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A political action committee founded by former Vice President Mike Pence is gunning to undermine the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the head of the nation\u2019s top health agency\u2014in part by drawing attention to his support for marijuana and psychedelics reform<\/a>, as well as his personal history with substance misuse.<\/p>\n Ahead of Kennedy\u2019s Senate confirmation hearings that are set to begin on Wednesday, the Advancing American Freedom (AAF) PAC sent a letter to Republican senators last week claiming the nominee\u2019s policy positions would \u201cundermine public order, increase nuisance, and massively increase the size of government.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs a presidential candidate, RFK promised to legalize marijuana and increase access to psychedelics while creating government \u2018wellness farms\u2019 to \u2018heal\u2019 individuals with addiction to \u2018psychiatric drugs,\u2019 including attention deficit disorder (ADD) medication,\u201d the letter says, urging lawmakers to block the nominee from leading the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).<\/p>\n AAF also insisted Kennedy is unqualified due to \u201cnumerous, widely reported, personal failings,\u201d later pointing to his previous struggle with heroin addiction.<\/p>\n \u201cRFK has publicly acknowledged that he was addicted to heroin for 14 years. In 1983, he was arrested for heroin possession and pled guilty,\u201d the bullet point says.<\/p>\n RFK Jr. has supported dangerous health-related conspiracy theories, abortion-on-demand, and increasing access to psychedelics. Senators must approach this selection with clear eyes and reject his nomination to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n Read our letter \u2014 Advancing American Freedom (@AmericanFreedom) January 21, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The letter also points to Kennedy\u2019s concerns about vaccines and support for abortion rights as reasons GOP senators should reject him.<\/p>\n \u201cAny one of these controversies should be disqualifying for a potential HHS leader. Ultimately, it is of the utmost importance that Senators approach RFK\u2019s nomination with clear eyes,\u201d the letter says. \u201cWhatever the merits of RFK\u2019s Make America Healthy Again initiative and the need to reform America\u2019s broken healthcare system, his constant embrace of conspiracy theories and personal moral failings will severely hamstring his ability to reform HHS.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Conservative Movement has a deep bench of courageous leaders who are willing to reform HHS to serve the American people without RFK\u2019s baggage,\u201d the PAC said<\/a>. \u201cWe strongly encourage you to embrace your constitutional advise and consent duty by rejecting the nomination of RFK.\u201d<\/p>\n To what extent, if at all, the letter carries weight with the Republican caucus is yet to be seen. GOP senators have broadly embraced the idea that President Donald Trump\u2019s election victory equates to a mandate from voters, meaning his cabinet choices should be confirmed regardless of any individual reservations about their backgrounds or qualifications.<\/p>\n And for certain cannabis and psychedelics stakeholders, Kennedy\u2019s potential ascent to helm HHS represents a key opportunity given his advocacy for departing with the status quo and the unique authority he\u2019d yield to see through reform objectives.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) recently pressed Kennedy to reiterate his position on marijuana legalization<\/a> amid the ongoing effort to federally reschedule cannabis, submitting a 34-page letter to the nominee that lays out a series of questions about his views on a wide range of policy issues, including cannabis, psychedelics and harm reduction.<\/p>\n Kennedy followed a dizzying path to the Trump administration, entering the 2024 presidential election as a Democratic candidate before switching to independent as he lagged in the polls and then eventually endorsing the GOP nominee.<\/p>\n In October, Kennedy specifically criticized the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the agency\u2019s \u201csuppression of psychedelics\u201d and a laundry list of other issues that he said amounted to a \u201cwar on public health\u201d that would end under the Trump administration.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a top U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) official recently said it\u2019s\u00a0\u201cvery encouraging\u201d that Kennedy supports psychedelics reform<\/a>\u2014and he hopes to work with him on the issue if he stays on for the next administration.<\/p>\n Not everyone shares VA Under Secretary for Health Shereef Elnahal\u2019s enthusiasm for Kennedy as the potential HHS secretary, however. Author Michael Pollan, for example, said that Trump\u2019s pick could\u00a0prove \u201cvery dangerous\u201d to the psychedelics movement<\/a>\u2014even though he is a supporter of reform.<\/p>\n He said the prospective nominee might pursue federal reform in a way that delegitimizes the science behind substances such as psilocybin.<\/p>\n By contrast, Rick Perry\u2014a former governor of Texas who also served in the first Trump administration\u2014recently said the president-elect\u2019s choices for key health policy positions, including Kennedy,\u00a0are a \u201cgreat gift\u201d for the psychedelics reform movement<\/a>, particularly as it concerns access to ibogaine as a treatment option for serious mental health conditions.<\/p>\n Kennedy also shares a pro-reform perspective with other prospective nominees such as his pics for director of national intelligence, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D\/R-HI), and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk.<\/p>\n Government Watchdog Group Sues Federal Health Agency Over Failure To Release Marijuana Rescheduling Records<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Image element courtesy of Gage Skidmore<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The post Senate Should Reject RFK As Trump\u2019s Health Secretary For Supporting Marijuana And Psychedelics Reform, Mike Pence\u2019s PAC Says<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A political action committee founded by former Vice President Mike Pence is gunning to undermine the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the head of the nation\u2019s top health agency\u2014in part by drawing attention to his support for marijuana and psychedelics reform, as well as his personal history withContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":79956,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79955"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79955"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79957,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79955\/revisions\/79957"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Senate Should Reject RFK As Trump\u2019s Health Secretary For Supporting Marijuana And Psychedelics Reform, Mike Pence\u2019s PAC Says<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"