Pubdate: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 Source: West Roxbury Transcript (MA) Copyright: Community Newspapers 2003 and TownOnline.com Contact: http://www.townonline.com/westroxbury/ Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Rush+Limbaugh Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) DOUBLE STANDARD BEHIND DRUG WAR Rush Limbaugh has gone into rehab, promising that he'll be free of his addiction to painkillers and back on the radio in 30 days. We wish him success, but addiction specialists warn that OxyContin, one of the drugs Limbaugh is accused of abusing, is tougher to kick than heroin. Off the air, Limbaugh must be aware of how hard it is to beat a drug habit. After all, this is reportedly his third trip to rehab. Limbaugh's stay in some pricey rehab center may be interrupted, however, by that scourge of drug users, the police. Buying bulk quantities of illegal prescription drugs with cigar boxes stuffed with cash can land him some serious time, if prosecutors decide to indict. That's fine for others, Limbaugh told his 20 million listeners before his own drug use became public. His prescription for drug abuse: "The answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them and send them up the river, too." Limbaugh has a high-priced lawyer, who will no doubt argue that his client is a sick man, not a criminal. He needs treatment, not incarceration. Like such repeat rehab customers as Darryl Strawberry and Robert Downey Jr., he'll probably get away with it, at least the first couple of times. But in the course of this difficult time, Limbaugh may learn something that it obvious to others who see the reality behind the drug war rhetoric: In America, wealthy drug addicts go into rehab. Poor drug addicts go to jail. That double standard persists in large part because people like Rush Limbaugh, one of the nation's most powerful opinion-molders, say one thing for political effect while their lives say something else entirely. We hope his rehabilitation is successful, and that he learns that treatment makes more sense than prison for all drug addicts, not just wealthy celebrities. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin