Mattha Busby
matthabusby.bsky.social
Mattha Busby
@matthabusby.bsky.social
530 followers 270 following 78 posts
Reporting on Drugs/Psychedelics/Subculture/Society @vice @wired @rollingstone @guardian @latimes @ukesquire Repped: @aevitas_creative Vancouver, BC
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Looking for a psychologist/neuroscientist to speak to for a VICE story on the proliferation of online street fighting videos #journorequest
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...
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
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
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
Reposted by Mattha Busby
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-...
Reposted by Mattha Busby
Cocaine carnage is coming to Britain

Budget blow has exploded beyond control

🖊️ Mattha Busby www.newstatesman.com/politi...
‘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
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
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
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
Reposted by Mattha Busby
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
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
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
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
Reposted by Mattha Busby
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