RFK Jr will reduce prescription drugs and increase access to cannabis and psychedelics

Public health experts are concerned that, if confirmed, Donald Trump’s choice for Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – Robert F Kennedy Jr. – could disrupt access to pharmaceutical drugs in favor of more experimental treatments.

Kennedy, who was singled out by the president-elect earlier this month, has repeatedly expressed his distrust of pharmaceutical products criticism of the FDA due to the “aggressive suppression of psychedelics”. In his podcast, he called the US “the sickest country in the world” and accused the healthcare system of spending billions on “the pills, the drinks and the powders, instead of actually making people healthy and building their immune systems ‘.

Kennedy is a surprising choice for a number of reasons. He’s a lawyer who has no public health experience in government, and that’s what he’s done criticism of Trump harshly during his own independent presidential campaign.

But like Trump’s other Cabinet picks, Kennedy has expressed a conspiratorial distrust of the organization he is charged with leading. Matt Gaetz, who was drafted to become attorney general before withdrawing Thursday, believes the Jan. 6 insurrection is a government sham intended to cover a stolen election, while Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s national intelligence, parroted Russian propaganda about American intelligence services.

Kennedy did the same conspiracy theories promoted about the health care system he would oversee, including the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism. Even the New York Post, that one Kennedy has praised warned in the past in a opinion of the editors that Kennedy’s confirmation would be disastrous for public health, citing a 2023 interview in which he “told us flat out that all of America’s chronic health problems started in one year in the 1980s.”

Reshma Ramachandran, a doctor and director of the Yale Collaboration for Strict Regulation, Integrity and Transparencysays Kennedy’s theories are “tricky” because they often contain a mix of truth and conspiracy. Like Kennedy, her team has raised concerns about “the influence of industry at federal agencies, and how that could unnecessarily influence regulatory decision-making.” Likewise, there is some scientific evidence behind Kennedy’s concerns about the health effects of processed foods – but not his claims that a better diet would solve a lot of physical and mental health problems.

Ramachandran says Kennedy’s apparent disregard for scientific evidence is deeply troubling.

“It’s fine to have a healthy skeptic (as HHS secretary),” she said, “but that skepticism should at least be accompanied by some humility.”

During his campaign, Kennedy repeatedly insulted Adderall and SSRIs and claimed that if elected he would legalize cannabis and use the tax revenue to create “wellness farms” where “we’re going to fix people” with addiction, including to “psychiatric drugs” like “Adderall.” People who rely on Adderall and SSRIs worry that Kennedy could do that criminalize their medicines.

As HHS secretary, Kennedy would have “quite a bit of power” to upend the health care system, Ramachandran says.

Although HHS traditionally delegates responsibility to agencies like the FDA, “there may be instances where they have the discretion to power to overrule agencies.” Ramachandran explained that Kennedy would face legal challenges if, for example, he tried to change the legal status of Adderall, but that he is an expert in tort law and that he could theoretically do so.

Ramachandran is particularly concerned that Kennedy will reverse his recent FDA decisions criticized: In 2020, the FDA withdrew hydroxychloroquine as a Covid-19 treatment, citing safety concerns and lack of evidence. This year, the agency rejected Lykos Therapeutics’ MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD. Lykos hid adverse outcomes, including suicide attempts, in the results of their clinical trials. The trial had already taken place plagued by ethical issuesincluding one sexual relationship between a therapist and a subject, who claimed it was abuse. It is striking that MDMA is increasing suggestibility.

Neşe Devenot, a bioethics researcher at Johns Hopkins University and the psychedelic harm reduction nonprofit Psymposia, organized opposition for the treatment of Lykos. Their research found that “the therapy component was based on pseudoscience very similar to Facilitated communication”, a discredited technique ostensibly intended to help people with disabilities communicate, which in fact gives them “facilitator” power to speak for them.

Kennedy pushed claims that Devenot’s opposition stemmed from hatred of veterans has cursed the FDA‘s decision, suggesting that it illustrated a conspiracy with the pharmaceutical industry.

But Lykos actually has close ties to the established pharmaceutical industry. Jeff George, Chairman of Lykos, is also on the board from Amneal Pharmaceuticals, a company that makes a variety of traditional medicines, including generic Adderall.

Much of Kennedy’s rhetoric about psychedelics and the pharmaceutical industry mirrors that of Elon Musk‘s, which Trump has also tapped to join his cabinet. Devenot thinks Kennedy is heavily influenced by Silicon Valley’s “move fast, break things” ethos around psychedelics — which Musk and others in the tech industry claim are superior to traditional mental health treatments.

Both Devenot and Ramachandran believe that psychedelic therapies have potential, but more rigorous research is needed.

Ramachandran says that if Kennedy chooses to rush approval of Lykos therapy or other psychedelic treatments, it could backfire because accelerated approvals lead to more safety problems.

Devenot understands why it’s appealing to think that psychedelics could be a “miracle solution” to all mental health problems, if only guys like Kennedy and Musk could get the FDA out of the way.

“It’s a very reductive way of looking at mental health,” Devenot said, “the reality is a lot more complicated.”