When the Rush thing first broke, most defenders here were saying, "Impossible....he couldn't work as hard and as well as he has if he were taking all those drugs."
I was thinking, "No....it was the drugs that allowed him to be so productive."
We have just GOT to get over this knee-jerk reaction to drugs.
(and as we baby boomers, who have always gotten what we have wanted, age and become infirmed.... it may well happen)
I think that in this case, it is not the drug, nut the dirty word called addiction.
This word bothered me as well for a couple of years into treatment, but as I came to accept my condition, I accepted the addiction as a side effect and not a disease.
I have no other options except to die.
That would be the end result of the depression that would ensue if I did not take the drug.
This is about as clear as I have ever been about this point. I understand what happened to Rush very well.
That depends upon whether he was using them recreationally, or if he was using them to compensate for a medical problem. There are several goofy things with the story as it came out, and we may yet learn that only bits and pieces were correct - but if he were taking what was reported himself, and not for pain, he would be quite dead.