- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questioned if Biden would derail a bipartisan effort to look at psychedelics.
- The New York Democrat worried the president's "regressiv[e]" approach to cannabis could carry over.
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she's worried that President Joe Biden may derail a bipartisan push to address psychedelics due to his past rhetoric that questioned cannabis usage.
"I am concerned about the president," Ocasio-Cortez of New York told The Washington Post's Ben Terris.
Ocasio-Cortez said that her fears about Biden's approach to mind-altering drugs which have been gaining broader public acceptance are rooted in how he has talked about marijuana in the past.
"I believe the president has displayed a regressiveness for cannabis policy," she said. "And if there's a regressiveness toward cannabis policy, it's likely to be worse on anything else."
The New York Democrat is trying to remove federal limits on scientific research for psychedelics that have blocked further study of the drugs.
While the White House did not comment on the record to Terris, he recounted the president's mixed approach to cannabis policy. As recently as 2019, the then-presidential hopeful said marijuana could be "a gateway drug" generating some groans from a Las Vegas crowd.
"The truth of the matter is, there's not nearly been enough evidence that has been acquired as to whether or not it is a gateway drug," Biden said during a town hall event. "It's a debate, and I want a lot more before I legalize it nationally. I want to make sure we know a lot more about the science behind it."
As president, he's promised to pardon anyone in federal prison for simply possessing marijuana, though there are limitations to his pledge.
Ocasio-Cortez is teaming up with Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican, in a bid to further broaden the ideological coalition in Congress that wants to address the growing interest in psychedelics, especially how the drugs could offer medicinal benefits. As Terris wrote in great detail, the push has run into the difficulty of challenging the status quo in a Congress dominated by lawmakers who were once greatly skeptical of psychedelics.
The New York Democrat said when she first introduced her legislation in 2019, an unnamed senior member of her party laughed at her.
"Oh, is this your little 'shrooms bill?'" Ocasio-Cortez said the lawmaker told her.
Ocasio-Cortez said lawmakers who previously laughed off her attempts now tell her that they didn't fully understand the issue. Now both she and Crenshaw have been able to pass psychedelic-related amendments. While the Veterans Administration is partnering on drug trials that study how psychedelics could help treat post-traumatic stress and other disorders.