@matthabusby.bsky.social
Drugs, power, culture and health @guardian @wired @rollingstone @vice @playboy @gq @menshealthmag @atmos
matthabusby.net Signal: matthabusby.93
Subscribe to my Substack: Mattha Busby on Drugs
@matthabusby.bsky.socialOnly in central America and Siberia is there overwhelming historical evidence of long-term magic mushroom usage. So does that make us the mushroom people?
New on my Substack:
@matthabusby.bsky.socialI was back on the @voxdotcom.bsky.social Today, Explained podcast to explain the difference between kratom and 7-OH, whether the recent concern over the two arises from a moral panic or genuine issues, and if banning either of them would be wise.
@matthabusby.bsky.socialA person very high on ketamine may still be able to walk, talk and respond to instructions — while having little idea what is happening.
For @us.theguardian.com, I looked at what the Cornell case tells us about the dissociative, sexual assault and consent laws.
@matthabusby.bsky.socialThe battle over how psychedelics work on the brain is only just getting started.
‘We're simply engaging in scientific debate, and any accusations of a smear campaign is paranoia.’
Latest for DoubleBlind
@matthabusby.bsky.socialIn 1976, the future leading light of psychedelic art, Alex Grey, worked at a Boston morgue. Years later, he described having sex with a corpse there as part of a piece he called Necrophilia. Then he recast what happened.
I've profiled him on my Substack:
@matthabusby.bsky.socialAt the World Ayahuasca Forum, 100 Indigenous leaders gathered to discuss what happens when an intense psychedelic potion becomes a global phenomenon. I attended too — and I had questions.
Latest on my Substack: Mattha Busby on Drugs.
@matthabusby.bsky.socialI'm speaking in London with The Psychedelic Society on 4 November. Over more than a decade, I’ve been as much a participant in the psychedelic renaissance as a reporter — and along the way I’ve met good shamans, and bad shamans. This is the story of it all. (It'll be fun.)
@matthabusby.bsky.socialHe told them he was investing their millions, but the FBI hasn’t been able to recover any of the money, and none of the women who survived The Family have received a cent of the $14 million in restitution ordered by a court.
For the latest Vice magazine.
@matthabusby.bsky.socialWelcome to my new Substack: Mattha Busby on Drugs.
I’ve spent much of the past decade writing about drugs, taking some of them, talking to the people who make, sell, study, administer and consume them, and occasionally learning things the hard way.
@studyhall.bsky.socialReposted by @matthabusby.bsky.socialCheck out the latest episode with @matthabusby.bsky.social. The journalist chats about drug legalization, psychedelics, MAHA, and empathy with sources!
@matthabusby.bsky.socialQuaaludes all but vanished after the US banned the euphoric sleeping pills in 1984. Then the 2013 movie Wolf of Wall Street plucked quaaludes from the annals of drug history and became a box office hit.
New for @theguardian.com
@matthabusby.bsky.socialSonoma county has agreed with the @aclu-norcal.bsky.social to effectively end a controversial warrantless drone surveillance operation launched to monitor unpermitted cannabis grows which morphed into a wider code violation search.
Latest for @reason.com
@matthabusby.bsky.socialChemsex drug GHB is spilling into London’s wider nightlife — but it’s perilously easy to OD.
‘The optimum dose, which will give you the best threesome of your life, is not far away from that which’ll give you your last.’
For @thelondonstandard.bsky.social
@matthabusby.bsky.socialThanks mate, I do try to mix it up…
@matthabusby.bsky.socialA third of British men aged 20 to 34 now live with their parents, including me. The cost of living usually drives us back to the nest, but I wanted to get to know my mother better. This is how it has gone, and what spurred the decision.
For @theipaper.com
@matthabusby.bsky.socialLol I know but the company insists it’s not based on that…
@matthabusby.bsky.socialSpiralling prices, venue closures and heavy-handed security is pushing Londoners away from licensed clubs. At cheap, illegal parties, many say they recover something missing from conventional clubbing: freedom.
For The London Standard
@matthabusby.bsky.socialIn which I attempted to procure a substance called scopolamine, which is often used to drug, manipulate and rob foreigners. I also met sex workers, victims and Medellín’s security chief.
Dispatch for @rollingstone.com
@rollingstone.comReposted by @matthabusby.bsky.socialExtracted from the seeds of the trumpet-shaped brugmansia flower — which blooms across South America’s Andean regions — scopolamine is tasteless and odorless, and doses as small as 10 milligrams can induce a zombie-like state of compliance.
@rollingstone.comReposted by @matthabusby.bsky.socialIn Medellín, Colombia, authorities are cracking down on “burundangeras,” women who use a substance called scopolamine to incapacitate foreigners.
