Rush Limbaugh: Open Line Friday [Confirms Some Aspects of Drug Story, Checking In To Rehab]

[Burn24]

I became extremely fond of Percoset post-appendectomy, and would never condemn anyone who needs drugs for pain. (There's enough pain in the world already.) After a month or so, a slow and steady withdrawal as the wound healed.

But I don't know what I'd do if the pain simply didn't stop. Do you?

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

Um, no- actually that information is from his autobiography, and you can check it out pretty easily. He was severely addicted for years, but finally managed to get "clean and sober"through a good good detox program. He is quite open about this.

The fact that you don't know something does not make everyone else wrong, by the way.

[VRWC_minion]

Is your point that despite the fact that he considers himself to be an addict, he really wasn't?

My point is this article is about chronic pain and how Lewis went from needing pills to relying on an electric neurstransmitter instead. Lewis suffered from Chronic pain and took pain killers. He is a comedian who makes fun of himself for a living. Describing himeself as an addict is the kind of exageration he did for a living.

The article goes on to say "In April of this year, one of Lewis' doctors suggested that he consider trying the electronic neurostimulator. After a four-day dress rehearsal in which he was pain-free, Lewis had the device implanted permanently." The fact that a doctor knew of his chronic pain means he was being treated and under a doctors care. The article doesn't state it but its obvious he stopped taking the drugs after this was implanted.

Its simply not possible to equate this article to the assumption Lews was absuing prescription drugs.

[loftyheights]

If Rush were running for office you would have a point. But he's not so you don't. You might try getting over your dislike of Rush. Just an idea, for what it's worth.

[William McKinley]

OK, so your point really is that he calls himself a recovering addict but he wasn't.

I'll take him at face value.

[proust]

So presidential candidates should only make jokes about people running for office? Gottcha.

[VRWC_minion]

Perhaps, you cannot make a distinction between someone who is addicted to pain killers because they are in pain from someone who uses them to get high. There is a distinction. It is one recognized by the legal community. One is treated as legal and the other illegal.

[StriperSniper]

"By people like you"

That was all I could think of myself watching that last night.

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

I'm with you. VRWC has made a mistatement, based on incomplete knowledge- now he is scrambling around trying "prove" that he was right, after all.

Anyone who buys PERCODAN tablets on the street for $200.00 a pop is an addict.

Apparently I was wrong about his illness, though- I thought he had kidney and/or liver disease, but it seems from your source that it is really pumonary fibrosis.

[William McKinley]

Now you are off on a different tangent, altogether.

However, if one develops an addiction legally, but buys drugs illegally to satisfy the urgings of the addiction, then the person has still broken the law.

Drug addiction is a tough subject. I am by no means a drug warrior, nor am I a legalize-it-all type. I don't think there are any perfect solutions.

But for your implied point, that those who get addicted to recreational drugs (cocaine, heroin, etc) should be looked at differently than those who get addicted to painkillers and the like, I completely agree.

[Drammach]

I would argue it is not the reason for use, be it medical or recreational, but means of access.

controlled substances accessed through medical prescription are "legal", regardless of the use they are put to.

[NarniaSC]

Could you guys take the addict tangent discussion somewhere else, please?

[old-ager]

> the way he sounded just before the implant? I hear similarities.

Bullcr?p

[Drammach]

This is a Rush Friday thread.
He is "expected" to address allegations of addiction.

Pray tell, why is a discussion of addiction a tangential discussion.

[NarniaSC]

Sorry, I thought this was the Jerry Lewis thread. My bad.

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

You nailed that one! Addiction vs. prescription-drug abuse (and if there is a difference) is the heart of this discussion.

[StriperSniper]

Bullcr?p

Not often, on an occasional word, and not as many as I heard yesterday. I'm not the one who started all this kind of discusion, so I wasn't the only one to hear something 'off'. Who knows, maybe subconsciously some of us are looking for it, if so, in my case it is out of concern.

[LanaTurnerOverdrive]

Just what I want....Rush talking about tigers and tattoos.

Thanks for the filler, Rush.

I was listening to a bunch of commercials today, and your show accidentally came on.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

Yes, but this is a thread about Rush, not Jerry Lewis. I went into the middle of this and thought Rush had admitted to being an "addict of the first order". But you guys were talking about Jerry Lewis not Rush. Weren't you?

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

"...controlled substances accessed through medical prescription are "legal", regardless of the use they are put to."

I don't know if you were being sarcastic here, but if not, I would disagree very strongly. Controlled drugs obtained by prescription are "legal" ONLY if they are used in the manner and in the dose prescribed.

Many addicts obtain prescriptions from several different providers who don't know about each other, for example. This is prosecutable, even thought he drugs were obtained by what appeared on it's face to be a valid prescription.