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President-elect Donald Trump’s pick of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services has many advantages. dangerous opinion About healthcare and him Comments about drugsaddiction, and rehabilitation should probably be paused by anyone, especially if they are addicted to Adderall prescriptions.
At the beginning of this year, mother jones discovered a strange claim The former presidential candidate spoke about so-called “wellness camps” for people taking ADHD treatments and other common medications. This could not be ignored and looked a lot like a labor camp.
“I’m going to create a wellness farm where they can get away not only from illegal drugs and opiates, but also from illegal drugs and other psychiatric drugs if they want,” he said in a recorded podcast interview. Ta. ”latino city hall“The Event”, coming off the SSRIs, coming off the benzos, coming off the Adderall, spending as much time as you need, three or four years if necessary, being parented and reconnecting. Learn. Together with the community. ”
Needless to say, there is a lot of surprise in these short remarks. Are these “wellness camps” services that people voluntarily participate in, or are they forced upon them? Are they being presented as a last option for people outside of prison? What happens if someone shows up and doesn’t work hard enough?
And perhaps most importantly, when he cited Adderall, benzodiazepines, and serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) (all now legal drugs with legitimate medical purposes) as reasons for ending up on these farms, RFK Jr. What are you trying to say about his leadership? In the federal sector? Will he make these drugs illegal, restrict them, make them harder to prescribe, or make them unavailable to insurance?
These are outrageous questions, considering there’s only a month left until Trump’s inauguration. But, underscoring RFK Jr.’s lack of seriousness as a candidate or appointee, he has no real idea of what he actually wants to do with these drugs, beyond vague fear-mongering. He doesn’t seem to have said anything.
“All of our kids are on Adderall, they’re all on it. [anti-depressant] SSRI. why? ” Kennedy told the podcaster march. “Doctors didn’t start prescribing these for no reason. We did a disservice to this entire generation. We poisoned them.”
poison? That’s unreasonable — SSRIs are accept criticismAlthough Adderall and benzodiazepines are both subject to abuse, there is no question that all three drugs help many Americans live functional lives. (And let’s not forget RFK Jr. make an exception to his anti-drug message against his own testosterone therapy habits. )
We reached out to both the Kennedy and Trump campaigns for clarification on the candidates’ positions on Adderall and these so-called “farms,” but did not receive a response by press time.
RFK Jr.’s habit is to often mix perfectly reasonable claims with bizarre or conspiratorial claims. For example, back in the summer of 2023, he said: said to daily mail His “farm” would be an alternative to “warehousing” America’s “desperate and alienated” things.
“One of the things I’m going to do is start a series of healing farms in rural areas across the country where prisons are currently the only industry,” President Kennedy said. Ta.
“We are currently witnessing an epidemic of addiction and alcoholism, but also an epidemic of loneliness, hopelessness, disconnection and alienation,” he continued. “People feel disowned and we need to start healing them.”
Of course, in one sense he’s completely right. People become addicted when they don’t feel like they have a chance in life, and prisons tend to push the most vulnerable into even more self-destructive habits.
However, RFK Jr. continues to praise Trump, and with Trump’s election, For-profit prison inventory skyrockets A man with little conviction suggests that investors are enslaved by the mass incarceration of immigrants and other marginalized groups.
Case in point, although he often positions himself as an enemy of processed fast food, this week’s photo of RFK Jr., Trump and his pals posing aboard a private jet loaded with McDonald’s raw slaw Who can forget the photo with us? (Let’s not forget that President Trump’s White House was ‘filled with people’” Adderall, benzo-like Xanax, and other questionable prescription substances. )
After all, the fact that RFJ Jr. has revealed so few details about his radical rhetoric means there is a looming threat to all Americans currently dependent on these drugs. There is. At the very least, it would be a grave failure to leave them in limbo.
Learn more about RFK Junior: RFK Jr. grimaces while eating McDonald’s with Donald Trump and Elon Musk