Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez paid nearly $19,000 in campaign funds for ‘leadership consulting’ related to ketamine treatment expert

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., spent nearly $19,000 in campaign funds last year on a psychiatrist who specialized in the controversial ketamine treatment, according to Federal Election Commission records.The lawmaker hired Dr. Brian Boyle of Boston, chief psychiatric officer of the Stella chain of mental health clinics that specializes in “novel” treatments popular in Hollywood and Wall Street. Her campaign paid Boyle $11,550 in March 2025, another $2,800 in May and $4,375 in October, for a total of $18,725, according to records cited by the New York Post.The fees are labeled “Leadership Training and Consulting.”Boyle is a Harvard-educated doctor and self-described “interventional psychiatrist” who specializes in unorthodox methods of treating treatment-resistant depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety disorders. He is considered an “authority” on ketamine, described as a controversial horse tranquilizer that was used in the month before the tragic death of Friends star Matthew Perry.“I just saw the incredible power these treatments have,” Boyle said during a podcast last year about entering this exciting industry. “It’s so much fun helping patients recover.”Boyle’s clinic also offers other treatments popular with the 1%, including stellate ganglion blocks, an anesthetic injected into the nerve plexus in the neck that calms the body’s fight-or-flight response. Billionaires like Bob Parsons, who has struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since returning from the Vietnam War, rave about the treatment.“Celebrities tend to be more oriented toward finding highly effective solutions in beauty, health, mental health, nutrition, etc.,” Boyle said of the treatment in an interview last year.Ocasio-Cortez has previously touted the therapeutic benefits of psychedelic drugs. The “Squad” representative who sponsored the repeal of federal marijuana prohibition in 2018 has proposed legislation three times to make it easier to study psychedelic mushrooms and other hallucinogens.As a freshman congresswoman in 2019, she introduced an amendment that would have allowed the federal government to use taxpayer dollars to study the medical potential of psilocybin, MDMA and other drugs to treat mental illness, calling early research “promising.”“It’s long overdue that we shift drug use from a criminal to a medical consideration,” she tweeted at the time.The amendment was overwhelmingly rejected at the time, including by her Democratic colleagues, and failed again on a second try in 2021. The amendment passed on her third try, when she co-sponsored a similar bill that was signed into law in 2023.