high hopes for psychedelic policy reform when Trump returned to the White House. Nine months into his second term, with a host of advocates in senior government positions for the first time in history, what happens next is anyone’s guess

For the MAPS Bulletin

maps.org/news/bulleti...

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Mattha Busby @matthabusby.bsky.social · 8d

After an American died on a psychedelic retreat in Costa Rica, her family were forced onto a wild goose chase

‘I called the police to make a missing persons report and that’s how I found out she had passed.’

For Vice (who just reposted this on socials)

www.vice.com/en/article/i...

American ‘Neoshamans’ Are Running Psychedelics Hotels in Costa Rica—and Someone Died

Lauren Levis died at the Soul Centro retreat after taking iboga—an African root bark that's one of the wildest drug experiences known to man.

www.vice.com

Reposted by Mattha Busby

WIRED @wired.com · 15d

The HyperCard inventor was a huge proponent of taking lower doses of 5-MeO-DMT, which is widely considered the strongest psychedelic in the world.

Apple Pioneer Bill Atkinson Was a Secret Evangelist of the ‘God Molecule’

The HyperCard inventor was a huge proponent of taking lower doses of 5-MeO-DMT, which is widely considered the strongest psychedelic in the world.

wrd.cm

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Mattha Busby @matthabusby.bsky.social · 14d

Bill Atkinson was a computing pioneer who effectively made Apple computers usable for everyday people. But few people know that later in life he was a secret advocate of what’s widely considered the world’s most potent psychedelic: 5-MeO-DMT

New for WIRED

www.wired.com/story/apple-...

Apple Pioneer Bill Atkinson Was a Secret Evangelist of the ‘God Molecule’

The HyperCard inventor was a huge proponent of taking lower doses of 5-MeO-DMT, which is widely considered the strongest psychedelic in the world.

www.wired.com

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Mattha Busby @matthabusby.bsky.social · 17d

www.instagram.com/p/DP7E9d9jYn...

Login • Instagram

Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.

www.instagram.com

Mattha Busby @matthabusby.bsky.social · 17d

The Psychedelic Turf Wars Have Begun

But who is behind attacks in Toronto that have left shroom shops sprayed with bullets and rammed by trucks? And aren’t mushrooms supposed to dissolve the ego?!

Latest for DoubleBlind

newsletter.doubleblindmag.com/p/the-psyche...

The Psychedelic Turf Wars Have Officially Begun

Shots fired, stores torched, and still no meaningful answers.

newsletter.doubleblindmag.com

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Reposted by Mattha Busby

WHAT ARE YOU ON | David Hillier @whatareyou0n.bsky.social · 22d

I rounded up drug news of the last month for the first edition of THE BUMP. Includes the NYT Amy Griffin story, a barbershop banger from @matthabusby.bsky.social and @maxdaly.bsky.social on the secret of tusi's success.

substack.com/home/post/p-...

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Mattha Busby @matthabusby.bsky.social · 24d

Somewhat duplicitous framing from Border Force. If seizures are going up then inevitably the cocaine supply is going up too! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Summer £1bn cocaine seizures described as 'record breaking' - BBC News

A number of recent high-profile seizures has led to more than £1bn of cocaine being intercepted.

www.bbc.co.uk

Reposted by Mattha Busby

The New Statesman @newstatesman1913.bsky.social · Oct 4

Cocaine carnage is coming to Britain

Budget blow has exploded beyond control

🖊️ Mattha Busby www.newstatesman.com/politi...

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Mattha Busby @matthabusby.bsky.social · Oct 4

‘Soon as you’re at the boozer that’s what it’s all about. Have a drink and have a ‘shizzle mcnizzle’,’ one leading coke-using influencer recently told his 77,000 followers

My first for New Statesman

www.newstatesman.com/politics/soc...

Cocaine carnage is coming to Britain

Budget blow has exploded beyond control

www.newstatesman.com

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Reposted by Mattha Busby

James Dart @jamesdart.bsky.social · Oct 3

'There’s people telling me I’m about to spend the rest of my life in prison over some edibles.'

American basketball player Jarred Shaw talks to @matthabusby.bsky.social from prison in Indonesia

‘I use cannabis as medicine’: the US basketball player facing execution in Indonesia over $400 of gummies

Unlike his fellow basketball player, Brittney Griner, Jarred Shaw has received scant attention after being arrested for a drugs offence overseas

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Mattha Busby

Jason Dinh @byjasonpdinh.bsky.social · Sep 25

twenty strangers walk into a hikrodose, a portmanteau of microdose and hike; could a reconnection with nature come out?

a fun one from @matthabusby.bsky.social, out today in @atmosmag.bsky.social 🌎

‘We Are Part of Nature’: Inside the Rise of Hikrodosing | Atmos

Atmos joins a mushroom-infused microdose hike for an afternoon of psychedelics, reconnection with nature, and crystal harps.

atmos.earth

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Mattha Busby @matthabusby.bsky.social · Sep 25

Mushroom-infused hikes have gotten a bad rap lately. Hikers have made headlines after becoming incapacitated and hallucinating. I hoped there would be no such mishaps at our more regimented and measured affair

Inside the rise of hikrodosing for @atmosmag.bsky.social

atmos.earth/science-and-...

