Will RFK Jr Increase Access to Weed and Psychedelics?

Public health experts have expressed concerns that Donald Trump‘s Health Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr., aka RFK Jr., could restrict access to prescription drugs and pave the way for more “experimental treatments” like marijuana, or weed, and psychedelics.

Knewz.com has learned that the outspoken vaccine critic has repeatedly expressed his skepticism regarding the pharmaceutical sector, blaming it for allegedly trying to push prescription medicines rather than working on “actually getting people healthy, building their immune systems.”

RFK Jr., who Trump nominated as the overseer of the healthcare system of the United States, has also been rather vocal with his conspiracy theories regarding vaccines and medication and has previously claimed, with conviction, that “vaccines cause autism”—a theory that has long been debunked.

It has been pointed out in reports that RFK Jr. had claimed during his Presidential campaign that he would legalize cannabis and use the tax revenue to create “‘wellness farms’ where ‘we’re going to repair people’ with addiction, including to ‘psychiatric drugs’ such as ‘Adderall.’”

As the Health Secretary of the country, he would hold sufficient power to bring his promises to reality.

The former independent Presidential candidate has raised concerns that, given his antagonism against Adderall and SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) medicines, he might criminalize them and make it harder to obtain for those who actually rely on these medications for their well-being.

RFK Jr. has long held on to his “controversial” views and, according to experts, has often seemingly disregarded the scientific evidence that can potentially challenge his beliefs.

Reshma Ramachandran, a physician and director of the Yale Collaboration for Regulatory Rigor, Integrity, and Transparency, said in a recent statement, “Having a healthy skeptic [as HHS secretary] is totally fine… But that skepticism needs to come with at least some humility.”

Ramachandran also believes that, as the Health Secretary of the country, RFK Jr. would have “quite a bit of power” to upend the healthcare system.

He could also, in theory, challenge and overturn decisions made by the Food and Drug Administration of which he did not approve.

For instance, the FDA rejected Lykos Therapeutics’ MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD in 2024, on the grounds that the company hid the adverse effects of the treatment, including “suicidal thoughts and attempts, in their clinical trial results,” per reports.

Neşe Devenot, a bioethics researcher affiliated with Johns Hopkins University and the psychedelic harm reduction non-profit Psymposia, organized an opposition to Lykos’s MDMA-assisted treatment.

RFK Jr., however, criticized Devenot for his stance, claiming that his “opposition stemmed from hatred toward veterans, and blasted the FDA’s decision, suggesting it illustrated collusion with the pharmaceutical industry,” reports have mentioned.

It is worth noting that the Health Secretary nominee also claimed during a press event in July 2023 that COVID was “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and the Chinese population.

The press dinner at the Italian restaurant Tony’s Di Napoli on the Upper East Side of New York had been described by reports at the time as “a foul bout of screaming and polemic farting.”

During the Q&A session of the press event, RFK Jr. was quoted as saying, “COVID-19. There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately.”

“COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese,” the then-independent presidential candidate added in his statement.

“We don’t know whether it was deliberately targeted or not but there are papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential and impact,” he further stated.

Notably, the vaccine skeptic Health Secretary pick had also suggested back in 2020 that the COVID vaccine was “genetically modified to attack black and Latino boys.”

Given his beliefs, RFK Jr.’s nomination has raised a significant amount of concern, with Georges C Benjamin, the executive director of the American Public Health Association (APHA), saying in a recent statement that his organization will “absolutely oppose” the nomination, adding that he is “absolutely the wrong guy for it.”

“He is not competent by training, management skills, temperament or trust to have this job. He’s just absolutely the wrong guy for it,” Benjamin said in a statement after the announcement.

“He is really just a person without a health background who’s already caused great damage in health in the country,” he added.

“We’re going advocate as loudly and as often as we can to make sure that people know what a risk he is to the public and to the public’s health.”

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