RFK Jr.: I Will Legalize Psychedelic Drugs, Build ‘Healing Centers’ for Addiction

Democratic presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a NewsNation town hall on Wednesday night he would legalize psychedelic drugs as well as marijuana, while also building “healing centers” for addiction.

“We need to make addiction treatment easy, simple, cheap,” he said, saying he would make treating addiction a priority as president, citing his own experience in overcoming addiction and helping others to do the same.

Americans were suffering from “chronic inflammation — spiritually, mentally, and emotionally,” he said, describing addiction as a national crisis. “We need to be compassionate … I know what suffering American families are enduring.” By building a network of “healing centers” for rehabilitation in rural areas, he said, he would hope to create places where “our American children can go and find themselves and come back.”
Kennedy repeated his pledge to legalize marijuana at the federal level, while letting states make their own laws. Currently, states can legalize it, but users and sellers risk federal charges and cannot obtain banking services.

He added that he would legalize psychedelic drugs, saying that despite his own initial opposition to the idea, he had seen studies and evidence that convinced him that some people had benefited medically from their use.

Kennedy’s town hall on NewsNation, hosted by Elizabeth Vargas, ran for 90 minutes and featured questions from voters on set in Chicago, as well as in New Hampshire and South Carolina, two early primary states.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.