Rush Limbaugh "comes clean"

[osprey4]

Matt Drudge, the king of "you read it here first", is reporting that Rush Limbaugh has decided to come clean regarding his addiction to pain medication.

[Theophylact]

Here's the press release.

[Epidemic]

man scary a man taking responsibility and not saying the evil doctors did it or some other dribble.

Of course it would be better if he came out with it before the news stories.

[osprey4]

I am not making any excuses. You know, over the years athletes and celebrities have emerged from treatment centers to great fanfare and praise for conquering great demons. They are said to be great role models and examples for others. Well, I am no role model. I refuse to let anyone think I am doing something great here, when there are people you never hear about, who face long odds and never resort to such escapes. They are the role models. I am no victim and do not portray myself as such. I take full responsibility for my problem.

I grew up in a family full of addiction problems, including my mother who died when I was 13 of liver failure from being an alcoholic. I can tell you that mere resolve, however noble, is rarely enough to solve the problem. I have no ill-will toward him, but hope he's got more than his "conservative bravado" to get him through this.

[M_Six]

Maybe now he'll be a tad more understanding of people addicted to other substances. By his own words in the past, he should be going to jail, not rehab.

To wit:

"There's nothing good about drug use. We know it. It destroys individuals. It destroys families. Drug use destroys societies. Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. And the laws are good because we know what happens to people in societies and neighborhoods which become consumed by them. And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up.

"What this says to me is that too many whites are getting away with drug use. Too many whites are getting away with drug sales. Too many whites are getting away with trafficking in this stuff. The answer to this disparity is not to start letting people out of jail because we're not putting others in jail who are breaking the law. 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."
-- Rush Limbaugh show, Oct. 5, 1995

[Epidemic]

Did he every say that addicts should go to jail???

Or is he just hard on dealers?

[Epidemic]

Ok but put in the quotes earlier

Ok jail his arse.

Me I would legalize the stuff.

[Theophylact]

Actually, so would Rush:

But there in the dusty Limbaugh archives one glimmer of sanity did appear yesterday.

It came from 1998, just about the time Wilma Cline's black-market drug ring was revving up. Rush was on the radio. He was talking about America's "half-baked" war on drugs. We might all be better off, he said quite plainly, if drugs were legalized — and then regulated like cigarettes.

"What is missing in the drug fight," he said, "is legalization. If we want to go after drugs with the same fervor and intensity with which we go after cigarettes, let's legalize drugs. Legalize the manufacture of drugs. License the Cali cartel. Make them taxpayers and then sue them. Sue them left and right and then get control of the price and generate tax revenue from it. Raise the price sky high and fund all sorts of other wonderful social programs."

[Target]

Good point M_Six, and thanks for finding that quote as well. Guess that saying about glass houses is ringing true for Rush about now isn't it.

Is poetic justice great or what??

Course, its probably just a matter of time before he is back up on his soap box again. After all, this addiction was caused by a medical condition...and its "different" than criminal a drug user </sarcasm>.

[M_Six]

I guess he's waffled once or twice when it comes to legalizing drugs.

"I'm appalled at people who simply want to look at all this abhorrent behavior and say people are going to do drugs anyway let's legalize it. It's a dumb idea. It's a rotten idea and those who are for it are purely 100 percent selfish."

"If(Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders) wants to legalize drugs, send the people who want to do drugs to London and Zurich, and let's be rid of them."
-- Rush Limbaugh show, Dec 9, 1993