Limbaugh should pay full price

The Denver Post ^ | 10/19/2003 | Ken Hamblin

[logician2u]

Limbaugh should pay full price

By Ken Hamblin, Special to the Denver Post

A few weeks ago, I defended Rush Limbaugh's right to speak his mind concerning the football skills of Donovan McNabb, the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback whom Limbaugh believed was getting a free ride from the liberal sports press because he is black.

In the end, that opinion cost Limbaugh a coveted position as an ESPN football analyst.

Nonetheless, my insistence that every American, including Limbaugh, is licensed to speak their opinion did win me a note of approval from a doctor in Greenwood Village, who wrote a brief note on his prescription pad: "Thank you for bringing some sense and reason to the Limbaugh controversy."

Little did he, or I, know how quickly that controversy would deepen. Or how ironic it was that the message was delivered via prescription pad. Limbaugh soon after came under the scrutiny of the National Enquirer's muckrakers for hiring his housekeeper to buy thousands of pain pills for him illegally.

And instead of coming clean, as Limbaugh said he would when the Enquirer story broke, now he appears to be maneuvering to get a free pass for violating our federal drug laws by slipping away to a secret detox facility.

Claiming to be following his legal counsel's advice, Limbaugh has not admitted that he utilized his housekeeper to buy a substantial quantity of OxyContin pain pills - or "hillbilly heroin," as it is commonly known on the street.

Rather, in the psyche of a junkie's denial, Limbaugh has tried to justify his fall into addiction on a spinal surgery gone bad, resulting in continued back and neck pain.

I don't find a lick of difference between what Limbaugh did and any other two-bit junkie who, after allegedly being busted with the goods, tries to lay the blame for breaking the law at the feet of poverty, racism or social insensitivity.

Thus, I found Limbaugh's explanation of chronic pain an unsatisfactory excuse for what appears to be runaway drug abuse spanning many years.

Maybe one reason is that I've been there myself.

Six years ago, I underwent spinal surgery at Rose Medical Center in Denver.My four-year recovery was one of the toughest things I've lived through. I was awash in a world of pain that is difficult to explain unless you have been there.

I was unable to sleep more than a couple of hours each night for months, and had to walk with a cane for nearly six months. My pain was so intense and the depression so deep that it wasn't unusual for my wife to find me curled up in bed, sobbing like a broken man.

I existed like that for four years. But still I never considered looking for a solution in the assortment of pain medication my doctors were - or were not - prescribing for me.

I don't perceive myself to be an extraordinary person. But having seen what drugs can do to people and their communities, snuggling up to the short-term euphoric but self-destructive world of a junkie was never an option for me.

Limbaugh and I are not unique when it comes to facing pain and suffering. Millions of Americans learn to manage it every day.

Unfortunately, Limbaugh, the conservative whose opinions reflected the principles many Americans believe our country should stand for, failed the test. And he hasn't figured out how to accept responsibility.

In a carefully scripted speech he delivered as he scurried into detox, Limbaugh sanctimoniously declared he wasn't a "victim." What he failed to do was pass judgment on himself with the same vigor he passes judgment on others.

But my real disapproval of Limbaugh is based on the lack of consideration his choices showed for those who trusted him.

Rush Limbaugh is a junkie. And this is the time for those who love him to provide a hefty dose of tough love by not letting him pawn off his addiction or the legal repercussions on anything other than himself.

Veteran radio talk-show host Ken Hamblin (; ) writes Sundays in The Post.

[logician2u]

It's reassuring to know that drug warriors like Hamblin are not going to give Rush a pass, isn't it?

No hypocrisy here, just tough love.

[Uncle Hal]

With friends like this, Rush does not need any enemies.

[OpusatFR]

"I don't perceive myself to be an extraordinary person."

Yes, you do.

[nothingnew]

Ken sounds like "The Black REvenger" in this piece. While I don't disagree with all he wrote, he sounds pretty vitriolic in this hit piece.

FMCDH

[EggsAckley]

I've heard that Hamblin resents the fact that Rush has never let him fill in as host.

I used to like Hamblin, but now he seems like a bitter, whining loser.

[nothingnew]

I used to listen to Ken everyday...as my wife just reminded me, over the past year he's been heavily anti-smokers, interviewing PETA people constantly and himself a vegetarian, and now this. BTW either my local station doesn't carry him now, or he quit radio.

FMCDH

[Maurice Tift]

   Hamblin was recently on the Fox News channel saying that he supported de-criminilizing drugs to cut down on the turf wars associated with the underground drug trade. He showed little compassion for Rush on the same show and now wants him to go to jail.

   Unfortunately, putting non-violent drug users in jail is one of the things that makes people fear getting help for their addictions.

[vox humana]

With friends like this, Rush does not need any enemies.

Rush does need friends like this. Real friends will tell you the truth in your time of need, and will not let you make excuses for your condition.

