RFK Jr.'s plan to combat addiction: 'wellness farms'

While President Donald Trump's Health and Human Services nominee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has been scrutinized implicit his views connected vaccines, farming, termination and more, his position connected treating 1 of the nation's foremost wellness crises has received acold little attention.

Before joining Trump's team, Kennedy campaigned for president connected a program to treat addiction by creating "wellness farms" funded by taxation revenues from federally legalized marijuana sales. "I'm going to make these wellness farms wherever they tin spell and get disconnected of amerciable drugs, disconnected of opiates, but besides ineligible drugs," Kennedy said astatine a virtual lawsuit during his campaign, billed arsenic a "Latino Town Hall." 

Kennedy himself struggled with addiction erstwhile helium was younger, including to cocaine and heroin, which helium has spoken astir publicly. He has heralded his religion and committedness to Alcoholic's Anonymous's 12 Step-program arsenic his redeeming grace. Kennedy is simply a beardown proponent of cleanable surviving arsenic well, and said that the addiction attraction wellness farms helium imagines would besides dainty radical who are trying to get disconnected anti-depressants, oregon different medications similar those for attraction shortage hyperactivity upset (ADHD).

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Drug addicts successful Kensington, Philadelphia, inhabit a thoroughfare corner. (Meg Myers/Fox News Digital)

Wellness farms are not an wholly caller idea. They are based connected a model known arsenic a "therapeutic community" model, which relies heavy connected peer-to-peer enactment and behavioral solutions for addiction, arsenic compared to medication-based attraction strategies similar methadone oregon buprenorphine therapy, which enactment to chopped retired the aggravated cravings from opioids, to which addicts often property relapses. Many successful the aesculapian community, including researchers astatine the National Institutes of Health, see specified medication-assisted attraction to beryllium the golden modular successful addiction treatment. 

AA besides warns against the usage of medications similar buprenorphine to dainty addiction.   

Kennedy really visited 2 places that align with this model for a documentary helium created astir the situation of addiction portion helium was moving for president, titled "Recovering America – A Film About Healing Our Addiction Crisis." Their addiction attraction framework, similar Kennedy's wellness farms, includes a absorption connected peer-to-peer betterment done giving addicts jobs and re-teaching them however to unrecorded successful nine without drugs. Kennedy has said that astatine his rehabilitation farms, addicts would grow integrated crops, person grooming successful commercialized skills, and larn different ways to unrecorded successful nine without utilizing illicit drugs. 

A motion informing astir the dangers of opioid addiction successful Canada promoting medically-assisted treatment.

One of the programs that Kennedy visited successful his documentary astir treating addiction was besides a farm, wherever men larn however to thin to livestock, run tractors and repair barns. Their days besides dwell of meditation, 12-step meetings and yoga, but addicts indispensable spell off-site to person therapy and are not allowed to instrumentality immoderate medications, similar anti-depressants oregon buprenorphine.

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The program, called Simple Promise Farms, is located successful agrarian Texas. Simple Promise does not unit licensed therapists oregon aesculapian providers connected site, according to The New York Times, which spoke with the program's founder, Brandon Guinn.

Guinn told The New York Times that it is these peer-to-peer conversations wherever "the important enactment is being done . . . not with your therapist oregon your sponsor oregon your mentor, but from the shared acquisition of radical that are struggling with addiction."

The Twelve Steps originate from the present planetary peer-to-peer addiction enactment radical known arsenic Alcoholics Anonymous, which was founded successful the 1930s by a New York stockbroker named Bill W. and an Ohio-area surgeon, Dr. Bob S.  (Photo by John van Hasselt/Corbis via Getty Images)

Keith Humphreys, a scientist and cause argumentation adept astatine Stanford University, said that portion determination is thing incorrect with "therapeutic community" models, helium questioned the exclusion of evidence-based treatments that person been proven to assistance radical get disconnected harmful, addictive drugs similar heroin.  

"Given however overmuch is known, much than what's being described is astir similar [an] 18th-century benignant of retreat. Given however overmuch has been learned astir the quality of the condition, astir the things you tin bash with psychotherapy, the things you tin bash with medicine, wherefore not person that? Why would you not privation that?" Humphries asked.

"It's not that it wouldn't payment anybody," Humphries added. He noted that the analyzable quality of addiction is challenging to code without modern attraction advancements and suggested that metropolis dwellers whitethorn deficiency the tendency oregon resources to relocate to distant farms for treatment.

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Humphries said that programs that garbage patients who instrumentality anti-depressants oregon different medications are really rather communal successful the U.S. He pointed to a programme that the federal government acceptable up successful the 1930s successful Lexington, Kentucky, that followed this model, but besides pointed retired that its occurrence rates were low.

"George Vaillant did a survey of 400 consecutive admissions [to the Lexington program], and 400 of them relapsed afterwards," Humphries pointed out. "So that, of course, we cognize a batch much than we did then. So, wherefore not instrumentality vantage of that?"

Miami, Florida, Biscayne Boulevard, Vita Recovery, addiction therapies luxury attraction center.  (Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Humphries besides posited that Kennedy's program to money the programme done revenues from ineligible marijuana would beryllium specified a bureaucratic hurdle that it would beryllium a hard and agelong process to get these programs disconnected the ground. "There's similar 500 applicable steps and barriers successful betwixt each that, that I conscionable don't deliberation this is going to happen," Humphries said. 

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Fox News Digital reached retired to Kennedy's representatives for comment, successful peculiar connected his presumption astir medically assisted attraction therapies, but did not person a effect by property time.