The race for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania is putting drug policy reform in the spotlight, with the GOP candidate known best as Dr. Oz and the national Republican party evidently convinced that an effective line of attack is to challenge the Democratic nominee’s support for issues like marijuana legalization and harm reduction policies.
The contest between Mehmet Oz and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) has become something of a political spectacle, largely playing out on Twitter where the dueling campaigns have competed to score the best own on a daily basis.
But in terms of substantive policy issues, the race has revealed a deep disconnect between how each candidate thinks voters feel about drug-related issues.
Oz has lobbed attacks at Fetterman over his long record of supporting reform, and the Republican National Committee (RNC) has similarly seized on the issue, misleadingly casting the state official as a radical supporter of policies like legalizing heroin, for example.
All of this is despite the fact that, in 2020, Oz himself called marijuana “one of the most underused tools in America” and said that the country should “completely change our policy on marijuana.”
In one new ad, Oz’s campaign criticized Fetterman’s support for cannabis legalization with an animated video that showed a bong coming out of the candidate’s head. “What’s this?” the narrator asks, coughing.
He’s the most radical candidate in the country. pic.twitter.com/Z2jr8yowos
— Dr. Mehmet Oz (@DrOz)...
"I will note that in 2024, troops were -- that was Joe Biden by the way, Joe Biden -- were deployed to polling locations in 15 states," Hegseth said April 29, 2026 before the House of Representati...