Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he didn’t fear germs, noting he previously snorted “cocaine off of toilet seats” during a Thursday episode of “This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von.”
The podcast episode began with Kennedy disclosing that he and Von met in recovery from substance abuse years ago. Kennedy explained that he continued attending in-person recovery meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic despite the closure of the venue they previously used, saying he wasn’t frightened of the illness.
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“We still did live meetings every day during COVID. We moved from the bank,” Kennedy said. “There was about 15 of us who moved from the bank and we got into the Palisades Playhouse, which now is burned down during the fire, but it was kind of a pirate group … I don’t care what happens, I’m going to a meeting every day. And I said, I’m not scared of a germ. You know, I used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats. And I know this disease will kill me, right?”
“If I don’t treat it, which means, for me, going to meetings every day, it’s just bad for my life. So for me it was survival,” he added. “And then the opportunity to help another alcoholic, that’s the secret sauce of the meetings. And that’s what keeps us all sober and keeps us from self-will.”
Kennedy has a family history of addiction. He previously recounted the story of the first time he took LSD at 15 years old, which put him on a path to heroin addiction, during an April summit in Nashville, Tennessee.
“I said to the guy, ‘If I take that, will I see dinosaurs?’ He said, ‘You might,’” Kennedy told the crowd at HMP Global’s Rx and Illicit Drug Summit 2025.
The HHS secretary has been transparent regarding his history of drug use and decades-long experience in recovery programs.
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