RFK Jr. Thinks Poppers Causes AIDS. Is He Behind the Crackdown on the Drug?

"Poppers-friendly" is a pretty common description seen on hook-up sites; but HHS head Robert Kennedy Jr. is poppers-unfriendly. This week, according to Fast Company, "the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is cracking down on their production."

The FDA is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, which Kennedy heads. In the past, Kennedy has erroneously claimed that popper use is linked to contracting AIDS.

Fast Company writes: "This week, many major poppers brands began wiping their websites and social media presences. On Friday, Double Scorpio, a popular isobutyl nitrite brand, posted a statement on its website."

"Double Scorpio has stopped all operations following a search and seizure at our offices by the FDA," it wrote.

Poppers have been popular in the queer community since the late 1960s as a drug to enhance sexual activity. They are also have been a popular club drug since the disco era. Poppers is the slang term for a drug family called alkyl nitrites, which include amyl nitrite, isopropyl nitrite, or butyl nitrite. They were first used in the 19th century as a treatment for heart conditions, such as angina.

When used for recreationally, they produce mild euphoria, warmth, and dizziness with rapid onset and short duration. They became known as "poppers" in the 1970s when vials of amyl nitrate were placed in a glass sleave, then crushed and inhaled. In the United States, amyl nitrate was a prescription drug from 1937 – 1960; but after recreational use increased in the late 1960s, it became a prescription drug again. But butyl nitrate, a comparable variation, remained legal and was bottled for general usage. They were outlawed in 1988 by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988. Distributors turned to a third alkyl nitrate called isopropyl nitrate, but they were banned; but a loophole cited an exception for commercial use, such as a cleaning solvent. At this point the drug received the euphonism, "Video Head Cleaner." But the FDA has been sparse with its crackdowns, save for a few advisories. In 2021, the FDA posted a warning for consumers not to ingest or inhale poppers.

There is no official reason why the crackdown is happening. In its statement, Double Scorpio signaled an industry-wide crackdown.
"We don't have a lot of information to share but we believe that the FDA has performed similar actions towards other companies recently," the brand wrote.

"Two merchants who spoke with Fast Company anonymously to discuss information that wasn't public confirmed that additional producers have also been affected by the apparent crackdown.

"As a matter of policy, the FDA does not comment on possible criminal investigations," an FDA spokesperson wrote to Fast Company."

For some time now the FDA has only made a few advisories on the use of the product, which is widely sold on the internet. But with Kennedy in charge of HHS, it isn't surprising to see the crackdown occurring with distribution all but disappearing overnight. But what's most disturbing is the disinformation at the center of his actions: Kennedy has erroneously claimed the poppers are a cause of AIDS.

Journalist Justin Ling pointed out in 2023 what Kennedy wrote about the supposed link between poppers and AIDS in his fancily-titled trope "The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health." In it he embraces the theories of AIDS denialist Peter Duesberg, who believes recreational drug use and antiretroviral drugs cause AIDS ,and that the HIV-virus is a harmless passenger virus. His theories have been roundly dismissed by the scientific community; nonetheless, Kennedy wrote in his book:

"The HIV virus...was a kind of free rider that was also associated with overlapping lifestyle exposures. Duesberg and many who have followed him offered evidence that heavy recreational drug use in gay men and drug addicts was the real cause of immune deficiency among the first generation of AIDS sufferers. They argued that the initial signals of AIDS, Kaposi's sarcoma and Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), were both strongly linked to amyl nitrite – "poppers" – a popular drug among promiscuous gays. Other common "wasting" symptoms were all associated with heavy drug use and lifestyle stressors."

The queer publication Them wrote last year that Kennedy hasn't "found any evidence that HIV ever actually kills a T-cell," and asserts "that the connection between HIV and AIDS was itself the product of a medical conspiracy with former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci at its head."

And the Watchdog social media account PatriotTakes posted a video of Kennedy speaking to supporters where he said: "100% of the people who died – the first thousand who had AIDS were people who were addicted to poppers." And, "There were people that were part of a gay lifestyle, where they were burning the candle at both ends [...] and there were poppers on sale everywhere at the gay bars."

While use of poppers carries risks, especially when combined with ED medications, they carry a low risk of dependence and addiction. It should be noted that skin contact can cause burns and drinking them can be lethal.

Kennedy's theory has long been rebuked by scientists, beginning with a 1986 study by Dr. Thomas C. Quinn and colleagues in The Lancet found no direct link between poppers and Kaposi's sarcoma. Instead, KS was linked to human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8), not nitrite inhalants. And a 2007 review in Sexually Transmitted Infections (by P.J. Fiala et al.) also concluded that previous claims of poppers causing AIDS were not scientifically supported.

The Health and Human Services website writes HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that attacks the body's immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome).