16-year-old sentenced to 20 years in prison [addicted to OxyContin]

news-press.com ^ | 10-14-03 | news-press.com

[ambrose]

Richard Lee Daniel was 15 when he went on a crime spree that started with seven stolen vehicles and ended in the brutal beating and robbery of a 73-year-old woman.

The North Fort Myers boy is 16 now and began paying the price of his actions Monday when he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

[aruanan]

Formatting is a good thing.

[BSunday]

Maybe? It?s just ?me?, but that was a ?hard? read.

[Dane]

In any case, getting hooked on something prescribed by a doctor for legit medical reasons is a bit different than becoming addicted after recreational drug use

If you said the above italicized statment to a brick wall and a pro-drug Libertarian on FR, which one would actually listen.

My bet is on the brick wall.

[jazzlite]

I agree with you.

[Bob]

Maybe? It?s just ?me?, but that was a ?hard? read.

That's a common problem when copying HTML code. You'll also frequently see things like '&h8212' or something similar scattered throughout some articles.

Standards are very important; that's why everyone seems to have their own. :=)

[laredo44]

In any case, getting hooked on something prescribed by a doctor for legit medical reasons is a bit different than becoming addicted after recreational drug use.

I guess, but so what? There are just too many things wrong with the position you've articulated.

First is that by dispensing drugs through the medical establishment, you set up a situation where cheating is rewarded and honesty is punished. Suppose there are two people both of whom want some oxycontin. Individual A goes to the doctor, tells the truth, and is denied. Individual B lies to the doctor and gets a prescription.

Second, your inconsistency promotes disrepect for law. "Dad, can I have one of your oxycontin?" No. Why not? Because they're illegal. Why is it illegal? Because you could become addicted and ruin your life, never accomplish your dreams, become a burden on society. Couldn't I also ruin my life, fail to accomplish my dreams, and become a burden on society if I stop daily ablutions, stink so no one will hire me, have my teeth rot and health deteriorate so that I become a burden on society? Yes. So how come there's no law that I bathe?

Finally the restrictions on what individuals can ingest in the privacy of their own homes goes to the very core of liberty. Liberty is not the search for what is safe and productive, although both are its by-products. And even if it were, how do we know, apriori what is safe and productive? It is the very exercise of liberty that provides such knowledge. Some provide the information some in a negative way (Evil Kenival), and some in a positive way (Jonas Salk) and even Salk had trials where children died.

Apparently, Rush was able to perform at a very high level for years while "medicated" at a level we were all told would render him unconscious or worse. Apparently we were told wrong. We all know more now than we did before. We also know we got 3 or more years of entertainment and enlightenment from from his show that we would not have gotten had he felt the full wrath of prohibitionists.

[jazzlite]

Did any of you see Dagan McDowell's report on Neil Cavuto's program (Fox) of yesterday? It was an excellent look at the army of celebs who have had and overcome drug use or other types of "scandals," with the blessing of society. In most cases their problems were initially exposed through the media. I can think of none who admitted to the public on their own that they had a problem. The piece exposed the hypocracy of the leftist media regarding the way they have handled Rush's problem. But, what else is new, huh? Neil followed Dagan's stellar report with an interview with a female psychiatrist, I think from California, who was obviously a Rush hater. Cavuto did not let her get away with her own hypocracy as she was accusing Rush of his. It was a great segment..I hope you saw it.

[Dane]

First is that by dispensing drugs through the medical establishment, you set up a situation where cheating is rewarded and honesty is punished. Suppose there are two people both of whom want some oxycontin. Individual A goes to the doctor, tells the truth, and is denied. Individual B lies to the doctor and gets a prescription.

Huh? You left something very important out. That Rush had back surgery. He didn't walk his way into the drug culture.

Apparently, Rush was able to perform at a very high level for years while "medicated" at a level we were all told would render him unconscious or worse. Apparently we were told wrong. We all know more now than we did before. We also know we got 3 or more years of entertainment and enlightenment from from his show that we would not have gotten had he felt the full wrath of prohibitionists

Yeah for how much longer? He was building up a tolerance and was on his way to a train wreck.

To all lurkers who want to know the damage opium can do to a society, do a google search with the words, "Opium Wars". Opium devastated 19th century China, a historical fact that is lost on many Libertarians, IMO.

[Tamzee]

Mullins who mouthed ?I love you? to her son after he was sentenced wrote that Daniel was addicted to OxyContin, a narcotic she likened to heroin.

Has anyone else noticed that the ONLY evidence that this stellar young man was addicted to Oxycontin is his stellar mother's word that he is? Of course, this Madonna-like creature would NEVER fib about such a thing.

I do think his sentence should be cut in half, though, as long as that other half is given to his mother for child abuse.

