Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has credited heroin with previously helping him improve his performance in school, according to a resurfaced clip that’s been circulating on social media.
The clip, from a June episode of the “Shawn Ryan Show,” features the 70-year-old polarizing politician — who’s been tapped by Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services — saying he performed “very poorly in school until [he] started doing narcotics.”
“Then I went to the top of my class because my mind was so restless and turbulent and I could not sit still,” he said of his past heroin use. “It worked for me.”
Though Kennedy called his 1983 arrest for heroin possession “the best thing that could have happened” because it led to his eventual sobriety, he admitted that if heroin “still worked” for him, he’d “still be doing it.”
Kennedy’s comments came as he was still running his ill-fated independent campaign for the White House. The Children’s Health Defense chair dropped out of the presidential race in August, at which point he endorsed Trump’s bid for reelection. Kennedy later said Trump promised to give him control of several agencies overseeing health in a future administration.
Days before being officially announced as Trump’s pick for secretary of health, the controversial anti-vaccine activist repeated his desire to remove fluoride from nationwide drinking water, possibly reversing what’s considered one of the top public health achievements in American history.
Without citing any evidence, Kennedy claimed on X that fluoride has been “associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders and thyroid disease.”
