RFK Jr. Says He’ll Send People Taking Adderall to Labor Camps
RFK Jr. Says He’ll Send People Taking Adderall to Labor Camps
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to strip people of their tech gadgets and send them to government-funded "wellness farms" to grow organic food.
I fucking HATE these clickbait headlines. Read the dang article and look at the quotes:
"I’m going to create these wellness farms where they can go to get off of illegal drugs, off of opiates, but also illegal drugs, other psychiatric drugs, if they want to, to get off of SSRIs, to get off of benzos, to get off of Adderall, and to spend time as much time as they need — three or four years if they need it— to learn to get reparented, to reconnect with communities," he said during the broadcast. (emphasis added)
RFK is a total whackjob, but it's pretty clear he's talking about some kind of voluntary "farm therapy" (which probably isn't demonstrably effective anyway) and not a concentration camp.
PLEASE we got enough bombastic language and clickbait over the Biden years. There are PLENTY of things wrong with the actual quote above without taking us into clickbait territory.
Let's criticize him on the grounds of being scientific but proposing very un-scientific actions. Let's criticize him for proposing ineffective solutions, but please, focus on his ACTUAL statement instead of trying to fluff it into some goddamn headline.
Although these wellness farms might seem like a worthwhile idea on paper, there are plenty of ways these kinds of systems could be rife with abuse. It's also unclear how different they would really be from the rehabilitation facilities that already exist across the country, and RFK's claims that most of the issues come down to not eating organic food also don't seem to be based on hard science.
https://www.distractify.com/p/rfk-wellness-farms
Means well but it sounds here like they'll be volunteering at a farm for 3-4 uears, wasting their time
Voluntary, as in NYPD saying you’ll be arrested if you don’t voluntarily go into their overcrowded bedbug homeless shelter?
This is not as benign as you think. RFK already thinks vaccines annd prescribed meds are child abuse.
can we report this sort of thing here? downvoting has never worked.
Lemmy needs a few more things, like reporting and time sort etc
Assuming this is government funded, I'd be more than happy to spend a couple of years at such a place. I need to take a break from reality and not worry about bills for a bit.
Some additional context: RFK proposed these farms will be funded by sales tax on cannabis products. Whether you consider that government funded or not is up to you.
Time to add futurism.com to my block list. What a useless rag.
100% They are part of the death of journalism. Inaccurate, hyped headlines that disagree with the body of the article. Designed to get "engagement" and not to inform. Fuck them.
You clearly have not read the history of Nazi era labor camps. They had very nice sounding propaganda for Germans to believe too.
Don't kid yourself. They mean forced labor camps.
I have read the history of Nazi era labor camps. I do not believe every outcome that occurred in Nazi Germany will occur here. Since neither Trump, nor RFK, is in charge yet, you and I can only conjecture about what they will do once they are in charge. I prefer to restrict my criticism to their stated plans instead of these hyperbolic statements, but you do you.
I guess under the same reasoning that this will be Nazi Germany, we will also be doing a land invasion of Mexico and/or Canada for more "living space". If you don't believe that to be true, then the best I can say is we will have a partial overlap with Nazi Germany. Assuming you do not believe there will be a land-invasion of our closest neighboring countries, can you explain what parts of Nazi Germany I can expect and what I cannot?
So far, I understand your reasoning to be that Trump and Co. have identical goals to Nazi Germany. I am curious how this meshes with Trump's broad support of Israel, which would probably be in conflict with the antisemitism of Nazi Germany.
Stop fucking sane washing him. "If they want to" is a dubious statement coming from anyone in this authoritarian administration.
The fact that he brings up "reparenting", it seems fairly obvious that this is going to be done by authority of the state. He's talking about taking people's kids away from them if they medicate their children as recommended by their doctors.
Stop fucking sane washing him
You'll notice I called him a "total whackjob". I do not say he is sane. However, I wish to criticize what he ACTUALLY said instead of some bombastic caricature of his plan. In no way do I support or endorse RFK, but let's be accurate with our criticism.
Who decides if they need it ?
