Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump's nominee for Health and Human Services, has been a subject of intense scrutiny due to his views on a range of issues from vaccines to farming and abortion.
Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump's nominee for Health and Human Services, has been a subject of intense scrutiny due to his views on a range of issues from vaccines to farming and abortion.
However, his approach to addressing one of the nation's most pressing health crises, addiction, has been largely overlooked.
According to Fox News, prior to his nomination, Kennedy, during his presidential campaign, proposed a plan to combat addiction through the establishment of "wellness farms." These facilities would be funded by tax revenues generated from the federal legalization of marijuana. "I'm going to create these wellness farms where they can go and get off of illegal drugs, off of opiates, but also legal drugs," Kennedy stated during a virtual "Latino Town Hall" event.
Kennedy's personal battle with addiction, including cocaine and heroin, has been well-documented. He credits his recovery to his faith and the 12 Step-program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Kennedy, an advocate for clean living, envisions these wellness farms as places where individuals can also seek help for dependency on legal drugs such as anti-depressants and medications for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
The concept of wellness farms is not entirely new. They are based on the "therapeutic community" model, which emphasizes peer-to-peer support and behavioral solutions for addiction. This approach contrasts with medication-based treatments like methadone or buprenorphine therapy, which are designed to alleviate intense cravings often blamed for relapses by addicts. The medical community, including researchers at the National Institutes of Health, generally regard such medication-assisted treatments as the gold standard in addiction therapy.
During his presidential campaign, Kennedy visited two facilities that employ this model for a documentary he produced titled "Recovering America A Film About Healing Our Addiction Crisis." The treatment framework at these facilities, similar to Kennedy's proposed wellness farms, includes peer-to-peer recovery, job provision for addicts, and reintegration training for a drug-free life in society. At Kennedy's envisioned rehabilitation farms, addicts would cultivate organic crops, acquire trade skills, and learn alternative ways to live without resorting to illicit drugs.
One of the programs featured in Kennedy's documentary was Simple Promise Farms, a rural Texas-based initiative where men learn to care for livestock, operate tractors, and repair barns. The program's daily routine also includes meditation, 12-step meetings, and yoga. However, therapy sessions are conducted off-site, and the use of medications, including anti-depressants or buprenorphine, is prohibited.
Brandon Guinn, the founder of Simple Promise Farms, told The New York Times that the program does not employ licensed therapists or medical providers on site. Guinn believes that the "important work is being done...not with your therapist or your sponsor or your mentor, but from the shared experience of people that are struggling with addiction."
However, Keith Humphreys, a psychologist and drug policy expert at Stanford University, questioned the exclusion of evidence-based treatments in such programs. Humphreys argued that the complexity of addiction necessitates the use of modern treatment advancements. He also suggested that urban residents may not have the means or inclination to relocate to remote farms for treatment.
Humphreys pointed out that programs refusing patients on anti-depressants or other medications are not uncommon in the U.S. He cited a federal program established in the 1930s in Lexington, Kentucky, which followed a similar model but had low success rates. "George Vaillant did a study of 400 consecutive admissions [to the Lexington program], and 400 of them relapsed afterwards," Humphreys noted. "So that, of course, we know a lot more than we did then. So, why not take advantage of that?"
Humphreys also expressed skepticism about Kennedy's plan to fund the program through revenues from legal marijuana, citing the bureaucratic hurdles that could delay the implementation of such programs. "There's like 500 practical steps and barriers in between all that, that I just don't think this is going to happen," Humphreys said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Kennedy's representatives for comment, particularly on his stance on medically assisted treatment therapies, but did not receive a response by press time.
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