NOW WHAT? –
July 21, 2026 – In 1983, while on a flight to South Dakota, a 29-year-old Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was reported to have developed profuse sweating, pallor, and a weak pulse. Authorities found two-tenths of a gram of heroin in his luggage. He entered rehabilitation for substance use and shared that since then, he has been in recovery for 43 years. He pled guilty to a felony charge, and the judge ordered him to two years of probation instead of a possible jail sentence. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is now the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). He has shown tremendous courage in sharing the story of substance use, including his LSD, methamphetamine, and heroin use. I cannot imagine the amount of stigma he has endured. I hope that his success encourages others to seek treatment. Yet as an addiction medicine physician, I am also struck by how different my patients’ experiences are from those of Kennedy…
