23 Sep 1993 "He says that, 'I know every expert in the world will disagree with me, but I don't buy into the disease part of drug abuse. The first time you reach for a substance you are making a choice. Every time you go back, you're making a personal choice. I feel very strongly about that.' What he's saying is, that if there's a line of cocaine here, I have to make the choice to go down and sniff it. And I don't know how -- how to do it, but if I was going to do it, I'd do it. If there were a gun here, it wouldn't fire itself. I've got to reach for it and -- and pull the trigger. And his point is, that we are rationalizing all this irresponsibility and all the choices people are making and we're blaming not them, but society for it. All these Hollywood celebrities say the reason they're weird and bizarre is because they were abused by their parents. So we're going to pay for that kind of rehab, too, and we shouldn't. It's not our responsibility."
9 Dec 1993 "If [Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders] wants to legalize drugs, send the people who want to do drugs to London and Zurich, and let's be rid of them." Rush Limbaugh, admitted drug addict, inexplicably still lives in America.
I don't think that Rush's views on the nature of substance abuse oare out of line at all...but even if I did, I would not calssify that statement as being hard on drug users. It is a choice, ultimately, to use drugs, and a choice to stop using drugs. Addiction may be present, but each individual has the ability to make that choice, even if it is difficult for them.
I'm not certain that this makes it in any way irronic that Rush became addicted to them. Many addicts also happen to understand the nature of their addictions.
If you think they cannot hold those opinions, you don't know many recovering addicts.
I also don't think that his offhand statement about allowing those who would legalize drugs to move o0ut of the country is really relevant , either. Rush has never advocated the legalization of illegal drugs.
We all make mistakes, and in most cases, I think it is safe to say we don't disagree with the law. I think this is the situation with Rush.
"He says that, 'I know every expert in the world will disagree with me, but I don't buy into the disease part of drug abuse. The first time you reach for a substance you are making a choice. Every time you go back, you're making a personal choice. I feel very strongly about that.' What he's saying is, that if there's a line of cocaine here, I have to make the choice to go down and sniff it. And I don't know how -- how to do it, but if I was going to do it, I'd do it. If there were a gun here, it wouldn't fire itself. I've got to reach for it and -- and pull the trigger. And his point is, that we are rationalizing all this irresponsibility and all the choices people are making and we're blaming not them, but society for it. All these Hollywood celebrities say the reason they're weird and bizarre is because they were abused by their parents. So we're going to pay for that kind of rehab, too, and we shouldn't. It's not our responsibility."
OK, so tell me, how is this intolerant, or even incompatible with how Rush handled his own addiction?
This dog don't hunt.
First of all, the liberal press had to search through hundreds of radio commentaries to find them: the few comments Rush had made on ILLEGAL recreational drug abuse.
There is a world of difference between illegal cocaine and heroin addiction and prescribed pain killers becoming an addiction problem when precribed for a specific ailment. Rush did not CHOOSE to take these pills to get high... he HAD to take them to function.
My mother has multiple compression fractures of her spine... she has just been increased to two (2) hydrocodone every 4 hours to control the pain. That's 10 a day times 30 days times 6 months... equals 1800 pills. The 2000 that were prescribed for Limbaugh in a six month period is not that out of line for people suffering from intractable pain.