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
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