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Independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr has said he wants to create tech-free “wellness farms” for those struggling with addiction to “reparent” them away from using both legal and illegal drugs.
The anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist took part in a live recording of the Latino Capitalist podcast during a virtual “Latino Town Hall” last week when he shared his idea for new addiction treatment programs for “addicts” using opiates, but also antidepressants, and ADHD medication.
The independent and former Democrat suggested that the government should send people struggling with addiction for up to three or four years to farms growing organic food.
Kennedy would finance these farms via a sales tax on cannabis products, Mother Jones magazine noted.
“I’m going to dedicate that revenue to creating wellness farms, drug rehabilitation farms, in rural areas all over this country,” Kennedy said during the event. “I’m going to make it so people can go, if you’re convicted of a drug offense, or if you have a drug problem, you can go to one of these places for free.”
He argued that growing organic foods would help people recover from addiction as “a lot of the behavioral issues are food related. A lot of the illnesses are food related.”
That claim, that addiction may be connected to eating non-organic food is not supported by strong scientific evidence. But Kennedy has made similar unsupported claims in the past about pesticides, claiming that eating non-organic food leads to chronic disease, behavioral issues, and autism.
At his proposed wellness farms, cellphones and screens in general would be banned. He has previously claimed that 5G cellphone technology could lead to health issues.
“We’re going to re-parent people and restore connection to community,” Kennedy said on the podcast. “We have a whole generation of kids who are dispossessed, they’re alienated, they’re marginalized, their suicide rates are exploding – the second largest killer for young people is drug addiction.”
A large number of people could be caught up in these proposed policies should they materialize as Kennedy is pitching that not only users of illegal drugs be sent to the wellness farms, but also users of antidepressants and ADHD medications.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 11 percent of Americans over the age of 12 take antidepressants, and about four per cent aged between five and 64 use ADHD medication.
“I’m going to create these wellness farms where they can go to get off of illegal drugs, off of opiates, but also illegal drugs, other psychiatric drugs, if they want to, to get off of SSRIs, to get off of benzos, to get off of Adderall, and to spend time as much time as they need, three or four years if they need it, to learn to get reparented, to reconnect with communities,” Kennedy said during the event.
The candidate suggested last year during a Twitter Spaces event with Elon Musk that school shootings could be caused by antidepressants.
When contacted for comment, the Kennedy campaign referred to the documentary film Recovering America in which the candidate “has detailed many of his key points for his plan for addressing the country’s addiction crisis.”
