January 29, 2025
Kyle Jaeger
A political action committee founded by former Vice President Mike Pence is gunning to undermine the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the head of the nation’s top health agency—in part by drawing attention to his support for marijuana and psychedelics reform, as well as his personal history with substance misuse.
Ahead of Kennedy’s Senate confirmation hearings that are set to begin on Wednesday, the Advancing American Freedom (AAF) PAC sent a letter to Republican senators last week claiming the nominee’s policy positions would “undermine public order, increase nuisance, and massively increase the size of government.”
“As a presidential candidate, RFK promised to legalize marijuana and increase access to psychedelics while creating government ‘wellness farms’ to ‘heal’ individuals with addiction to ‘psychiatric drugs,’ including attention deficit disorder (ADD) medication,” the letter says, urging lawmakers to block the nominee from leading the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
AAF also insisted Kennedy is unqualified due to “numerous, widely reported, personal failings,” later pointing to his previous struggle with heroin addiction.
“RFK has publicly acknowledged that he was addicted to heroin for 14 years. In 1983, he was arrested for heroin possession and pled guilty,” the bullet point says.
The letter also points to Kennedy’s concerns about vaccines and support for abortion rights as reasons GOP senators should reject him.
“Any one of these controversies should be disqualifying for a potential HHS leader. Ultimately, it is of the utmost importance that Senators approach RFK’s nomination with clear eyes,” the letter says. “Whatever the merits of RFK’s Make America Healthy Again initiative and the need to reform America’s broken healthcare system, his constant embrace of conspiracy theories and personal moral failings will severely hamstring his ability to reform HHS.”
“The Conservative Movement has a deep bench of courageous leaders who are willing to reform HHS to serve the American people without RFK’s baggage,” the PAC said. “We strongly encourage you to embrace your constitutional advise and consent duty by rejecting the nomination of RFK.”
To what extent, if at all, the letter carries weight with the Republican caucus is yet to be seen. GOP senators have broadly embraced the idea that President Donald Trump’s election victory equates to a mandate from voters, meaning his cabinet choices should be confirmed regardless of any individual reservations about their backgrounds or qualifications.
And for certain cannabis and psychedelics stakeholders, Kennedy’s potential ascent to helm HHS represents a key opportunity given his advocacy for departing with the status quo and the unique authority he’d yield to see through reform objectives.
Meanwhile, Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) recently pressed Kennedy to reiterate his position on marijuana legalization amid the ongoing effort to federally reschedule cannabis, submitting a 34-page letter to the nominee that lays out a series of questions about his views on a wide range of policy issues, including cannabis, psychedelics and harm reduction.
Kennedy followed a dizzying path to the Trump administration, entering the 2024 presidential election as a Democratic candidate before switching to independent as he lagged in the polls and then eventually endorsing the GOP nominee.
In October, Kennedy specifically criticized the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the agency’s “suppression of psychedelics” and a laundry list of other issues that he said amounted to a “war on public health” that would end under the Trump administration.
Meanwhile, a top U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) official recently said it’s “very encouraging” that Kennedy supports psychedelics reform—and he hopes to work with him on the issue if he stays on for the next administration.
Not everyone shares VA Under Secretary for Health Shereef Elnahal’s enthusiasm for Kennedy as the potential HHS secretary, however. Author Michael Pollan, for example, said that Trump’s pick could prove “very dangerous” to the psychedelics movement—even though he is a supporter of reform.
He said the prospective nominee might pursue federal reform in a way that delegitimizes the science behind substances such as psilocybin.
By contrast, Rick Perry—a former governor of Texas who also served in the first Trump administration—recently said the president-elect’s choices for key health policy positions, including Kennedy, are a “great gift” for the psychedelics reform movement, particularly as it concerns access to ibogaine as a treatment option for serious mental health conditions.
Kennedy also shares a pro-reform perspective with other prospective nominees such as his pics for director of national intelligence, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D/R-HI), and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk.
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