Mattha Busby

Mattha is a journalist with a focus on health policy, drugs/psychedelics and (sub)culture. His work has appeared in the Guardian, VICE, Rolling Stone, WIRED, TIME and Men’s Health. Based in Lisbon, Portugal, and originally from the UK, he is the author of Should All Drugs Be Legalized? (Thames & Hudson, 2022) and is writing a new pocket book on psychedelics (Hoxton Mini Press). In 2024, he was a Ferris-UC Berkeley fellow in psychedelic journalism.

“Moral Bankruptcy” as WHO Opts to Maintain Global Coca Prohibition

The World Health Organization had a historic opportunity to ease a strict global ban on the coca leaf—a prohibition, campaigners…

December 3, 2025

WHO Review: Coca Not Harmful, Prohibition Is

The consumption of the coca leaf in its raw form by millions daily across the Andes carries no significant risks,…

September 23, 2025

Fight Over Claimed Ownership of Drug-Checking Technology

People have always had to fight for the right to test their drugs, to get information about whether they’re likely…

August 5, 2025

UK Govt. Publishes Report Indicating Drug Policing Boosts Violence

Drug-related law enforcement is more likely to increase violence than reduce it, indicates a report commissioned by the government of…

April 9, 2025

Saudi Arabia a Key Driver of 2024 Global Surge in Executions for Drugs

Saudi Arabia executed at least 122 people for drug-related convictions in 2024, its highest known total. At the end of…

March 12, 2025

Coca Summit in Peru Focuses Push to End Global Prohibition

The United Nations must “decolonize” global drug laws and deschedule the coca leaf, which is used daily by millions of…

February 20, 2025

Rooted in Colonialism, Coca Prohibition Could Be Nearing Its End

Calls to eradicate coca fields in the Peruvian Andes began a century ago as part of a mission civilisatrice led…

January 28, 2025

US Continues to Spend Billions on Drug War in Lower-Income Countries

United States taxpayers continue to fund a destructive and deadly drug war in low- and middle-income countries across the world,…

December 5, 2024

Festival Drug Checking Services Still Too Often Sidelined

It’s a scorching July day in British Columbia, at Bass Coast festival, and there is no line outside the drug…

September 5, 2024

Wrongful Death Verdict Puts Hard Questions to Psychedelic Community

“We understand you want healing, but you can’t lie to us,” said Christopher Young, founder and owner of the Soul…

June 5, 2024