An old video of Donald Trump’s health secretary nominee RFK Jr. saying he became the topper of his class after he started doing heroin has gone viral. It was his appearance on the Shawn Ryan podcast in July when he was running for president as an independent. “I was at the bottom of my class. I started doing heroin, and I went to the top of my class. All of a sudden I could sit still, and I could read and concentrate. I could hear what people were saying,” Kennedy Jr said.
It was the same interview where Kennedy explained that he first tried LSD when he was 15, the summer his father, Robert F. Kennedy Sr., was assassinated. After LSD, he tried heroin and cocaine and only got sober after 14 years. In the interview, however, he was not promoting drugs; He was explaining how drugs ruined his life and destroyed his relationships. He said drugs made him a star student. “My mind was so restless and agitated that I could not sit still,” he said.
“I would probably be diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder) today. I was bouncing off the walls,” he added. “So, you know, I was probably medicating myself on some level.”
He said his family did not know about his drug use; He wrote books and went to law school while he was on heroin. In 1983, he was arrested for possession of heroin. That’s when he was “able to recover” after years of constantly trying to quit.
“For me, the most frustrating symptom of that disease was my inability to keep a contract with myself. I would tell myself at 9:00 am that I would never do that again. i will believe I’ll mean it,” Kennedy Jr. said, explaining his addiction. “At 4:00 in the afternoon, it was like I had no control over that guy that I’d go to at 4:00, you know, when the addict would come in. Take my head and control.”
Experts believe that as health secretary, Kennedy Jr. will cut back on prescription drugs and increase access to weed and psychedelics. He has taken a hard line against the viral weight-loss drug Ozempic, saying Americans should focus on eating well, eating three meals a day, and the obesity and diabetes epidemics will end.