You SHOULD "give a darn" - if YOU were caught with prescription drugs that you bought under-the-counter do you think the cops would just drop you and go after your supplier? Nuh-uh! If your kid was caught with oxycontin he bought from a kid at school who was supplied by someone else wouldn't YOU want the supplier AND the middleman held responsible?
it should not be illegal for someone in his situation to have to get them in the first place.
It IS NOT "illegal for someone in his situation to have to get them in the first place": you go to your physician and SEEK help the RIGHT way, so they can monitor your condition and see when your pill consumption starts getting out of hand. It's a closed-loop system: when your condition doesn't improve then the course of treatment changes to suit. The system WORKS that way. Sitting at home honking-down pills while your physician remains clueless as to your condition is absolutely, positively asinine and irresponsible.
I hope he gets straightened out as much as the next person, BUT I also hope he's treated (judicially) the same as the next person: possession of prescription medicines without a prescription is a crime and, consequently, he must be called to account for it. Him AND his supplier. Personally, I hold the buyer AS responsible as the seller: just because someone's selling it doesn't mean you have to buy it.
With the bazillions of dollars he's said he makes he's gotta go get his pills from his HOUSEKEEPER rather than maintain the doctor/patient relationship he had? After surgery, you just don't walk out the door without the therapy/followup that would have detected his lack of improvement. He's either infinitely cheap OR worried about his personal, private actions becoming public. Either way: the actions of a fool; he should have known better.
Of course, now that he's been found-out and exposed to the public he's got nothing to lose by trying whatever means necessary to 'get clean' and making it the "I'm doing what's right"-thing. More character would have been evidenced had he brought this all to light HIMSELF the FIRST time he went into the tank.
Spontaneous revelation/apology/acceptance/restitution shows a HECK of a lot more character than "oops! you caught me. yeah, I did it. It happened. I'm sorry. I'll 'get help now'. I promise."
Just a minor point but he wasn't "caught" with anything.
Ditto. If you, I or anyone else were in the same situation, this very likely would be a prosecutable offense.
To go one step further, possession of prescription medicines with a prescription is also a crime (at least for the physician and/or pharmacist) if there was a violation of the governing rules/regulations.
If there's gonna be a WOD, it has to evenly applied. This of course begs the question of why there is a WOD ...
No, I do not. It is a disgrace that in this country getting pain killers for a real medical condition has been criminalized.
It IS NOT "illegal for someone in his situation to have to get them in the first place"
Yes it is because physicians get harassed if they prescribe too much of certain drugs so they are forced by the government to not give the proper treatment for fear of losing their licenses.
With the bazillions of dollars he's said he makes he's gotta go get his pills from his HOUSEKEEPER rather than maintain the doctor/patient relationship he had?
I am really sick of the licensed hypocrisy in this country. With a license one can do the most abominable things, but without it, doing something absolutely normal and which does no harm to society (and in this case does a great benefit to society - keeping Rush doing what he was born to do) is a criminal act.
If these DEA or whatever they are wanted to get some headlines they could clean out Hollywood. Those folk are all taking illegal drugs and not to be able to do their job but for fun and to tune out from the world. I have said it before and will say it again, this is political persecution and a great example of our having too many laws in this country and too many tyrants enforcing them.
I doubt that a kid a school would be buying oxycontin for pain. FReepers are smart enough to tell the difference between one student giving another an Advil, huffer, or Pepto Bismol and some Ritalin, X, or Oxyxcontin. Some schools' zero-tolerance policy makes all such drug dispensing the same crime.
He twice before sought help. Does he need to come clean with you about everything before he does it. Should he have announced to the world before he started his diet too? "Folks, for years I have had a problem maintaing my weight and it leads me open to a lot of serious health risks and a number of insulting attacks... I want you all to know that I am rejecting my girth littered past and am embarking on a weight loss program in which I will....".
If he ever has to enter marriage counseling or get intervention for his step daughter should he have to make that public?