AOC, Dan Crenshaw and the mellow struggle for psychedelic drug access

The first time Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced legislation on psychedelic drugs, her proposal came with an unwanted side effect: It gave her colleagues a case of the giggles.

“It was on the House floor,” Ocasio-Cortez said in recent interview in her Capitol Hill office, “and a member of my own party, a senior member, walked up to me and said, ‘Oh, is this your little ’shrooms bill?’”

The senior Democrat laughed in her face, she recalled, “literally mocking it.” Then, the amendment — which was attached to a large-scale spending bill — failed by a 331-to-91 vote.

It was a frustrating experience for the congresswoman, then only six months into the job. It was 2019, not 1969, and there was evidence that drugs such as psilocybin and MDMA might offer therapeutic benefits to those suffering from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction. And although she wasn’t opposed to legalizing such drugs to some degree, her bill wasn’t even about that. It was simply about removing federal barriers that scientists said made it harder to study the therapeutic effects of psychedelics — namely, by ending a long-standing federal policy prohibiting the government from spending public money on “any activity that promotes the legalization” of certain drugs.

Four years later, the idea isn’t seen as quite so funny. The shift in attitudes about psychedelics on Capitol Hill since Ocasio-Cortez first introduced her “little ’shrooms bill” is, in a way, reflective of the New York Democrat’s experience in Congress. It’s a parable of shifting perceptions, and the story of how things ultimately get taken seriously in Washington.

Within days of that first vote, Ocasio-Cortez said her colleagues were bombarded with calls from constituents, including military veterans and victims of sexual abuse, in support of the legislation. Soon, she said, the same members who were laughing about the bill were apologizing to her for not fully understanding it. The next time Ocasio-Cortez offered a psychedelics amendment, in 2021, the number of people who voted for it jumped from 91 to 140. And last year, both Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Tex.) passed House amendments on studying psychedelics.