Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for health secretary, made something of a habit of sharing unusual and outlandish stories from his personal life during the 2024 presidential run.
From claims about brain worms to the bear-cub controversy, Kennedy was the subject of, and admitted to, wild anecdotes that stunned the public.
His more solemn history of substance abuse is well documented and a topic that the would-be health secretary has shared in much detail. However, one claim about his past drug use caught the attention of social media this week, with Kennedy saying heroin helped him reach the top of his classes.
The Claim
A post on X, formerly Twitter, by the account Republicans Against Trump, posted on November 25, 2024, and viewed 3.5 million times said: "Trump's nominee to lead the HHS [Department of Health and Human Services] says that Heroin helped him study."
The post included a video of Kennedy in which he said: "I was at the bottom of my class, I started doing heroin, I went to the top of my class. Suddenly I could sit still and read."
A post in response by epidemiologist Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, posted on November 25, 2024, and viewed 1 million times said: "RFK Jr. says the shooting heroin helped him read again. My God."
The Facts
The video clip of Kennedy is authentic and his speech hasn't been altered. It is from a June 2024 episode of the Shawn Ryan Show podcast, in which he spoke at length about his history of illegal substance use.
What the clip shared on X did not include was the surrounding context of the conversation in which Kennedy spoke about the guilt of breaking sobriety pledges he made and what he suggested were his attempts to self-medicate with heroin.
"I'll tell you something about heroin, for me it was (...) I did very very poorly in school until I started doing narcotics, then I went to the top of my class because I was (...) my mind was so restless and turbulent and I could not sit still," Kennedy said.
"I could, you know, the teacher would be at the front of the room talking and it would be just like noises coming out of her mouth."
He later said his life fell away through heroin use.
"I was probably at some level medicating myself but, you know (...) it worked for me and if it still worked, I'd still be doing it, but it didn't work,
"It starts, you know, it works really great in the beginning, but then it begins exacting a cost and, you know uh, and then the cost gets worse and worse.
"And it kills you, it killed my brother and (...) it destroys your relationships, it destroys (...) it hollows out your whole life, you have a one-dimensional life."
Newsweek has contacted a media representative for Kennedy and Trump via email for comment.
While Kennedy says he maintains his sobriety, he has advocated for increased access to psychedelic drugs among other regulated substances and foods.
"FDA's war on public health is about to end," Kennedy wrote on X in October 2024.
"This includes its aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can't be patented by Pharma."
The Ruling
Needs Context.
While Kennedy did boast that heroin helped him improve his grades, the clip was taken from a podcast in which he discussed the damage his former drug addiction had caused him and why he began taking drugs.
Kennedy said on the show that while it worked "really great in the beginning," it later exacted a cost that got "worse and worse" that "hollows out your whole life."
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team
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