I would argue that it's not just semantics and does materially detract from the point he's trying to make. That sentence would be much more powerful if instead he had said:
"50 years ago, President Richard Nixon declared war on drugs. And his administration made sure to include marijuana as a public enemy, even listing it in the “Schedule I” category of drugs alongside heroin, while cocaine, methamphetamine and PCP were placed in the less restrictive Schedule II category."