Posted on 10/20/2003 11:00:31 AM PDT by yonif
BOSTON - Rush Limbaugh is not alone. Addiction to prescription painkillers has boomed in recent years, and they can be as tough to kick as heroin.
The number of Americans who begin misusing painkillers each year has almost quadrupled from 1990 to 2001, according to government figures.
And many abusers don't recognize the insidious slide into addiction.
"It's just so much more acceptable in society for people to be taking prescription drugs," said Sean Evans, 31, of Everett, Mass., a construction worker who became addicted to the pain reliever OxyContin, then moved on to heroin.
"You can always rationalize the reason to take it."
Limbaugh, the radio commentator, told his audience on Oct. 10 he is addicted to prescription painkillers that he began taking after spinal surgery "some years ago."
He said he had checked himself in for treatment twice before, without success.
This time, he said he was headed to a rehab center for a month "to once and for all break the hold this highly addictive medication has on me."
Limbaugh may be overly optimistic about the time frame, said Alice Young, a psychology professor and a drug researcher at Wayne State University in Detroit.
"He had said he was going into treatment and lick it within 30 days. I think that's probably an unrealistic expectation," she said.
Limbaugh didn't name the medication, but the National Enquirer, which first reported his abuse, said Limbaugh's drug connection said he used OxyContin and other painkillers.
(Excerpt) Read more at bayarea.com ...
..insurance. Insurance companies will limit the number of days covered. Most will not cover being admitted for 30 days and the number of times you can be admitted is limited as well.
Federal bureaucrats should not be in a position to interfere with a doctor/patient relationship. For one, who are they to second guess a trained medical doctor, and two, federal agencies like the DEA just attract too many power-hungry people who get their kicks by wrecking people's lives.
A doctor's career shouldn't be at the mercy of a 25-year-old DEA agent trying to get a promotion.
Didn't Rush's wieght loss happen about the same time he started taking pain medication? Could be related. You don't see a lot of herion addicts.
If they get their way and approve a prescription medication entitlement, all such medications will have to have a finite period of treatment (call it "diminishing beneficial returns" or "protection against addiction").
At the same time all of this is going on, ADD medications are seemingly being prescribed to kids like there is no tomorrow. We also saw the recent ad campaign to convince everyone that they sufferred from depression and needed chemical treatment to correct this "imbalance". Talk about addictive medications and overprescription...
Even Lenny Bruce was able to find a doctor to write him all the prescriptions (and "medical" letters) he needed to feed his addiction. Funny thing is that the left doesn't see Lenny Bruce's denials of addiction to be hypocritical; he's a patron saint. Actually he's the man of La Mancha, comicly striking at windmills.
There have been some cases raised by patients/families in the care of drug addicts but largely the problem goes unnoticed.
When I went to the hospital for my dad's heart surgery, I wandered to one area and found the outdoor gather place where doctors and nurse (and other largely medical staff) smoked cigarettes. No crime in that, just that one would think that they would see enough sick people to put them off that habit.
Cigarettes don't notably affect job performance although the case could be made that Xanex and other prescription meds (used by medical staff) do.
Rush was not operating heavy machinery sitting at a table behind a microphone either. Ed McMahon may have gone on the Tonight Show bombed on drinks at times but did it really affect his performance? A number of people seem to "fondly" recall those nights. If you are the captain of a boat, have a few too many, and let someone else command the ship, you are liable to get some flack about it (even if you weren't behind the wheel).
And Noelle Bush.
2) Everyone else.
. . .'lying liars' aka 'Liberals'. . .
Guess they save all their compassion for the likes of Robert Downey, Jr.; and have forgotten just how addicted JFK was to pain medication as well.
Do worry about Rush's pain however; and hope that he is able to resolve that one; and yes, perhaps more alternatives now.
Hope as well, that he is 'as up' for taking on the painful negatives of our daily 'body politic' as he was before.
Because that is the time limit most employee health insurers set for paying for drug rehab services.
Careful, they tell me that stuff is addictive.
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