Recovering heroin addict RFK Jr. has called for billions in tax dollars to be sent to Ukraine to fund “healing farms” for Americans struggling with drug and alcohol addiction.
The Democratic presidential candidate says there is an “epidemic” of not only substance abuse, but also of “loneliness, despair, dissociation, alienation” — while those in power are “addicted to war.”
Pointing to the thousands of deaths from fentanyl, the 69-year-old insists it’s time to spend money on the “crisis we have here at home.”
RFK is no stranger to mental health and addiction issues.
He was addicted to heroin for 14 years and his ex-wife Mary committed suicide in 2012 after a long battle with drugs and alcohol. His 22-year-old niece Saoirse Kennedy Hill died in 2019 after taking a deadly mixture of prescription drugs, methadone and alcohol.
He has also spoken out about stopping the flow of money to Kiev during their war with Russia. It is one of several controversial stances that have drawn criticism from his family and led relatives to oppose his bid for the White House in 2024.
In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, he said that instead of “saving” people who are desperate and alienated, he wants to start the process of “rebuilding communities,” American for land.
“We are now seeing an epidemic of addiction, alcoholism. But also just loneliness, despair, dissociation, alienation.
“People feel dispossessed, and we need to start healing people.
“And one of the things I’m going to do is launch a series of healing farms in rural areas across the country, in places where the only industry now is prisons.”
He pointed to America’s ongoing fentanyl crisis as a problem that needs to be taken more seriously.
We are losing a whole generation of young people. We’ve lost 106,000 people to fentanyl deaths this year alone,” he told DailyMail.com — twice the number of U.S. soldiers killed in the 20-year Vietnam War, he says.
“We should use some of the money we send to Ukraine and spend it on the crisis we have here at home.”
RFK has been an outspoken advocate of cutting U.S. aid to Ukraine amid the country’s ongoing war with Russia.
“Well, you know, we’re addicted to war. And we are now spending almost $150 billion on the war in Ukraine. It’s a war that should never have happened.’
RFK told DailyMail.com that the war “clearly” could have been resolved “diplomatically.”
Robert F Kennedy Jr. and his ex-wife Mary Richardson pictured in Paris, Friday, June 12, 1998
RFK’s 22-year-old niece Saoirse Kennedy Hill (left) died in 2019 after taking a deadly mixture of prescription drugs, methadone and alcohol.
He stressed that the media stories of the American and British press “are not true” about the war.
The long-awaited presidential candidate says diplomacy should come first, ahead of the needs of the military-industrial complex.
The Biden administration recently submitted a request to Congress for an additional $21 billion in funding for Ukraine.
The division of the $13 billion defense request includes $9.5 billion for Pentagon equipment and resupply and $3.6 billion for continued military, intelligence and other defense support.
If approved, Congress would put total US aid pledges to Ukraine at more than $124 billion. The government also authorized the sending of F-16 fighter jets to the country, which has been fighting off a Russian invasion for nearly two years.
Biden has said the US will support Ukraine in its fight against Russia “for as long as it takes.”
RFK’s battle for mental health comes after his own personal battle.
After his father Bobby was shot in 1968 while making his own presidential bid, RFK turned to drugs.
He said in a recent interview that he started using heroin from the age of 15 to fill “an empty space in me.”
But he says he doesn’t want to blame his family’s tragedies on the drugs, saying it “may or may not have contributed.”
“I feel like I was born an addict… that I was an empty spiritual hole.”
He finally got clean after fourteen years of use in September 1983, shortly after being publicly arrested for heroin possession.
His ex-wife Mary committed suicide by hanging at the family’s Mount Kisco estate in Westchester County, New York.
She had an ongoing battle with drugs and alcohol and tried to get help several times.
Her suicide was the latest in a series of tragedies that befell the brilliant and powerful Kennedy clan, known as the “Curse of Camelot.”
She and RFK had four children together before their divorce in 2010.
RFK is now married to actress Cheryl Hines, best known for her role as Larry David’s wife in Curb Your Enthusiasm.
The four-aged Bobcat joined Hines and two sons of RFK Jr, Aidan and Finn, with his cousin Anthony Shriver (far left) also on stage
Hines previously told DailyMail.com that she fully supported her husband’s plans to run for the White House
The Democrat and former environmental lawyer also addressed the ongoing “environmental crisis.”
He told DailyMail.com that America’s “addiction” to fossil fuels “is not good for American health.”
It’s not good for our independence. It keeps us in a constant state of war.’
He denounced how dependent the fuel industry is on subsidies.
“I believe in free market capitalism. And if that is true, free-market capitalism will very quickly turn to fossil fuels.”
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