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What substances did RFK Jr. struggle with and during which periods of his life?
Executive summary
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly said he struggled with heroin beginning in his teens and lasting into adulthood, a addiction he has described as roughly 14 years long in some interviews [1] [2]. Reporting and profiles also say his substance use included other drugs—cocaine and marijuana are mentioned in accounts of his college years—and that his addiction was framed by him and reporters as rooted in family trauma after his father's assassination [3] [4] [5].
1. Teen years — “heroin began at 15,” according to Kennedy’s own accounts
Kennedy has publicly stated that his heroin use began in his mid-teens; multiple outlets and fact-checkers note he has admitted to heroin addiction beginning as a teenager, with some pieces reporting he said it began around age 15 [2] [1]. Profiles recount that his drug use escalated through adolescence, reflecting his own framing of those years as the start of a long struggle [2].
2. College / Harvard era — continued heroin use and reports of cocaine
Contemporaneous and later accounts say that Kennedy continued using heroin while at Harvard and that cocaine use was also part of his drug history in that period. The Wikipedia entry cited in the dataset reports that “at Harvard, Kennedy continued to use heroin and cocaine,” and other profiles repeat that pattern from his youth into college [3]. Earlier news coverage and profiles similarly describe collegiate-era substance use involving heroin and other drugs [5].
3. Adulthood — “14-year battle” and recovery narrative
Several contemporary news items and profiles describe Kennedy as having a roughly 14-year battle with heroin addiction that extended into adulthood before he sought recovery; Snopes and regional reporting summarize his own admissions that the heroin addiction spanned his teenage years into adulthood [2] [1]. In later life he has characterized himself as “in recovery,” credited faith and 12-step meetings, and said he continues to attend meetings [1] [6].
4. Other substances and earlier incidents — marijuana, alcohol, arrests
Reporting and biographical summaries mention marijuana possession arrests and broader substance experimentation in youth. Profiles that cover his troubled adolescent period note he was expelled or kicked out of schools and arrested for marijuana possession, indicating a pattern of varied substance use in his earlier life [5] [3].
5. Family context and stated causes — trauma, grief, and a car crash
Both Kennedy and multiple reporters link his substance use to trauma from family tragedies—most prominently the assassination of his father—and to additional events such as a serious car crash experienced by his brother, which family members say worsened family addiction patterns. Newsweek and other profiles present that causation as part of Kennedy’s public account of why he turned to drugs [4] [5].
6. How Kennedy frames it today — recovery, faith, and policy implications
Kennedy frames his past as a pathway to advocacy: he emphasizes prevention, community, spiritual life and rehabilitation philosophies like 12-step programs and “wellness farms,” and has said his experience drives his policy views on addiction treatment [6] [7] [8]. Health-affairs and other public-health voices note his personal history but express concern about some of his preferred approaches and the potential policy consequences [9] [8].
7. Disagreements and limits in reporting — what sources agree on and what they don’t
Sources in this collection consistently agree Kennedy struggled with heroin beginning in his teens and continuing into adulthood; multiple outlets cite his own admissions [2] [1]. They also report cocaine use during college and marijuana arrests earlier on [3] [5]. Available sources do not provide a comprehensive, day-by-day timeline or medical records detailing exact start and end dates for each substance; they rely largely on Kennedy’s own statements and contemporaneous reporting [2] [3].
8. Takeaway — credible admissions, varied substances, recovery emphasized
The available reporting establishes that RFK Jr. admits to a heroin addiction that began in adolescence and extended into adulthood (often described as about 14 years), and profiles add that cocaine and marijuana were part of his substance-use history during school years. He now presents himself as recovered and uses that history to inform his views on addiction policy, although public-health commentators express differing views on the appropriateness of some of his policy prescriptions [2] [1] [3] [8].