Posted on 10/02/2003 1:21:45 AM PDT by kattracks
Talk-radio titan Rush Limbaugh is being investigated for allegedly buying thousands of addictive painkillers from a black-market drug ring.The moralizing motormouth was turned in by his former housekeeper - who says she was Limbaugh's pill supplier for four years.
Wilma Cline, 42, says Limbaugh was hooked on the potent prescription drugs OxyContin, Lorcet and hydrocodone - and went through detox twice.
"There were times when I worried," Cline told the National Enquirer, which broke the story in an edition being published today. "All these pills are enough to kill an elephant - never mind a man."
Cline could not be reached for further comment yesterday, but her lawyer, Ed Shohat of Miami, said his client "stands behind the story."
The Daily News independently confirmed that Limbaugh is under investigation.
His lawyers, Jerry Fox and Dan Zachary, refused to comment on the accusations and said any "medical information" about him was private and not newsworthy.
They said Limbaugh - who has a top-rated syndicated radio show but resigned early today from a weekly ESPN football segment amid criticism of racial comments about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb - was traveling and had no comment.
The Palm Beach County state attorney's office, which is running the probe, said it could not confirm or deny the allegations.
Scoring in parking lot
Cline told the Enquirer she went to prosecutors with information about Limbaugh and others after four years of drug deals that included clandestine handoffs in a Denny's parking lot.
She said she wore a wire during her last two deliveries to the conservative commentator and gave the tapes to authorities.
She also gave the Enquirer a ledger documenting how many pills she claimed to have bought for him - 4,350 in one 47-day period - and E-mails she claimed Limbaugh sent her.
In one missive, Limbaugh pushed Cline to get more "little blues" - code for OxyContin, the powerful narcotic nicknamed hillbilly heroin, she said.
"You know how this stuff works ... the more you get used to, the more it takes," the May 2002 E-mail reads. "But I will try and cut down to help out."
The account Cline gave the Enquirer is that she became Limbaugh's drug connection in 1998, nine months after taking a housekeeping job at his Palm Beach mansion.
It started after her husband, David, hurt himself in a fall, and Limbaugh asked how he was.
"He asked me casually, 'Is he getting any pain medication?' I said, 'Yes - he's had surgery, and the doctor gave him hydro-codone 750,'" Cline said. "To my astonishment, he said, 'Can you spare a couple of them?'"
Husband's pills
Cline said she gave Limbaugh 10 pills the next day and agreed to give him 30 of her husband's pills each month. When the doctor stopped renewing the prescription in early 1999, Limbaugh allegedly went ballistic.
"His tone was nasty and bullying. He said, 'I don't care how or what you do, but you'd better - better! - get me some more,'" Cline said.
The housekeeper said she found a new supplier and arranged to hide Limbaugh's stashes under his mattress so his wife, Marta, wouldn't find them.
After several months, Limbaugh told her he was going to New York for detox and didn't need any more pills, Cline said.
But a month later, he said his left ear was hurting and asked her for hydrocodone, followed by an order for OxyContin.
Limbaugh, 52, suffered from autoimmune ear disease, a condition that left him deaf and had to be corrected with cochlear implant surgery two years ago.
Cline said she continued to make deliveries to Limbaugh even after she quit as his housekeeper in July 2001 - but he became increasingly paranoid, even patting her down for recording devices, she said.
In June 2002, Limbaugh told her he was going to New York for detox a second time.
After he returned, "I went to talk to him, and he cried a little bit," she said. "He told me that if it ever got out, he would be ruined."
She claimed that a lawyer for Limbaugh gave her a payoff - $80,000 he owed her, plus another $120,000 - and asked her to destroy the computer that contained the E-mail records.
Soon after, Cline and her husband retained Shohat and contacted prosecutors.
Feeling no pain
The drugs Rush Limbaugh is accused of abusing are legal only with a doctor's prescription. All are habit-forming.
- Hydrocodone
Anti-cough agent and painkiller similar to morphine. Side effects include anxiety, poor mental performance, emotional dependence, drowsiness, mood changes, difficulty breathing and itchiness.
- Lorcet
Brand name for the combination of Tylenol and hydrocodone, prescribed for moderate to severe pain. Side effects include dry mouth, nausea, vomiting, decreased appetite, dizziness, tiredness, muscle twitches, sweating and itching.
- OxyContin
Potent time-release medication for relief of moderate to severe pain, known as hillbilly heroin because of black-market popularity in some rural areas. Side effects include drowsiness, dizziness, sweating, muscle twitches and decreased sex drive. A large dose can be fatal.
Originally published on October 2, 2003
Painful ear condition leading to extended use of pain killers?
If it turn out he has an addiction it would make no difference in my opinion of his work or of him as an individual. I would just feel sad that he would have such a painful problem to confront. Addiction is a very compelling force and will make people do things that they would never have dreamed of doing before they fell under their control.
Yes, it is one of the side effects of Vicodin I believe. Rush's hearing problem was auto-immune so I doubt it applies here.
Just a small detail that the media would rather not pursue. After all, she did them a favor.
Pretty cool that we got a heads up right here on FR, the day before it showed on DRUDGE.
The politics of personal destruction ... I wonder who's behind this, for real?
It is possible she is working with the police in exchange for having all charges dropped against her.
This is the part that worries me...i.e., any tapes.
I'm so sick over this, I barely slept last night. I've listened to Rush regularly for about 13-14 years now. He's been my rock.
With the left's volley of vicious attacks this week, I'm sure most of us are reeling.
But we have to remain strong, pick ourselves up and each do our part in counter-attacking.
Leni
The long term staging is that they plan to have Rush tied up in knots for months at the critical time when the Rats are choosing their candidate for POTUS in 2004. It will of course be Hillary and I am going to start buying stock in her csmetics supplier. Her face appeared to be melting this morning when she was "calling for a special counsel on the Wilson matter." [ BTW, another product of Local 8520, IMHO.--see below]
I do not know what the truth is, but you can count it as a take-down effort by the geheimstattspolitzei of the Clinton National Socialists Unon, Local 8520 --Special Operations Division.
That's right. My aunt had a pharmacist who kept re-filling a prescription for it... for over 20 years! It didn't make her stupid but she was “slow motion” in spades.
I'm just wondering who fu_k this “Wilma Cline” is.
A lot of people here -- and I mean a lot -- are starting to sound like the dummycrats in the days that followed the initial reports in the Enquirer and on Drudge about Clinton and a little known intern at the time named "Monica." You know, the stuff about "right wing conspiracies," and "how the 'right' is trying to destroy the greatest president since Jimmy Carter [yuk]," and "the Enquirer and Drudge are trash," and "until Bill tells us so, I'm not going to believe a word of that crap."
May I suggest that we give Rush our support and our prayers, but until all of the facts come out, we ought to shy away from the "left wing conspiracy theory," to avoid sounding like the enemy, and perhaps looking like fools at a later date.
From my own personal experiences and observations, drug abuse knows no boundries -- age, sex, race, ethnic, relgious, economic, or political affiliation.
The one really odd thing that jumped out at me was that the maid stated he kept these pills under his mattress.
Like the rest of this story, it seems strange.
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