RFK Jr says heroin made him smarter and a ‘better student’ in shocking memoir claims
Robert F Kennedy Jr. claimed that heroin made him smarter and a better student during a candid discussion about his addiction problems.
The former presidential candidate opened his speech during an appearance on the Shawn Ryan Show podcast while he was still on the campaign trail.
“I was doing really, really poorly in school until I started using narcotics,” Kennedy, 70, said in the podcast.
‘Then I went to the top of my class because my mind was so restless and turbulent and I couldn’t sit still. It worked for me and if it still worked, I would still do it.”
Kennedy made the shocking claims in July, while he was still running for the White House as an independent.
They have resurfaced since his decision to withdraw from supporting Donald Trump, who recently named him as his choice to oversee the Department of Health.
Kennedy has been open about his struggles with substance abuse and in particular his use of cocaine and heroin.
In 1983, he was arrested for possession of narcotics while on his way to a detox program in Minnesota.
Robert F Kennedy Jr. claimed that heroin made him smarter and a better student during a discussion about his addiction problems
He described the incident as “the best thing that could have happened to me” as the shame led to him getting sober.
“The most demoralizing feature of that disease was my inability to keep contracts with myself,” he said of his struggle to get clean.
The former independent candidate described his addiction as a “compulsion” that “erodes your life.”
A former Harvard University classmate accused Kennedy of selling cocaine as a student.
The claim came from author Kurt Andersen in a scathing column for The Atlantic on the same day Kennedy suspended his presidential bid.
Andersen claimed that as a Harvard student in the 1970s, he bought cocaine from Kennedy and his brother Joseph P. Kennedy II for $40 in a dorm room.
Kennedy will need the support of the Republican-controlled Senate to be confirmed as secretary of Health and Human Services.
Kennedy was arrested in 1983 for drug possession while on his way to a detox program in Minnesota. He is pictured in 1982 struggling with his addiction problems
He has been open about his addiction problems, which plagued him while he was in college in the 1970s. The political heir is depicted in New York during the disco years
However, his selection by Trump has already proven controversial due to some of his unorthodox health views.
Kennedy is an anti-vaccination activist who believes fluoride in the public water system causes numerous health problems.
He claimed, without evidence, that the mineral is “associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders and thyroid disease.”
Dentists widely consider the addition of fluoride to the water supply as one of the greatest medical benefits of the 20th century.
Kennedy has also raised concerns that common chemicals can cause gender dysphoria in children, denied that HIV causes AIDS and suggested that cancer could be caused by WiFi.
He would also like to limit the use of weight loss drugs such as Ozempic, which says users are “addicted” and “addicted.”