In a new podcast appearance, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. acknowledged his past drug use and said he is no longer afraid of germs.
During Thursday’s episode of This Past Weekend with Theo Von, Kennedy admitted to snorting cocaine off a toilet seat. He added that he still attends meetings to help others overcome their addiction.
“I mean for me, I said this when I came in, ‘I don’t care what happens, I’m going to a meeting every day,’” Kennedy said. “I’m not scared of a germ, you know. I used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats. I know this disease will kill me if I don’t treat it, which means going to meetings every day. It’s just bad for my life so for me, it was survival."
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Kennedy opened the show by saying he knows Von through recovery. The two began their recovery from cocaine addiction more than 40 years ago.
Kennedy has long been open about his past drug use, including before overseeing the nation’s leading health agencies. The New York Times reported he was arrested in 1983 for heroin possession in South Dakota.
At the Rx and Illicit Drug Summit in Nashville last year, Kennedy reflected on his addiction, saying he began using heroin as a teenager and continued for more than a decade.
“Every addict feels that way in one way or another — that they have to fix what’s wrong with them, and the only thing that works are drugs,” he said at the event. “And so threats that you might die, that you’re going to ruin your life, are completely meaningless.”
Kennedy’s tenure at the Department of Health and Human Services has been met with both praise and criticism. The Trump administration has made significant changes to federal nutrition guidelines, placing more emphasis on protein and less on whole grains. It has also removed members from key health and vaccine panels, leading to changes to the childhood immunization schedule.
