Warrants: Limbaugh Was 'Doctor Shopping'

My Way.Com ^ | 12/4/03 | Jill Barton

[Lucky2]

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Investigators raided the offices of Rush Limbaugh's doctor Thursday, saying in search warrants that the conservative radio commentator engaged in illegal drug use and "doctor shopping" for prescription painkillers.

The warrants show investigators were looking for records including prescription disbursements, appointment schedules, receipts and a medical questionnaire.

"Mr. Limbaugh's actions violate the letter, and spirit" of the law that relates to "doctor shopping," stated one of warrants, signed by Asim Brown, a law enforcement agent assigned to the state attorney's office anti-money laundering task force. Doctor shopping refers to looking for a doctor willing to prescribe drugs illegally.

Limbaugh denied any wrongdoing to listeners on his radio show earlier Thursday and accused prosecutors in Palm Beach County of going on a "fishing expedition."

[dts32041]

His walking around money from the bank, apparently what demo rat candidates can do is illegal for anyone else.

[utahagen]

I hear you. "Doctor shopping"?! Give me a break. Are we living under a totalitarian regime?

[Timm]

Doctor shopping?? What the h*ll?

[hapc]

Supposedly Rush's bank in New York sent a warning to the Feds after 30-40 'sequenced' (what ever the heck does that mean?) withdrawals of $9,900.00

This whole deal is sounding like a truckload of fine Barbara Striestand coming down the pike.

The Democratic prosecutors in Palm Beach County will probably lose their jobs for this..

[demlosers]

Marilyn Georges, 53, was charged Thursday with six felony counts of "doctor shopping": obtaining the same controlled drugs from more than one doctor within a 30-day period by using deception. The law went into effect July 1.

Yup ex-post facto. Gee, I wonder how many new people they just made criminal with their new law?

Grandma and grampa better watch out, the authorities are about to raid your medicine cabinet. A new criminal class - the geritol criminal. :)

[pax_et_bonum]

I think his wife's name is Marta.

[Floratina]

Does this mean that his housekeeper is full of crap?

Question: if the law was "new" last September, maybe any "shopping" done prior to that doesn't count?

[driftless]

How many who did what Rush supposedly did "do the time"?

[rwfromkansas]

I did not realize seeing multiple doctors and getting different opinions was illegal.

This is a witch hunt.

[hapc]

Make that a political witch hunt!

[nmh]

I "doctor shop" ALL the time. Most are incompetent so one is almost forced to "doctor shop".

[luckodeirish]

Maybe it is just me, but there are level 3 sex offenders who are let out of prison without supervision, children going missing, good citizens being murdered and assaulted, and law enforcement spends time on this?

[CobaltBlue]

If he's doctor shopping, that is, getting the same prescription from more than one doctor at the same time, they're doing exactly what they need to do in order to prove the case.

[Enterprise]

It is possible that Rush was "Doctor shopping." However, it is between Rush and his Doctor to decide what kind of medication he should use. It is the Doctor's responsibility to inform of the possible long term affects of the medication and monitor Rush to determine if the drug has become addictive, and refer him to a detox program. It is the responsibility of the police to butt out, go to hell, and do something useful in Palm Beach.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

There is a lot of doctor shopping going on, I hear about it all of the time. I have never heard of anyone getting prosecuted for it however. Anyone else?

I have never heard that this is against the law. I have had a degenerative back disease that I discovered when I had to spend a week in traction in the mid 80's. Since then I've seen a dozen doctors in three countries and had no idea I was breaking a law.

BTW while I have four prescription meds I could take, I just ignore the pain, though a bit of Scotch seems to help! ;-)

[John Beresford Tipton]

" Probably we are a whole nation of criminals if they wanted to enforce each and every law on the books. And it's not going to get better."

BINGO!

There are enough laws, and vague ones at that, that you might be a "criminal" and not even know it, and then you'd have a Hell of a lot "to worry about".

All it takes is a prosecutor to target you and voila you're a "criminal", and all the rest of us can rejoice with a hearty:

LOL, but he has "nothing to worry about"

That there are too many such laws and that a prosecutor can pick his victim and then find the law to nail him is well known. Justice Jackson, a former US Attorney General and later Justice of the Supreme court wrote:

"With the law books filled with a great assortment of crimes, a prosecutor stands a fair chance of finding at least a technical violation of some sort on the part of almost anyone. In such a case, it is not a question of discovering the commission of a crime and then looking for the man who committed it, it is a question of picking the man, and then searching the law books, or putting investigators to work, to pin some offense on him."

[jerseygirl]

Apparently it's only illegal when the patient obtains multiple prescriptions for controlled substances. They certainly are splitting hairs.

[Dante3]

I've been doing it but not for drugs. I didn't like the first doctor (during exam took phone calls from his stock broker & seemed a little odd) The second one moved too far away. The third was absentminded and had a scary nurse with weird scars all over her arms and had problems in taking a simple blood sample. Now I'm on the forth one.

[CobaltBlue]

I have a client right now who does stuff like this. He takes some, and sells the rest to buy cocaine and heroin. Nearly died from aspirating his own vomit a couple of weeks ago, and is now back on the street, doing it again. Most doctors are too straight-laced to get involved in it, but some are glad to get the money, maybe feel like they're doing the guy a favor somehow.

As a lawyer, of course, I can't tip off law enforcement.

[RaginRak]

My 90 year old Aunt Catherine better head undercover-she's been 'doctor shopping' for years!!