There could be a drug-related controversy—some might even call it a scandal—building for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York socialist who may be considering a run for higher office in the very near future.Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign spent nearly $19,000 last year on a psychiatrist whose practice includes ketamine-based treatments, according to federal campaign finance records.
Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign hired Boston-based Dr. Brian Boyle, the chief psychiatric officer at Stella, a network of mental health clinics offering a variety of treatments, including ketamine therapy.
Federal Election Commission records show the campaign paid Boyle $11,550 in March 2025, followed by payments of $2,800 in May and $4,375 in October.
The three payments totaled $18,725, the New York Post reported.
Campaign finance filings categorized the expenditures as “leadership training and consulting,” rather than medical or psychiatric treatment.
The records themselves do not establish that Ocasio-Cortez personally received psychiatric care or ketamine therapy from Boyle, only that her campaign paid him for services described as leadership training and consulting.
It remains unclear what services were provided during the sessions, who participated or what the campaign meant by “leadership training and consulting.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign did not respond to requests for additional information from The Post.
Boyle is a Harvard-trained physician who describes himself as an “interventional psychiatrist” and works with treatments for conditions including treatment-resistant depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.
His professional biography describes him as a leading authority on ketamine therapy, one of several treatments used in interventional psychiatry.
Ketamine has legitimate medical uses as an anesthetic and, in certain clinical settings, as a treatment for some psychiatric conditions.
It has also attracted controversy because of its potential for misuse.
The drug received widespread attention following the 2023 death of “Friends” star Matthew Perry, whose death was attributed to the acute effects of ketamine.
His case subsequently resulted in criminal prosecutions involving individuals accused of improperly supplying him with the drug.
“I just saw the incredible power of what these treatments could do,” Boyle said during a podcast appearance last year about getting into the profession, The Post reported.
“It’s a ton of fun helping patients get better,” he noted further.
Boyle’s clinic also offers other unconventional treatments that have attracted interest from wealthy patients and celebrities, including stellate ganglion block.
The procedure involves injecting a local anesthetic near a cluster of nerves in the neck known as the stellate ganglion.
The treatment is intended to affect the body’s sympathetic nervous system and has been explored as a potential option for symptoms associated with conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
Among its prominent advocates is billionaire entrepreneur and GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons, a Vietnam War veteran who has publicly discussed his longtime struggle with PTSD.
“Celebrities tend to be more inclined to be on the hunt for highly effective solutions across beauty, health, mental health, nutrition and so on,” Boyle said in an interview last year about the treatment.
Ocasio-Cortez has previously advocated loosening federal restrictions on research involving psychedelic drugs and their potential therapeutic uses.
The New York Democrat, who campaigned in 2018 in favor of ending the federal prohibition on marijuana, has repeatedly introduced proposals intended to make it easier for researchers to study substances including psilocybin and MDMA.
As a freshman member of Congress in 2019, Ocasio-Cortez introduced an amendment that would have removed restrictions preventing federal money from being used for research into the potential medical applications of certain Schedule I substances.
The proposal was intended to facilitate research examining whether drugs such as psilocybin, the psychoactive compound found in so-called “magic mushrooms,” and MDMA could have therapeutic applications for various conditions.
At the time, Ocasio-Cortez described early research into the potential medical benefits of psychedelics as “promising” and argued that federal drug policy should not prevent scientists from investigating possible treatments.