[jimt]

So someone who gets addicted because he's taking pills for pain is equivalent to someone who smokes dope for fun?

Yep.

First of all, a multi-millionaire has many remedies to pain and addiction not open to the hoi-polloi. Rush's efforts to drop this stuff have been half-hearted at best. When we look behind the curtain (as in the Wizard of Oz) it ought to be fairly obvious. Rush is on these drugs because he wants to be on these drugs. No different than Elvis.

So the sympathy ploy doesn't wash with me.

He's a doper. As I know many people who are worthwhile - even extremely talented - who are dopers, it doesn't bother me. What does bother me deeply is his HYPOCRISY.

[grannyheart2000]

ah yes.....your compassion is overwhelming. I suppose you will tell my 77 year old sister who suffers from chronic back pain that can't be remedied by surgery etc. that the morphine patches she uses daily should be thrown away. Let her live the rest of her life in chronic pain so severe that she cries continually without her patches......yes tell her that she is nothing more than a "doper" like those out on the streets........
Pity those around you should you ever develop such excruiating pain that can't be alleviated through surgery and you choose not to take any pain pills. You have no idea what it's like.....

[truth_seeker]

"What does bother me deeply is his HYPOCRISY."

Drugs are mind alterring. Maybe he'll feel, behave differently towards addicts/alcoholics, after he gets some recovery and empathy.

[truth_seeker]

"First of all, a multi-millionaire has many remedies to pain and addiction not open to the hoi-polloi."

The ones that work, however, are the same for rich and poor.