Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took a hard look back at the extreme depths of his past drug use.
The current Secretary of Health and Human Services, 72, made the shocking revelation during the Wednesday, February 12, episode of the “This Past Weekend With Theo Von” podcast that he used to “snort cocaine off toilet seats” while discussing his choice to attend in-person addiction support group meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We still did my meetings every day during COVID,” Kennedy told host Theo Von in the podcast episode. “It was kind of a pirate group. For me, I said this when we came in, ‘I don’t care what happens. I’m going to a meeting everyday.’”
He then quipped, “I’m not scared of a germ. I used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats. I know this disease [addiction] will kill me. If I don’t treat it, which for me means going to meetings everyday, it’s just bad for my life. For me, it was just survival.”
Kennedy clarified that he’d been in recovery for “43 years” and first met Von when they attended the same addiction support group.
His comments on “This Past Weekend” were far from the first time Kennedy has made startling claims about his past drug use. He alleged on the “Shawn Ryan Show” podcast in June 2024 that heroin actually improved his academic performance in the 1970s.
“I did very, very poorly in school, until I started doing narcotics,” he claimed. “Then I went to the top of my class because my mind was so restless and turbulent and I could not sit still. … It worked for me. And if it still worked, I’d still be doing it.”
In that same interview, Kennedy described addiction as a “compulsion” that eventually “hollows out your whole life.”
The Trump administration official delved into his history with addiction during a speech at the Rx and Illicit Drug Summit in May 2025. Per Kennedy, he battled addiction for 14 years before checking into a 12-step recovery program in 1983.
He recalled an early drug experience at age 15 when he took LSD at a party and endured “very, very intense hallucinations.” The next morning, Kennedy felt miserable for breaking a pledge he’d made at school to never drink or do drugs.
“In the morning, I was remorseful,” he remembered. “I was kicking myself and saying, ‘You swore you would never do this, you broke your commitment to yourself.’ I swore to myself [that] I would never take drugs again.”
However, Kennedy had many more experiences with drugs throughout his teenage years. The politician said he used to feel as if there was a “hole” inside him that he filled with drugs.
“Every addict feels that way in one way or another — that they have to fix what’s wrong with them, and the only thing that works are drugs,” he said. “And so threats that you might die, that you’re going to ruin your life are completely meaningless.”
Kennedy influences the administration’s addiction policy as part of his job heading up the Department of Health and Human Services, though he has faced criticism for his policies on public health, obesity and vaccine regulations. Nutritional experts recently took issue with Kennedy’s new “inverted food pyramid” placing high-quality proteins, healthy fats, and whole vegetables at the top and encouraging more consumption of meats, dairy and eggs.
One person who is seemingly not following Kennedy’s nutritional advice is President Donald Trump. Kennedy claimed on “The Katie Miller Podcast” in January that Trump has “the most unhinged eating habits” he’d ever seen.
“You know, the interesting thing about the president is that he eats really bad food, which is McDonald’s. And then, you know, candy and Diet Coke. But he drinks the Diet Coke at all times,” he admitted.
Kennedy then quipped, “[Trump] has the constitution of a deity. I don’t know how he’s alive, but he is.”