[dennisw]

The real answer is escalate the war on drugs and start executing big time meth., crack and heroin dealers. And exile a lot of other drug dealers.

 

[Always Right]

To all lurkers who want to know the damage opium can do to a society, do a google search with the words, "Opium Wars". Opium devastated 19th century China, a historical fact that is lost on many Libertarians, IMO.

It baffles me how they can defend the recreational use of opium, which is nothing but destructive. Rush seems to be an easy target now, but I am not even sure why. Rush hardly talked about the war on drugs and even on occassion Rush suggested maybe it should be legalized and heavily taxed. The WOD certainly wasn't one of Rush's top ten issues. But certainly has made some hypocritical comments on the subject, the ones I've seen were dated over 8 years ago. But I think anyone who talks 15 hours a week in public will be a hypocrit at some point. Rush will be back hardly phased by this, although his critics will never shut up, but they never did anyways.

[dennisw]

Sorry bub. Legal, cheap, more readily available, more abundant heroin, oxycotin and crack is not a solution. But if ya'll can manage to take over a state and legalize all that crud, go right ahead. Go for it and see what happens.

[dennisw]

Rush hardly talked about the war on drugs and even on occassion Rush suggested maybe it should be legalized and heavily taxed. The WOD certainly wasn't one of Rush's top ten issues.

I can't recall him talking much about drugs or the war on drugs. He doesn't take on gays either.

[Always Right]

The real answer is escalate the war on drugs and start executing big time meth., crack and heroin dealers. And exile a lot of other drug dealers.

Now you're talking. Of course I am not sure where to exile them to. Maybe France will take them. We'll just tell France we are gonna execute them, and the little French wennies will beg to take them in.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Victimology is a claim for Leftists. Notice Rush didn't try to spin it.

[Always Right]

I can't recall him talking much about drugs or the war on drugs. He doesn't take on gays either.

Rush mostly hits the welfare issues, big government spending, anti-business regulations, and of course major things like the war. He does touch on the social issues some (drugs, gays, abortion), but those issues are usually on the back burner.

[dennisw]

Now you're talking. Of course I am not sure where to exile them to.

You contract out with a 3rd world nation. You tattoo them and tag them with a irremovable microchip before they get booted out to Latin America or Africa. Preferably it would be exile to an island they couldn't escape from but would be welcome to grow all the marijuana, poppies, coca bushes they are able too. Or it could be a fenced off reservation in a 3rd world "paradise"

This would be ideal for marijuana dealers. I don't advocate execution for them since the drug is relatively soft compared to crack and heroin

All these drugs are 3rd world drugs and assaults on traditional Euro-American culture. So it's fitting that the pushers of these drugs are booted to the 3rd world. Sent closer to what they love

[FLAMING DEATH]

To all lurkers who want to know the damage opium can do to a society, do a google search with the words, "Opium Wars"

Nothing more dangerous to individual liberties than a government acting to prevent damage to "society".

Society is just a big group of individuals, and what those individuals do with themeselves is none of your business, nor the government's business. They all should have the liberty to do as they wish, and they should all be held fully responsible only if they hurt someone else. If they hurt themselves, that's the breaks...

We've all gotten caught up in this idea that people are a commodity, a resource to be used in pursuit of the "greater good", and we can't allow anyone any freedom that might damage "society". Liberties get sacrificed when that mindset is adopted.

When I hear that some new law or measure has been passed for the good of all Americans, my teeth are set on edge. No one asked them to look out for what was good for me. That's the duty of a parent to a child, not the job of a servant government to its people.

[bvw]

You are a nudnick, bub. Such legalization did work, and just as society had learned to handle heroin, the evangelists of temperance, fire and brimstone -=- enflamed the popular imagination and passed extreme bans on alchohol and "drugs" in the second decade of last century. Fortunately some far-sighted preservationists of the Constitution and rule of law got a Prohbition Amendment for alcohol, otherwise the Constitution would have been complete dust by the time Hitler rose to power. Yet they left the equally abominable federal anti drug laws -- federal bans beyond the charter of the Constitution, a rogue abuse of power.

And it occurs to me that these popular enflamers of harsh judgements were the same ilk as America-Firsters and good damning of the evil Jews. "Thank you Mr. Hitler." they might have said.

That IS the camp you have wandered into. Now what do you do?

[bvw]

It baffles me how they can defend the recreational use of opium, which is nothing but destructive.

So God are you now! King of all lesser men.

Do you not know that free sane adults are quite capable of making those decisions for themselves? You must not trust yourself, for you surely you do not trust others. Adults can decide how they need to use any thing under the sun the Creator and His Providence have blassed us with, and dang it, that means ALL things.

Stop playing God!