Marijuana Moment: AOC Slams Federal Drug Laws That Restrict Marijuana And Psychedelics Despite Their Medical Value

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tore into the current U.S. drug scheduling system on Thursday—making the case that placing substances like marijuana and LSD in the most restrictive category runs counter to evidence showing their medical potential, hinders research and is associated with criminal penalties that haven’t effectively prevented harms from substance misuse.

In some cases, the congresswoman said during a hearing before the House Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee, classifying drugs as Schedule I under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) can exacerbate the overdose crisis, leading to the introduction of new, sometimes more dangerous drugs into the illicit marketplace.

The panel on Thursday took testimony on a variety of bills aimed at curbing overdose deaths and responding to emerging public health threats posed by illegal drugs such as xylazine and other opioid-like synthetics that are often more potent than the analogues that came before them.

Ocasio-Cortez said it was time to “take a step back” and “really explore and examine the scheduling system in the United States as a whole and really how we think about this,” directing her questions to Nabarun Dasgupta, a senior scientist at the University of North Carolina who served as an expert witness for the hearing.

Our current drug scheduling system in the U.S. does little to deter drug abuse or overdose rates, but instead hinders research and unfairly criminalizes communities.

We need to invest in actual solutions like prevention, treatment, and recovery. pic.twitter.com/CNkfaN795W

— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) March 26, 2026

“We’re often trying to slot in certain substances into our scheduling [and] end up playing a lot of whack-a-mole,” the congresswoman said. “Once you schedule one substance, people then start finding alternatives—and before you know it, people are then starting to overdose on entirely new substances that we didn’t even know existed a couple of years ago.”

“In theory, Schedule I drugs are supposed to have no potential for medical use and high risk for abuse and addiction, correct?” she asked Dasgupta, who affirmed that was the case.

“There are also specific penalties tied to each schedule. Once a drug gets scheduled, the penalties for possessing that drug can change overnight,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And so when we look back at the point of scheduling, in about 1970 or so, Congress created this system to try to deter the use of dangerous drugs by applying criminal penalties to the possession of those drugs and scheduling was also intended to ensure safety when these drugs are used in clinical or research settings.”

“Now, since this system was established more than 50 years ago, we’ve seen how it’s fallen short. We’ve endured the war on drugs, and we’ve also had a lot of limitations in medical research,” she said before asking the expert to provide examples of drugs currently classified as Schedule I under the CSA.

Dasgupta pointed to marijuana, LSD and MDMA, and Ocasio-Cortez followed up by asking for his opinion on whether those three substances meet the definition of having “zero potential medical application.”

“I think the medical literature is clear that they do have clinical benefits,” Dasgupta said.

The congresswoman had him repeat that point, clarifying that its his assessment that “right now our law says that these drugs have zero medical application, but the science says something else.”

“That’s right,” he said.

Ocasio-Cortez added that “the wealth of medical research shows that these are potential treatments for treatment-resistant PTSD, traumatic brain injuries—but the schedule classification really prevents researchers from continuing to do work on this, correct?”

The scientist again answered in the affirmative.

Opponents might counter that narrative by arguing that “people are overdosing on some of these substances, so we still need to schedule them,” the congresswoman said. “But has adding criminal penalties successfully reduced overdose deaths?”

Dasgupta answered by pointing to an examples out of Florida, where the state placed xylazine in Schedule I of their own controlled drugs list but then saw overdose deaths from xylazine increase from about 3,700 per year to 6,400 per year. That goes to show that simply scheduling a drug is “not a panacea,” he said.

Ocasio-Cortez went on to say that “increasing the scheduling is becoming medically prohibitive for treatments, but then also adding the criminal penalties has not only not reduced overdose, but in the state of Florida, it’s doubled them.”

“But I think we’re all still here on the same purpose, right? We want to make sure that we’re protecting people and doing what we can,” she said, asking the witness whether he’s aware of “any methods…that can help us make progress on this.”

Dasgupta said, “I mean, I think scheduling does have an important role. I think there just needs to be a lot more flexibility to keep the science in line with the regulatory process. That’s the bottom line.”

Of the three Schedule I drugs that the scientist cited at the hearing, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already signaled that they each hold medical potential, with one LSD-like substance, MM120, and the main compound of ecstasy, MDMA, receiving breakthrough therapy status to promote research that could lead to drug development.

For marijuana, its time in Schedule I may be coming to an end. After a years-long scientific review led by FDA, former Attorney General Merrick Garland ultimately signed a proposed rule to move cannabis to Schedule III of the CSA. That process wasn’t completed by the end of the Biden administration that initiated it, but President Donald Trump in December signed an executive order directing the current attorney general, Pam Bondi, to expeditiously finalize that rule.

As Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) noted in a letter sent to Bondi on Friday, however, marijuana remains in Schedule I even three months after the president issued that directive. The congressman is therefore seeking an update from DOJ on the status of its rulemaking.

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