‘We Are Part of Nature’: Inside the Rise of Hikrodosing | Atmos

Atmos joins a mushroom-infused microdose hike for an afternoon of psychedelics, reconnection with nature, and crystal harps.

atmos.earth

Reposted by Mattha Busby

Filter | harm reduction journalism @filtermag.bsky.social · Sep 23

Exclusive: The long-awaited WHO-commissioned review on coca leaves is unequivocal - No "evidence of clinically meaningful public health harms associated with use," but research "robustly" shows harms "associated with coca control strategies."

Mattha Busby reports:

WHO-Commissioned Review: Coca Not Harmful, But Prohibition Is

A copy of the report viewed by Filter indicates that keeping coca leaves in Schedule I is unjustified. Global policy change could follow.

filtermag.org

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Mattha Busby @matthabusby.bsky.social · Sep 16

With big thanks to top editor @manishakrishnan.bsky.social !

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Mattha Busby @matthabusby.bsky.social · Sep 16

Human design, which places people into archetypal personality types, is approaching a high-watermark cultural moment. In the new season of Love is Blind: UK, a human design coach propels the phrase 'trust your spleen' into the zeitgeist

For @wired.com

www.wired.com/story/human-...

Human Design Is Blowing Up. Following It Might Make You Leave Your Spouse

The astrology-like system uses birth dates to break people into personality types and even find love and riches. From sleeping arrangements to diets, some are taking it very seriously.

www.wired.com

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Mattha Busby @matthabusby.bsky.social · Sep 16

Thanks Séamas!

Reposted by Mattha Busby

The Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · Sep 15

A great piece from this current issue of The Fence. @matthabusby.bsky.social usby.bsky.social dives deep into the hive mind of Simon Buxton: the "bee shaman" beloved by Tori Amos, who sat at the centre of a collapsing colony of cultish devotion and then disappeared

www.the-fence.com/men-beehivin...

Men Beehiving Badly

buzz buzz buzz

www.the-fence.com

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Mattha Busby @matthabusby.bsky.social · Sep 13

Is there no such thing as a bad trip, or can they actually be traumatizing? This debate is playing out in the psychedelics field…

‘Most young adults who get cancer feel they experienced personal growth from it. That doesn’t mean you want them to get cancer.’

statesofmind.com/psychedelic-...

Do Difficult Psychedelic Experiences Hurt or Heal You? Inside The World’s Bad Trip Debate

Many believe that "bad trips" should be reframed as challenging parts of the healing process. Does that ignore the risks?

statesofmind.com

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Mattha Busby @matthabusby.bsky.social · Sep 9

What happens when your backyard is no longer private, and your life can be upended by a government ‘code enforcer’ with a silent camera in the sky?

How one California county launched a drug war 2.0 on legal cannabis growers, and what it morphed into

For @reason.com

reason.com/2025/09/09/t...

How weed surveillance drones destroyed the lives of these Californians

California tried to use drones to find illegal weed operations, but they found building code violations instead.

reason.com

Reposted by Mattha Busby

Texas Monthly @texasmonthly.bsky.social · Aug 20

Peyote is holy to many Native Americans.

Can a band of true believers stop it from disappearing from the Texas-Mexico border? https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/peyote-native-americans-texas-mexico/

Peyote Is Vanishing From the Texas-Mexico Border. For One Group, That’s Not an Option.

The psychoactive cactus is sacred to many Native Americans, but it’s quickly disappearing from the only U.S. state where it grows.

www.texasmonthly.com

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Reposted by Mattha Busby

Will Coldwell @willcoldwell.bsky.social · Sep 4

When Daniel Khalife, a British soldier accused of spying for Iran, escaped from Wandsworth Prison, he became a social media celebrity... Was he a threat to national security? Or just a mixed up kid?

My latest for GQ, a story of angst and espionage...

www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/dani...

Daniel Khalife: Fugitive, Traitor? Soldier, Spy

When Daniel Khalife, a British soldier accused of spying for Iran, escaped from Wandsworth Prison, he became a social media celebrity. But the wild true story of his arrest, escape and recapture revea...

www.gq-magazine.co.uk

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Reposted by Mattha Busby

Jason Dinh @byjasonpdinh.bsky.social · Sep 2

what does cocaine legalization have to do with climate change?

from clandestine airstrips carved into the Amazon, to laundering drug money through dirty businesses—it's a whole lot more than you think, reports @matthabusby.bsky.social for @atmosmag.bsky.social 🧪🌎

The Surprising Climate Effect of Legalizing Cocaine | Atmos

The war on drugs has created an illegal cocaine market responsible for the degradation of the Amazon and the rights of Indigenous people.

atmos.earth

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Mattha Busby @matthabusby.bsky.social · Sep 1

‘The criminal infrastructure built principally for cocaine is increasingly facilitating illegal deforestation, timber trafficking, and illegal gold mining.’

Latest for @atmosmag.bsky.social

atmos.earth/the-surprisi...

The Surprising Climate Effect of Legalizing Cocaine | Atmos

The war on drugs has created an illegal cocaine market responsible for the degradation of the Amazon and the rights of Indigenous people.

atmos.earth

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Reposted by Mattha Busby

Simon Usborne @susborne.bsky.social · Aug 28

Went up north to try Britain's only water menu and talk to the "sommeliers" who are convinced water's the new wine www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Meet the water sommeliers: they believe H₂O can rival wine – but would you pay £19 a bottle?

A restaurant in the English county of Cheshire has launched a water menu, as have a number of US establishments. Is it really possible, though, to tell one terroir from another?

www.theguardian.com

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