Hello! It’s been a while. This morning, I was minding my own business writing a behavioral healthcare newsletter, when I came across this gem of a story which I immediately dissected for you to enjoy 

Let’s talk about JFK Jr.’s healing farms

Addiction treatment funded by weed sales, who knew?

You’re all aware — painfully, I am sure — that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. 

Well, he has an ~interesting~ take on America’s addiction crisis, which he aims to fix with healing farms. To catch you up:

• JFR Jr. recently released a 45-minute documentary (and I use that word lightly) about how he plans to “build hundreds of healing farms” to “combat drug addiction.”

• Residents would be able to “spend time as much time as they need, three or four years if they need it” on these farms living off the land and “reparenting” (themselves, we hope).

• Mr. Kennedy wants the farms to be free, and plans to pay for them by — and here’s the kicker — levying a federal tax on marijuana, which he would press to be sold in dispensaries nationwide.

• The healing farms that JFK Jr. harps on about prohibit the use of all psychiatric medication, from methadone to antidepressants.

Here are some key stats from one of the farms he features in his documentary (I am simply physically unable to link to it again), a certain Simple Promise Farms:

🤑 $11k/month (!!) for board and lodging.

🙆 No licensed therapist or medical professionals on site.

🧑‍🌾 Daily activities to heal patients do not include therapy (see above) but do include gardening, tending to livestock, operating tractors, and repairing barns.

So yes, it’s a model where the farmer gets paid to allow people to work on his own land. Hehehe. 

But to touch, sincerely, on a very fair point: Both purpose, e.g., through work, and a supportive community, are key to wellbeing. And, to his credit (I must be feeling gracious today) JFK Jr. wants to provide these healing farm experiences for free. 

It’s how he plans to do it that’s totally insane raising eyebrows. 

Punting weed to fund addiction treatment amid the growing issue of cannabis use disorder seems ironic, to be polite. And banning all psychiatric medication in addiction treatment centers, given that options like methadone can reduce drug-related deaths by ~60%, rather goes against medical logic. Never mind the 3+ year timeline he wants to extend to (non-paying!) residents.

When God closes a door, he opens a window and lets out a Kennedy. Let’s hope this one becomes more partial to evidence-based action.

Tidbits

🧬 AI may be able to create younger human cells — and thus extend the human lifespan. OpenAI and startup Retro Biosciences have created an AI model to reprogram human skin cells into younger, stem-cell-like versions. The long-term vision is to build human organs and provide supplies of replacement cells. Cool. Scary.

😴 You can now test out bougie, high-end sleep tech, and contribute to sleep research at Equinox Hotels. The chain has partnered with sleep expert Dr. Matthew Walker to help guests optimize their sleep and even fight jet lag. People can opt-in to share their data with Dr. Walker’s lab, which is pretty rad, given sleep data is notoriously difficult to collect. 

💦 A Swedish startup just landed ~$22M to remove PFAs from water. Chromafora is trying to do what we’ve all been waiting for: find a solution to mass-remove harmful “forever chemicals” from water sources.

Thank you for reading! If you find yourself frequently enjoying these essays and you’re inclined to forward one to a friend, please do. Nerds are terrible at self-promotion, obviously.

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