Comments on: Rush Limbaugh Arrested on Prescription Drug Charges

By: Jimmy Burnett

Jimmy Burnett — Tue, 02 May 2006 14:02:31 +0000

Rush Limbaugh arrested for prescription fraud...

Limbaugh was arrested on April 28, 2006. He agreed to take drug tests which he hopes will dismiss a prescription fraud charge. Limbaugh must continue treatment and also cannot own a gun.
...

By: Roger

Roger — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 14:46:51 +0000

Were he not famous and rich, Rush would have been in jail by now. Beyond that, your bottom line position is fair enough.

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 14:34:24 +0000

Roger: Limbaugh's case is a double standard in two ways. Were he not famous, he almost certainly would not have been hounded for three years over doctor shopping for pain meds. Were he not rich, he likely wouldn't have had the quality of legal representation he had and might have plea bargained to a more serious crime because of the intimidation.

Regardless, my position is that what Limbaugh did should not be a crime, regardless of whether one is a celebrity.

By: Roger

Roger — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 14:25:54 +0000

James, you're not disturbed by the obvious double-standard here as pointed out by the manipulated language Marshall points out. Just good old equal justice in America these days?

By: anjin-san

anjin-san — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 07:19:08 +0000

Wonder how many poor black kids caught with a joint get to cut a sweetheart deal...

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 03:27:49 +0000

Roger: Except that Limbaugh is not pleading guilty to anything and will have no criminal record if he completes treatment. It amounts to a civil settlement.

And, presumably, if the judge doesn't accept it then the prosecutor is back to square one. Which, apparently, is that he has no case.

By: Roger

Roger — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 22:50:17 +0000

Josh Marshall gets to the point on this story: "Don't get bamboozled. In criminal cases we don't call them "settlement agreements." They are plea bargains. And while the prosecutor's recommendation to the court will carry great weight, the judge is not obligated to ratify the plea agreement. Oh, and the money being paid is called a fine. Black can call it reimbursement, but that's BS.

By: Caterine Ignatowski

Caterine Ignatowski — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 20:48:56 +0000

Rush is not a drug addict,there WERE weapons of mass destruction, George has a very high approval rating, Cheney didn't shoot a man, the economy is wonderful and Libby did't leak the name of a CiA operative. Right, as Rush said, it was the damned democrats.

By: Roger

Roger — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 19:26:36 +0000

If Rush had to live by his own pre-addiction standard, he'd either be executed or locked up for life.

By: anjin-san

anjin-san — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 18:57:23 +0000

I don't buy the contention that a man with Rush's resources could not get doctors to provide prescriptions for any legitimate medical need, its just not that difficult to get doctors to write scripts.

As for legal vs. illegal, what then about the alcoholic? He takes a legal drug for recreational purposes.

The entire "war on drugs" was born at the end of prohibition when the bureaucracy that had been built around whiskey busting decided they did not want to lose their funding.

There is no underlying moral truth attached to the legality of drugs like alcohol or nicotine as opposed to pot or cocaine. They both do a great deal of damage, but in fact, cigarettes kill more people then illegal drugs do by order of magnitude.

An unpleasant little truth is that the war on drugs is a large, profitable industry, and it comes in handy for getting black men into the justice system on the wrong end.

By: PoliBlog: A Rough Draft of my Thoughts

PoliBlog: A Rough Draft of my Thoughts — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 15:02:05 +0000

Mexico Decriminalizes Personal Drug Possession (and a Passing Mention of the Limbaugh Story)...

Given the current politics in the US of all things Mexican at the moment, the following (via Reuters) is likely to cause further angst (not to mention given the ONDCP fits): Mexico to decriminalize pot, cocaine and heroin
Possessing marijuana, cocain...

By: Rush Limbaugh Cuts Deal on Prescription Drug Charges » Gone Hollywood

Rush Limbaugh Cuts Deal on Prescription Drug Charges » Gone Hollywood — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 11:05:21 +0000

[...] Belated crosspost from OTB, rewritten to deal with my enhanced understanding of the facts. [...]

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 10:23:55 +0000

Caterine: I'm unaware of evidence that Limbaugh was getting high, merely that he was addicted. My understanding is that he was in excrutiatng pain but was unable to get the medicine in sufficient does to quell that pain from a single doctor.

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 10:18:17 +0000

a-s: I agree that there's not much different at the point of addiction. The difference comes pre-addiction. One comes as the result of taking legitimate medicine for legitimate reasons under supervision of a legitimate authority; the other comes from violating the law for recreational purposes.

By: Caterine Ignatowski

Caterine Ignatowski — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 10:16:58 +0000

I have been taking hydrocodone since 1999, due to injuries from an auto accident. Let me tell you this, you do NOT get high on this or any prescription if the pain is severe. I have never taken more of this or any prescription and never have I had the Doctor increase my dosage. It's nutcases like Limbaugh that make it very hard for people who really need this medication for pain because doctors are literally afraid to prescribe it because of it's misuse. Limbaugh belongs in jail, he committed a crime and now he has to pay for it.