RFK Jr. Suggests Sending People on Antidepressants to ‘Wellness Farms’ for ‘Reparenting’

It has precocious been reported that RFK Jr. took respective telephone calls and a gathering with his governmental opponent, Donald Trump. According to these reports, Kennedy actively discussed dropping retired of the statesmanlike contention and endorsing Trump for President, if lone helium would beryllium allowed a spot successful the billionaire’s adjacent administration. What Kennedy allegedly wanted successful speech for his endorsement was immoderate benignant of relation successful the government’s wellness bureaucracy, preferably arsenic caput of the Health and Human Services Department.

It’s unclear whether Trump officials are earnestly vetting Kennedy for a spot successful the White House, though it makes tons of consciousness that RFK would privation to enactment successful the national wellness bureaucracy. After all, he’s made his sanction politically (and professionally) by casting uncertainty connected aesculapian orthodoxies. Most notably, he’s been labeled a “vaccine skeptic” owed to his personal and governmental relation with the anti-vaccine movement. While Kennedy claims that the “anti-vax” statement is misleading, determination is plentifulness of grounds that the would-be person is thoroughly tied up successful the kookier elements of the anti-vaccine activistic community.

Another unconventional Kennedy wellness thought (and presumably 1 he’d effort to employment were helium ever fixed a spot successful the White House) emerged this week. During a virtual municipality hall, Kennedy floated the thought of sending cause addicts to government-funded “wellness farms,” agrarian hideaways wherever addicts could “grow their ain food,” interaction grass, and cleanse themselves of societal distractions that mightiness premier them to usage again. Kennedy claimed specified a task could beryllium paid for by de-classifying marijuana arsenic a Schedule 1 cause (the authorities is already readying to bash this) and taxing the profits from its commercialized sales, which, according to him, could bring successful arsenic overmuch arsenic $8.5 cardinal successful revenue.

Kennedy says helium would privation to marque these farms disposable not lone to radical addicted to amerciable drugs but to those who consciousness they are addicted to legal, medicine drugs, arsenic well. He said:

I’m going to make these wellness farms wherever they tin spell to get disconnected of amerciable drugs, disconnected of opiates, but besides amerciable drugs, different psychiatric drugs, if they privation to, to get disconnected of SSRIs, to get disconnected of benzos, to get disconnected of Adderall, and to walk clip arsenic overmuch clip arsenic they need—three oregon 4 years if they request it—to larn to get reparented, to reconnect with communities.

Mother Jones originally reported connected Kennedy’s plan, notably framing it arsenic a freaky, hair-brained scheme. But Kennedy didn’t invent this idea. The conception of “care farms” oregon therapeutic farming is really a pretty aged one, and it’s adjacent sometimes considered a fairly progressive idea. It’s already practiced rather heavy successful Europe—particularly successful the Netherlands, wherever determination are arsenic galore arsenic 800 specified farms, galore of which are accredited by the authorities and funded done its broader healthcare system. Of course, nary specified strategy exists successful the U.S., though immoderate states, similar California, presently person small networks of farms that cater to “marginalized oregon susceptible groups of people,” including radical with intelligence wellness problems, cause and intoxicant addiction, and convicted felons.

It isn’t arsenic if the U.S. government’s existent attack to cause addiction—either cutting deals with the companies that merchantability the drugs oregon throwing addicts successful prison—is peculiarly effective. I don’t cognize that sending idiosyncratic to a workplace truthful they tin enactment caller aerial and favored a cattle sounds demonstrably worse than that. In fact, it could beryllium a beauteous bully idea. That said, the authorities hasn’t tried thing this experimental oregon ambitious successful rather immoderate time, and it’s hard to ideate however it would work. You tin ideate a batch of scenarios successful which specified a programme mightiness spell disconnected the rails and bash much harm than bully and Kennedy is broadly against drugs that demonstrably assistance people.

The existent question is wherefore Kennedy thinks a caller Trump medication would fto him bash thing remotely resembling this. While Trump has disavowed it, the argumentation blueprint astir commonly associated with his run is Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation conceived the connection to drastically reorganize (or, much accurately, destroy) overmuch of the government. While Trump claims helium doesn’t cognize thing astir it, this argumentation book was written by droves of former medication officials and is designed to defund and defenestrate ample parts of the national bureaucracy, not nonstop susceptible radical to hippy farms wherever they tin unbend and heal themselves. Project 2025’s chapter connected nationalist health mentions cause addiction precisely zero times, focusing alternatively connected the request to marque termination pills amerciable and the necessity of deregulating the healthcare industry.