According to the RFK quote above, the person themselves. According to a lot of the posters in this thread: Republican Death Squads.
Sure, totally voluntary. With barbed wire, guards, prison gangs, and court orders. Just like the reform schools for teenagers.
You should go write for futurism.com.
I got into great shape mentally and physically with a limited diet and constant farm chores. Of course, I was alone and not surrounded by brain worms piloting human hosts so maybe that was what worked.
Reading the actual quote makes it sound a lot WORSE.
Less like "farm therapy" and more like:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_to_the_Countryside_Movement
I actually like the idea, if they fund it.
I could go away for a year no questions asked.Assuming it is implemented as RFK says, I agree. I can see some people choosing to take some time on a farm to try to address their drug addictions.
Since neither Trump (nor RFK) have a track record of delivering, I will believe it when I see it. If people in the USA wrestling with drug addiction had a choice to work at a wellness farm it seems like a positive development to me. Since Team Trump is big on words and short on action, I won't give them the benefit of the doubt here. I suspect it's just another entry in the long list of stuff they talk about and then don't actually do.
from the description it sounds like public healthcare, rehab. yea, it sounds good
So they're just already saying the "camps" part out loud, eh? I guess when you have Hitler's playbook, you can move faster than Hitler did.
Just sounds like torture camps people voluntarily go to. Why would they remain voluntary? These people think public facilities that give out small doses to prevent people from dying from withdrawal and needle dispenseries to prevent STIs are immoral, so we all know it's torture. This is obvious whether you read the article or not for all of the nuance trolls.
This is part of some rural grift facilities which probably started with "trouble teens". In recent years I've seen reports of these "farms" for "distressed" women. It's usually a place with Ranch in the name. Example: https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2021/11/18/the-christian-maternity-ranch-in-texas-is-a-disaster-in-the-making/
Permaculture farms, for example, are already well known for relying on abusive work conditions. See Joel Salatin:
https://medium.com/permaculture-3-0/fall-of-a-hero-f9ac80a08c0c
you have to ask yourself what is the actual goal of the incoming administration.
once you understand that, everything else will make sense.
Some sort of camp to help ADHD folks work on their concentration?
I imagine a terrible, awful future Forest Gump remake.
“They had these camps that helped folks with their concentration or something like that. They said I was a shine-ning example, so I got to meet the president of the United States, again.”
“They tell me this guy is the best example. Got treated, got rich in shrimp. What a guy! Our camps are great, the best camps in all the world.”
Camera pans to Trump shaking hands with Kim Jong Un.
“In Korea, everybody got these pic-tures of their leader on the wall. We got those in Alabama too.”
Laughed too hard at this. It’s a Focus Group!!!
call it a focus village or soemthing
Is he not aware that the fascist pumpkin he will be working for pops those like breath mints?? Please do send that rapist con man to a labor camp.
Yes I am sure not being hypocrites is high on their list of concerns
Internal consistency was never their strong point.
Being Human was never their strong point. :)
The death cultists: It only counts if you have a prescription.
I think this is how they plan on making up for immigrant labor.
But lol if you want systemic food shortages this is a great way to go. Farm labor isn’t easy, it can’t be carried out by someone who is addicted enough to the point that they need this farm to get better. Farm labor needs to be reliant and self-directed, and drug addicts are not reliable and can barely direct their lives.
People on depression or adhd meds are not necessarily drug addicts. I can’t believe we have such incompetent people in charge now.
The plan to make up for immigrant labor is prison labor. Tank the economy, further criminalize homelessness. Wouldn't be shocked if debters prisons make a big comeback.
Seems the country is being run by lunatics, not sure how America is going to survive this. There’s no such thing as a planned and controlled economic collapse, wonder what happens if another country pounces on America while it’s trying to recover. All of this seems like a bad idea for national security too. What a mess.
what the hell. staying in Canada.
Fuck that.
I strongly dislike how the argument hinges on the very movable goalpost of "illegal" drugs. It has this awful moralizing "protect the kids while we destroy privacy", vibe to it.