The first step to recovery is to admit that you have a problem. Rush has already been through detox twice and it didn't work. There is no reason to believe that another short 30 day trip to to detox will cure Rush of his addiction. Most of the experts say that six months is more a more realistic time for a real cure.

I don't think Rush has hit rock bottom yet. That's when many addicts finally make a commitment to break their drug addiction once and for all.

[csvset]

..a secret detox facility.

Huh? Secret detox facility? Open only to Bilderbergers; only accessible via black helicopters?

Does he mean a private facility? What's Ken want, the Ditto-Cam focusing on Rush 24/7 while he's in treatment?

[ellery]

My four-year recovery was one of the toughest things I've lived through. I was awash in a world of pain that is difficult to explain unless you have been there. I was unable to sleep more than a couple of hours each night for months, and had to walk with a cane for nearly six months. My pain was so intense and the depression so deep that it wasn't unusual for my wife to find me curled up in bed, sobbing like a broken man. I existed like that for four years. But still I never considered looking for a solution in the assortment of pain medication my doctors were - or were not - prescribing for me.

This raises an interesting question. If it's true that Rush began his addiction by treating debilitating pain, which of these guys made the smarter health decision? Hamblin admits to being felled by pain to the point where he often curled up in bed and sobbed. Rush apparently continued his radio show and functioned somewhat normally.

We know addiction is bad...but is it the worst thing? Which was more destructive to self and family -- Hamblin's crippling pain or Rush's addiction?

[suzyq5558]

I didnt realize that the betty ford clinic was a national secret detox center...

[PoisedWoman]

Rush went to the Betty? Really?

[Paleo Conservative]

As someone who has had back surgery I can sympathize with Rush's wanting to avoid pain. There have been a few times like last week when ibuprofen would not give me relief and my presciption NSAIDs had not yet kicked in that I seriously considered taking half of one of the Vicodins I had left over from my surgery in 2001. I think there is a moral difference between getting addicted to pain medication that is prescribed for the legitimate purpose of relieving pain and getting addicted to to similar drugs used recreationally to get high.

That being said, Rush should understand that there is more crime associated with black market purchases of prescription pain medications than just drug dealing. Quite a number of pharmacies have been vandalized and robbed to get those drugs. Considering Rush reportedly bought as many as 30,000 pills, I would imagine quite a number of robberies were associated with supplying that amount.

[Paleo Conservative]

There is no reason to believe that another short 30 day trip to to detox will cure Rush of his addiction. Most of the experts say that six months is more a more realistic time for a real cure.

Then he needs to go to NA or AA meetings at least once a week. He should also get a sponsor and work the 12 steps.

[PoisedWoman]

We know addiction is bad...but is it the worst thing? Which was more destructive to self and family -- Hamblin's crippling pain or Rush's addiction

Good question. There are many "high-functioning" (no pun) alcoholics and addicts who hold down big jobs.

I wonder whether treatment will change Rush. He runs on anger, ego, bluster, brains--all of which make him a great broadcaster. But the personal cost is, we now know, perhaps too much to pay. Do you want a kinder, gentler, well-adjusted Rush? I don't know whether he can succeed in "recovery" and continue to be his hard-headed hard-driving self. This is a real problem for successful Type A executive-addicts. Many never get off the sauce. Carol Burnett's husband/producer Joe Hamilton, for example. For guys like this, slowing down, smelling the roses, is torture. They need to charge ahead throughout their lives, and many seem to really need their booze and/or pills.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall in his recovery group. Can you imagine Rush in a group hug?

[ChemistCat]

I pray I'm never so impaired by addiction that I become blind to that kind of thing. However, I've lived in a state of denial often enough to know how powerful it is.

[Paleo Conservative]

I'd love to be a fly on the wall in his recovery group.

To take his inventory?

[PFC]

The fact is that Rush has probably violated many laws with stiff penalties in the past few years. If half of what is coming out is true, he knew he was breaking the law but did it anyway - he knowingly made a choice to break state and federal laws for a period of several years.

I see a man who decided that laws are for other people, not himself. I'm not ready to let it slide because I have no doubt he would still be committing crimes if he had not been exposed.

[ChemistCat]

Inpatient facilities are very difficult, and in my opinion about useless, for people on the high end of the bell curve. They can be successful for people of moderate intelligence and function. People like Rush who are accustomed to being in control, who are highly intelligent, and have a very low tolerance for boredom and authority, are not going to do well. It's time he has to mark for legal and social reasons, but his real treatment is going to have to be self-generated.

"It's craft time! Take these popsicle sticks and glue them together with the glue stick!" is just not going to do a thing for Rush. Sitting around for group therapy is going to frustrate him enormously. There is nothing an inpatient facility can do for him that he cannot do better for himself--including, sad to say, keeping him away from sources of the drug his body is addicted to.

He'd be better off parachuting himself into the Alaskan wilderness with survival gear and vitamins, and walking out. I've long thought that something like that would be a more effective therapy than anything you can do inside buildings.

[teldon30]

Character matters...or so i have heard.