Lev Facher , 2025-04-24 19:48:00
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appearance at a major addiction and drug policy conference was marked by repeated interruptions on Thursday, as protesters and jeers forced him to pause and wait for noise to subside at least five times during his 36-minute speech.
A packed and deeply divided audience at the Rx and Illicit Drug Summit, taking place at a conference center on the city’s outskirts, applauded the health secretary as he entered and exited the stage. Kennedy’s speech was more personal than political, touching on his experience with addiction, 12-step recovery, his daily habits, and his views on family and smartphones, among other topics. But his remarks were disrupted numerous times by protesters who attempted to shout him down or carried signs opposing various Kennedy stances.
Two attendees sitting in the section nearest to Kennedy made no attempt to interrupt his speech, but held signs in the direction of the stage, one of which read “autism is not a disease,” an apparent reference to a press conference this week during which he said autism “destroys families” and mischaracterized it as a “preventable disease.” Much of the audience cheered them as security escorted them from the room.
One protester holding a small “cuts kill” sign — likely in response to cancellations of addiction-related grant money and the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to federal health agencies — screamed “RFK is not OK” as he was ushered out. Another yelled “respect science!” Still another protester yelled, simply, “f— you.” Several times, Kennedy paused as much of the crowd cheered in apparent support of the protesters as security guards walked them to the exit.
Two protesters who traveled to the conference from Binghamton, N.Y., after learning Kennedy had been invited to speak, brought a large red banner also bearing the “Cuts Kill” slogan. They were escorted out before they could fully display the banner, but unfurled it prominently at the top of a staircase just steps outside the ballroom. Dozens of conference attendees leaving the conference center hugged, high-fived, and thanked them as they passed.
“You have a lot of public health officials in there who are being harmed by the budget cuts, and people wondering if they’re gonna have jobs — a lot of people don’t have jobs,” one of the protesters, Alexis Pleus, said in an interview. “It’s a slap in the face to people in public health to have somebody who’s gutting public health” speak at the conference, she said.
Pleus, who founded a harm reduction organization after losing her son to an overdose in 2014, flew to Nashville on Wednesday after hearing Kennedy was slated to speak. His appearance, which was only announced as the conference was beginning on Monday, surprised many conference attendees who had already traveled to Tennessee and prompted scattered pushback on social media. Beyond budget cuts, Pleus took issue with Kennedy’s proposal to create a nationwide system of “wellness farms” for addiction recovery, calling them “work camps.”
In an interview, Kelly Clark, a prominent addiction physician and policy expert who sits on the conference’s advisory board, said that the Rx Summit has been bipartisan throughout its history and “has always invited Cabinet-level leaders” to speak, regardless of their political affiliation.
“It’s important for us to talk together, to understand, and build bridges and consensus,” she said.
The conference has historically welcomed officials from both major parties, including Trump, former President Barack Obama, and Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.). This year’s, by contrast, featured several prominent Republicans but no major Democrats.
Clark, who was not present Thursday, granted that by the conference’s standards, the crowd’s reaction to Kennedy’s speech was “unusual.”
The atmosphere was charged throughout the week: According to three attendees present, several hundred people walked out of the room during a notably partisan speech from Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), with many doing so after she claimed the Biden administration “surrendered our southern border to drug traffickers.” And at one point during remarks from Attorney General Pam Bondi, an attendee won cheers when she interrupted the speech to yell “respect the Constitution!” and “everyone deserves due process.”
Despite the protests, it was clear Kennedy also enjoyed substantial support among many of the conference’s attendees, who typically come from a wide range of disciplines: medicine, public health, harm reduction, and law enforcement.
His remarks generally steered clear of politics. Kennedy made few references to President Trump and no mention of specific sources of controversy, like his rhetoric linking autism to vaccinations, the ongoing measles outbreak in the Southwest, or his recent dismissal of many thousands of Department of Health and Human Services employees.
Instead, he focused largely on his personal experience with drug use and addiction to heroin and alcohol. Kennedy recalled his first experiences with drugs: taking an LSD tab and methamphetamine after a party on Cape Cod as a teenager, shortly before he began to use heroin.
At many points, his remarks won approval from the audience, including a round of applause for a story he uses often: a conversation in which one of his cousins referred to 12-step recovery as “brainwashing.”
“If somebody had said to me at that time that I could get brainwashed, I’d say, bring it on,” he said. “Because my brain needed washing.”
Kennedy also earned a hearty laugh by sharing another anecdote related to his recovery: that in an effort to support routine and moral decision-making, he makes his bed every morning even when staying in a hotel, which he called “insane.”
More broadly, Kennedy cited the national mood as a contributor to overdose death tolls, including a recent survey that showed American children expressed little pride in their country. He also argued that smartphones were a leading cause of social isolation that, in turn, “feeds the addiction crisis,” and that stronger family units would help prevent addiction.
At one point, however, he said the nation had lost “106,000 kids” to the addiction and overdose crisis last year, though that number represents U.S. overdose deaths among all ages in 2023, not children.
Notably, Kennedy brought up the importance of three medications used to treat opioid addiction — buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone — without qualification, referring to them as among the “nuts and bolts” of the nation’s drug crisis response. Historically, use of buprenorphine and methadone has been highly stigmatized in the U.S., and even now, barely one-fifth of people with opioid use disorder receive medications to treat it.
“We need prevention, we need education, and we need treatment,” he said to applause.
And when a protester called out an expletive from the back of the room, he responded, in jest, “thank you very much,” prompting laughter and one of the morning’s loudest and most sustained cheers.
Kennedy also received a warm reception from Doug Edwards, a high-ranking official at HMP Education, the conference’s organizer. During his introductory remarks, Edwards cited Kennedy’s history as the founder of Children’s Health Defense, which he said left him “deeply familiar with the science of human health.” He did not mention that the organization, which Kennedy left in 2023, has a long history of casting doubt on the safety of vaccines.
As Kennedy left the stage, a large group of audience members seated front and center stood to applaud.
Still, several conference attendees said Kennedy’s remarks failed to quell the uncertainty that his own actions have caused.
Andrew Kessler, a Washington-based addiction policy consultant who attended the conference but not Kennedy’s address, said most people “understand that the secretary of HHS is worthy of an invitation to a conference focused on a great challenge in public health.”
But as a result of the administration’s actions, “many of the conference attendees seem to have a sense of fear about their future and the future of funding when it comes to substance use disorder prevention, treatment, and recovery,” he said. “Many were hopeful that proposed changes to HHS structure and priorities would be addressed by Mr. Kennedy, but they were not.”
STAT’s coverage of chronic health issues is supported by a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Our financial supporters are not involved in any decisions about our journalism.