At first I though this would require an end-run on HIPAA, but all they really need to do is re-schedule a bunch of therapeutic drugs. Or ignore the FDA entirely and just enforce a ban by edict (somehow) through a different agency. I don't think we've ever seen federal agencies openly disagree like that before, but I think it's possible. Also: big pharma may have something to say about all this.
Like a lot of the nonsense coming from this cabinet, it'll test the crap out of state's rights.
Big pharma will love it. All the drugs they made with expired patents are now illegal. Good thing they've got a very, very, very similar drug that meets all the necessary criteria, all lined up and ready to replace it (with a brand new patent, of course).
There has been some controversy about AstraZeneca's behaviour in creating, patenting, and marketing the drug. Esomeprazole's successful predecessor, omeprazole, is a mixture of two mirror-imaged molecules (esomeprazole which is the S-enantiomer, and R-omeprazole); critics said the company was trying to "evergreen" its omeprazole patent by patenting the pure esomeprazole and aggressively marketing to doctors that it is more effective than the mixture.[50]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esomeprazole
While the impact of CFCs from inhalers on the ozone layer had been minuscule (dwarfed by industrial processes using CFCs), the FDA in its interpretation of the Montreal Protocol mandated the switch in propellants.[17] Patients expressed concern about the high price of the HFA inhalers as there were initially no generic versions, whereas generic CFC inhalers had been available.[18]
Why would they need to do an end run around on the FDA? its been misclassifying drugs as schedule one for almost 60y now.
BY THEIR OWN CHOICE
"if they want to"
And a tax on cannabis sales would fund these farms, he proposed.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but... is he really suggesting a federal tax on a federally illegal substance?
You hope he is just being clever and indirectly talking about legalizing cannabis, but you know that in reality he is just so incompetent that he has no idea what he is talking about.
Well, yeah? Tax stamps have pretty much always been required, and yes, on illegal weed.
https://norml.org/laws/tax-stamps/
https://taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/why-do-states-tax-illegal-drugs
If it makes money, yes.
Correct me if I'm wrong but are you pretending you don't know the war on drugs to be utter bullshit that's damaging society?
If he comes for my antidepressants he can haul me off but he can't make me cooperate.
It's going to be like those troubled teenager reform schools. They will torture non compliance.
"I’m going to create these wellness farms where they can go to get off of illegal drugs, off of opiates, but also illegal drugs, other psychiatric drugs, if they want to, to get off of SSRIs, to get off of benzos, to get off of Adderall, and to spend time as much time as they need — three or four years if they need it — to learn to get reparented, to reconnect with communities," he said during the broadcast.
Isn’t it neat how he mixes in prescribed medical treatments? Neato.
Uh yeah, no.
I once thought it might be an idea to try and back off from 100mg sertraline to 50mg sertraline and on day two I wanted to strangle people. You can take my SSRIs from my cold dead hands.
Yeah, I'm on 300mg sertraline daily, and I sometimes have trouble getting my prescription filled (understandable, it's a way bigger dose than usual)
But if I'm not on it, the suicidal thoughts usually start on day 3
So if they were to take my SSRIs, I would quickly be killed by my own cold, dead hands
He's a big believer in the whole "keeping people on drugs isn't the fix" kind of thinking. It's short-sighted and ignorant of the fact that a lot of people on them have a net benefit to function in society.
What he is proposing is something far more stupid akin to "Well look at me. I've never needed these drugs, and I'm totally fine. WTF, people?"
If you want a country that is doing the proper work to stop jumping to long-term prescriptions as problem solvers, I'm all for that. DO NOT confuse that with these dumb shit he's suggesting though.
He's an ex drug addict.
Yeah, you want to start with making it so I can live a full life without Adderall? Awesome, I’m all for it, start by building a robust and accessible public transportation network that allows for intercity and intracity transportation conveniently at all times of day, because trust me you do not want be driving unmedicated. Then you’re gonna need to solve the unable to maintain employment without meds problem. And even if you do all that I’ll fight you taking my meds tooth and nail because I feel seriously disabled without them and would much rather go without hearing aids than without adderall.
