Robert F Kennedy Jr. claimed heroin made him smarter and a better student during a candid discussion about his addiction problems.
The former presidential candidate spoke during an appearance on the Shawn Ryan Show podcast while he was still campaigning.
“I did very, very poorly in school, until I started using narcotics,” Kennedy, 70, said on the podcast.
‘Then I was the best in my class because my mind was very restless and turbulent and I couldn’t sit still. “It worked for me and if it still worked, I would still be doing it.”
Kennedy made these shocking claims in July, when he was still in the race for the White House as an independent.
They have resurfaced since his decision to retire to support Donald Trump, who recently named him his pick to oversee the health department.
Kennedy has been open about his struggle with substance abuse and, in particular, his use of cocaine and heroin.
In 1983, he was arrested for narcotics possession while on his way to a detox program in Minnesota.
Robert F Kennedy Jr. claimed that heroin made him smarter and a better student during a discussion about his addiction problems.
He described the incident as “the best thing that could have happened to me” as the shame drove him to get sober.
“The most demoralizing feature of that illness was my inability to keep contracts with myself,” he said of his struggle to get clean.
The former independent candidate described his addiction as a “compulsion” that “empties your life.”
A former Harvard University classmate accused Kennedy of selling cocaine when he was a student.
The explosive claim came from author Kurt Andersen in a scathing column for The Atlantic on the same day Kennedy suspended his presidential election bid.
Andersen claimed that, as a Harvard student in the 1970s, he bought cocaine from Kennedy and his brother Joseph P. Kennedy II for $40 in a dorm room.
Kennedy will need the support of the Republican-controlled Senate to be confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Kennedy was arrested in 1983 for narcotics possession while on his way to a detox program in Minnesota. It appears in 1982 while he was fighting his addiction problems.
He has been open about his struggle with addiction, which plagued him throughout college in the 1970s. The political heir is photographed in New York during the disco years
However, her selection by Trump has already proven controversial due to some of her unorthodox views on health.
Kennedy is an anti-vaccine activist who believes fluoride in the public water system is causing countless health problems.
He claimed, without evidence, that the mineral is “associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid diseases.”
Dentists widely consider the addition of fluoride to the water supply as one of the greatest medical benefits of the 20th century.
Kennedy has also expressed concern that common chemicals may be triggering gender dysphoria in children, denies that HIV causes AIDS and suggested that WiFi could cause cancer.
He would also like to restrict the use of weight loss control drugs like Ozempic, saying users are “hooked” and “addicted.”