RFK Could Be ‘Dangerous’ To Psychedelics Reform As Top Federal Health Official By Making Issue Seem ‘Kooky,’ Michael Pollan Says

Author Michael Pollan says President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) could be “very dangerous” to the psychedelics movement—even though he is a supporter of reform.

Pollan, who helped put psychedelics into the mainstream with books like “How to Change Your Mind,” told Politico that he’s concerned Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of HHS might pursue federal reform in a way that delegitimizes the science behind substances such as psilocybin.

“The fact that someone this high up in this administration is supportive of psychedelic-assisted therapy is encouraging in one way,” he said. “But in another, I think it could be very dangerous to the movement, because if the science of psychedelics gets tangled up with the anti-science agenda around vaccines or fluoride, that could do long-term damage to psychedelics.”

Pollan is referring to Kennedy’s controversial anti-vaccine views and position that fluoride should not be added to the water supply based on conspiratorial beliefs about its health impacts.

“Psychedelics should be approved because the science is good, not because they have a fan in the White House,” he said, adding that while some in the psychedelics community are “fervently hoping” that Kennedy and other pro-reform Trump picks will “force the hand” of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve psychedelics as medicine, “politically, I don’t think that’s a good way to go, long-term.”

“You don’t want to tangle psychedelics up with the kind of science that RFK Jr. has been promoting,” he said. “My worry is that his embrace will make psychedelics seem kooky, and they’re anything but kooky.”

Michael Pollan Is Not Endorsing RFK Jr. – POLITICO https://t.co/jjPS1HyjWZ

— Michael Pollan (@michaelpollan) November 21, 2024

Pollan also said that the decision by FDA earlier this year to reject an application to approve MDMA-assisted therapy for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was a “big hiccup,” but that eventual approval is “going to happen.”

“They’re asking for more research, and Lykos, the company that brought MDMA to the FDA, is going to do that research, and presumably science will eventually come to the right conclusion,” he said. “If the science is as good as the promoters think it is, then it will be approved under its own steam, without forcing it down the throat of the FDA.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s pick to run the FDA is a medical marijuana skeptic, promoting claims that cannabis use is linked to cardiovascular issues and mental health problems for youth. He has also suggested that marijuana is a gateway drug. His views of psychedelics are unclear.

While Pollan’s focus has been centered on the science of psychedelics, he’s also previously stirred controversy on the policy end. For example, after Denver made history by becoming the first U.S. city to decriminalize psilocybin, he penned an op-ed for The New York Times that suggested “ballot initiatives may not be the smartest way” to change psychedelics laws and that advocates should wait for federal approval before legalizing the substance for medical purposes.

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Photo elements courtesy of carlosemmaskype and Apollo.