What he is proposing is something far more stupid akin to “Well look at me. I’ve never needed these drugs, and I’m totally fine. WTF, people?”
Except he looks like a reanimated corpse and sounds like a frog that died on a log in a bog.
I agree with the principal sentiment. Except for schizophrenia and other illnesses involving acute psychosis, drugs shouldnt be the permanent solution.
But this requires access to proper psychotherapy, which needs to be part of a consistent concept of slowly reducing the drugs as the condition gets better.
Also this requires a society, where people have enough agency to remove the causes of psychological distress from their life. People getting anxieties is perfectly normal, if they are in constant fear to not be able to pay their bills. People getting depressed is perfectly normal, if they are expected to work a dead end job for the rest of their lifes, etc.
I see none of that coming from the direction of any politician.
EDIT: Wow. People get offended by the idea not to pump people full of drugs for the rest of their lifes, when therapy is a viable alternative. Seriously why do you want people to suffer instead of providing proper healthcare including proper access to therapy and creating life conditions that aren't designed to make people sick? I never thought this to be controversial.
I sure hope there will be people there that know what they're doing. Benzo withdrawal is no joke and can lead to seizures.
Also, "get reparented" is some very sinister cult programming (ie brain washing) language..
Also extremely “these people should not be treated as having the legal autonomy of adults” vibes
It's all the same when you believe in conspiracy theories, are not a Dr., and had a brain worm die in your head.
Also, how in the hell do we not have at least a medical degree as the very 1st requirement for a position that controls/shapes medical care for the country?!
... to spend time as much time as they need — three or four years if they need it — to learn to get reparented, to reconnect with communities ...
Is this paid time/leave? Who does he envision paying for his "wellness farms"? Or is this him envisioning everyone creating some commune farm where everyone is eating mushrooms and killing bears?
does that include his new bosses?
gonna need at least four years to get them all cleaned up and 'reconnected with communities'.
and we better lock 'em all up just to make sure we don't miss a straggler or two.
I don't think they'll be much help without the Adderall.
So his solution to ADHD is a concentration camp?
Sure, that way they can learn to concentrate.
That's what trump said to the ICC when they issued a public statement in 2025 about criminalizing mental illness
When it comes to the brainworm guy - if he really plans on banning vaccines - is he trying to kill off all the old people? Is he trying to kill off all the children?
Yeah, I already started weaning myself off my depression meds. Went cold turkey once, and that was a nightmare. They're planning to kill the VA, so fuck our service. I'm never getting cut off again. I'll switch to natural alternatives, thank you.
Probably still easy to get from Mexico. Your mental health is important and shits about to get a whole lot more depressing
True, and I'll consider that for certain things, but I'm not taking that particular risk again. Mental health is nothing to toy with, and cold turkey is not an option. I can function generally depressed, no problem. I can't risk memory lapses and emotional whatever the fuck those were.
What the actual fuck.
A lot of Americans have to pass a drug test to get a new job. Perhaps RFK would like if we applied this reasoning to Trump's whole cabinet?
They’re skipping the FBI checks. Safe to say there will be no drug tests.
There was reports on how the white house apothecary was pushing a lot of prescription drugs during his last presidency, so I'll expect RFK to jail all of those.
Phew, glad my psychiatrist prescribed me Ritalin.
Definitely safe
That's great Trump won't last a day in the labor camp.
"Labor camps for thee, not for me." -Trump
Nothing to see here, just politics as usual, the liberals are just trying to scare everyone. /s
As a minority with ADHD I guess I'm fucked.
Wait, which minority? Because you might get "accidentally" deported before you get sent to a "wellness farm".
Summer Camp 2025 here we come! /s
Pol Pot: why not go with the OG version?
They pay your mortgage and buy your kids food while you're there?
Next you’re gonna assume they don’t send a bill when you’re done
lol
Trade offer: you take my Prozac, I go off the deep end and take some fucks with me.
Dexedrine for the win!
