A GOP senator says he and President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the nation’s top health agency, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., recently met and discussed the “importance” of “preventing the expansion of marijuana.”
Ahead of a Senate confirmation vote for Kennedy’s nomination to head up the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) shared photos of the two meeting to talk about several of the senator’s priorities, including reducing cannabis access.
While Kennedy was vocal about his support for marijuana legalization when he was running for president himself, as well as during his time on the Trump transition team, he’s become notably silent on the issue as he works to win over senators to secure confirmation to the HHS role. He’s already been cleared by the Senate Finance Committee.
Now Ricketts—who filed a bill on Thursday alongside Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) that seeks to prevent the marijuana industry from taking federal tax deductions even if it’s rescheduling—is signaling that he’s putting pressure on Kennedy to adopt an anti-cannabis position as HHS secretary.
“We discussed the importance of supporting Nebraska agriculture, protecting the right to life, and preventing the expansion of marijuana,” Ricketts said on Friday.
However, he didn’t clearly indicate whether Kennedy was receptive to those messages.
That said, despite the nominee’s history of advocating for cannabis legalization, he said last month that he will defer to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on marijuana rescheduling if confirmed.
That could complicate rescheduling given the fact that the current acting administrator of DEA, Derek Maltz, has made multiple comments expressing hostility to cannabis reform.
Separately, anti-marijuana Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) told Marijuana Moment on Wednesday that it’s “definitely” time to have a talk with Kennedy to convince him that “marijuana is harmful” and that the way to make Americans healthy is by “limiting” its use.
Prior to Kennedy’s written responses to the Finance Committee, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) recently pressed Kennedy to reiterate his position on marijuana legalization amid the ongoing effort to federally reschedule cannabis.
Meanwhile, a political action committee founded by former Vice President Mike Pence has been gunning to undermine the confirmation Kennedy as HHS secretary—in part by drawing attention to his support for marijuana and psychedelics reform, as well as his personal history with substance misuse.
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.
In October, Kennedy specifically criticized the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the agency’s “suppression of psychedelics” and a laundry list of other issues that he said amounted to a “war on public health” that would end under the Trump administration.
Meanwhile, a top U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) official recently said it’s “very encouraging” that Kennedy supports psychedelics reform—and he hopes to work with him on the issue if he stays on for the next administration.
Not everyone shares VA Under Secretary for Health Shereef Elnahal’s enthusiasm for Kennedy as the potential HHS secretary, however. Author Michael Pollan, for example, said that Trump’s pick could prove “very dangerous” to the psychedelics movement—even though he is a supporter of reform.
He said the prospective nominee might pursue federal reform in a way that delegitimizes the science behind substances such as psilocybin.
By contrast, Rick Perry—a former governor of Texas who also served in the first Trump administration—recently said the president-elect’s choices for key health policy positions, including Kennedy, are a “great gift” for the psychedelics reform movement, particularly as it concerns access to ibogaine as a treatment option for serious mental health conditions.
Pennsylvania Governor Will Put Marijuana Legalization In His Budget, But Top GOP Senator Remains Skeptical
Photo via X/Senator Ricketts.
The post GOP Senator Pushes RFK Jr. On ‘Preventing The Expansion Of Marijuana’ As Trump’s Health Secretary appeared first on Marijuana Moment.
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