Isn't this the plot of A Scanner Darkly?
Yes! Wellness farms that turn out to be corrupt places of forced labor and secretly growing drugs that they push into the community.
Wow, I'm so glad this dipshit who's never had to work a day in his life could give this paternal wisdom to the plebs who might need this medication to retain employment and not die destitute in the streets.
Who knew they just needed to be sent to a farm upstate so they could run free forever and ever?
"[...]to learn to get reparented[...]"
What does that mean?
My therapist encourages me to reparent myself, by which they mean that when I remember something fucked up from my childhood I should try and imagine what would have happened in a loving and supportive environment. Also, they also encourage me to give myself experiences I missed out on as a child. Yes, I sleep with a plushie and it's awesome.
I have no idea what RFK, Jr means. Sounds like brainwashing.
Zen's fascists will control you
One hundred percent natural
You will jog for the master race
And always wear the happy face
Close your eyes, can't happen here
Big bro on white horse is near
The hippies won't come back, you say
Mellow out or you will pay
Mellow out or you will pay
California Über Alles!
As someone who takes Adderall I’m less worried about that than about him attempting to reschedule it to I from II
I'm on Methalphdenadite, don't really know how to spell that...
A very ADHD answer. Methylphenidate. It's the generic name for Ritalin.
Or Concerta depending on exactly what it is. I'm also on methylphenidate and had to check to see if it was Ritalin.
Ritalin is the fast acting version, while Concerta is the slow acting, but longer lasting version. Both use the same active ingredient.
huh
Technically people do owe taxes on revenue from illegal activity. You certainly could put a tax on something that's illegal, I just don't think it would bring in much revenue I'd you're still prosecuting people for that same thing you are taxing.
I am not fan of RFK or any of this incoming administration, but I have to admit....those are going to be the most productive camps in the entire world! 🤣
"You go to a concentration camp and you go to a concentration camp! Everyone goes to a concentration camp!"
Daytime television ratings 100
Edit: Adding this to the top because people probably aren't reading; I said this was bad.
Honestly, from what I've read in the article, if this was said by a reasonable person I'd agree with it. Optional retreats provided for free (paid for by taxes obviously) where people can go and disconnect from a potentially harmful environment? That could actually do wonders for many people, especially if therepy and counciling are provided, and ways to create plans to get away from that environment are created.
Obviously RFK Jr. is not a reasonable man though. I don't think this will be the good possibility I'm thinking of.
It sounds reasonable because at the core it's a mental healthcare system, something this country threw away without a backup plan decades ago.
Just watch out for that Kennedy lobotomy while there, it's a doozy!
I wonder if commenters here went beyond the headline, or bothered to read the quote in the comments.
The actual quote is not remotely as sinister. He said that he will start these community farms (which is not a labour camp for f sake) where addicts (which is not everyone who takes meds, it’s those who do but shouldn’t, of which there are thousands) can voluntarily choose to go, which is a far cry from “I’ll shove anybody who takes antidepressants into a labour camp” as the title suggests.
There are a lot of people who take meds from dealers instead of doctors, who may have started recreationally but are now addicted to them. This is what he is lumping together with other kinds of drug addicts. It’s not even that stupid, it has been shown in studies that addiction is more effectively addressed by giving the person meaningful things to do.
Now you can have your opinion on this idea and you can be skeptical of his implementation and you really should, the guy is a nut job who shouldn’t be allowed within ten kilometres from a government office - but sending regular joes to concentration camps because they take meds is not what he said.
This title is rage bait, don’t fall for it.
Yep, this sounds like the harm reduction approach that the left has been advocating for. It sounds like these are alternatives to prison for people with addictions. Not saying he'll be able to make it work, but "tax cannabis + harm reduction" is much better than what a lot of Republicans' drug policies are.
The problem is:
- RFK wants to ban legal medications and his multiple other statements make it clear he thinks organic food can replace them. That’s creating clear harms for people.
- He may envision this as a voluntary commune but in reality once he has government backing these could be something non consensual. It’s worrisome coming from an openly authoritarian administration.
