Posted on 10/10/2003 12:17:21 PM PDT by ThePythonicCow
Press Release
| Source: Premiere Radio |
Rush Limbaugh Statement on Prescription Pain Medication Stories
Friday October 10, 2:55 pm ET
"You know I have always tried to be honest with you and open about my life. So I need to tell you today that part of what you have heard and read is correct. I am addicted to prescription pain medication.
"I first started taking prescription painkillers some years ago when my doctor prescribed them to treat post surgical pain following spinal surgery. Unfortunately, the surgery was unsuccessful and I continued to have severe pain in my lower back and also in my neck due to herniated discs. I am still experiencing that pain. Rather than opt for additional surgery for these conditions, I chose to treat the pain with prescribed medication. This medication turned out to be highly addictive.
"Over the past several years I have tried to break my dependence on pain pills and, in fact, twice checked myself into medical facilities in an attempt to do so. I have recently agreed with my physician about the next steps.
"Immediately following this broadcast, I am checking myself into a treatment center for the next 30 days to once and for all break the hold this highly addictive medication has on me. The show will continue during this time, of course, with an array of guest hosts you have come to know and respect.
"I am not making any excuses. You know, over the years athletes and celebrities have emerged from treatment centers to great fanfare and praise for conquering great demons. They are said to be great role models and examples for others. Well, I am no role model. I refuse to let anyone think I am doing something great here, when there are people you never hear about, who face long odds and never resort to such escapes. They are the role models. I am no victim and do not portray myself as such. I take full responsibility for my problem.
"At the present time, the authorities are conducting an investigation, and I have been asked to limit my public comments until this investigation is complete. So I will only say that the stories you have read and heard contain inaccuracies and distortions, which I will clear up when I am free to speak about them.
"I deeply appreciate all your support over this last tumultuous week. It has sustained me. I ask now for your prayers. I look forward to resuming our excursion into broadcast excellence together."
For audio/video clip(s) of Rush Limbaugh's on-air statement, please go to
www.rushlimbaugh.com and/or www.premieretalk.com.
I don't think drugs (cocaine, heroin, etc. should be legalized) But my grandmother was addicted to valium (we learned this a couple of years before she died), and when the Dr wanted to take it away from her, I was as outraged as the rest of my family. Why torture an old, sick woman?
If my mother, father or husband was in severe, unrelenting pain I'd buy anything I had to buy from any source I could find to alleviate their pain. I would accept my punishment if caught.
Rush is in my prayers. I wish he had come forward earlier. But I cannot demand or pout over something I KNOW I could not accomplish myself.
But none of the anti-WOD folks are defending Rush. They're too busy saying na-na-na-boo-boo and pointing fingers and calling everybody hypocrites.
Who asked for your sympathy? Not Rush.
Well, maybe not. I'm an anti-WOD person who wouldn't defend any addict, with respect to public opinion. I think you would have to agree that it's pretty blatant to make all the statements he is purported to have made and then come to this...
Please know this: I pray for him for strength and resolve, and have so posted on this forum, the same as I do for all in that position. But, again, you can hardly blame people like me, who face preposterous accusations of being drug users ourselves because we do not see the Constutitionality of the WOD, for sticking the needle in (no pun intended, truly).
He needs to consider a paradigm shift toward holistic medicine and address the causes of chemical and metabolic imbalances, but he won't get a chance to do this while he is locked up in a treatment facility. I don't expect his enthusiasm for a prescription drug benefit in Medicare to increase any time soon.
The law doesn't make that distinction. Possession is possession. The argument you're making would be made by the defense during trial and to the court at sentencing as a mitigating factor.
Florida has drug courts--Noelle Bush was being supervised by one until just recently. However, in my state (Wisconsin), simple possession of a controlled substance usually gets someone 30-90 days in jail plus one to two years of probation if the person has no priors.
Nope. I'd give you half a point if you could source that quote with a link -- but only half.
Your single eight-year-old quote, even if accurate, is pretty paltry. It is ambiguous, too, because in the context of the full quote, it appears Rush is talking about illegal drugs used recreationally (i.e., to get high), not prescription painkillers.
If you could come up with more recent comments by Rush, e.g. if he had said Winona Ryder or Darryl Strawberry should be sent to prison (which I doubt he said), I'd give you a full point.
Have you thought of giving Hypnosis a try???
In Fort Meyers, Floriduh, there is an OB/GYN who delivers babies with NOTHING for pain except Hypnosis.
The problem with Pain Control is the same as Chronic Insomnia...Pharmacological agents for both rapidly require increasing dosages, and are addicting/habit forming.
If Hypnosis can be used, it gets around that problem.
Here in Central Arizona, there is a group of Hypnotherapists and Hypnotists who are called in by hospitals when Pharma is lethal.
One PhD Hypnotherapist was employed at the behest of the anestheologist to be the only 'pain control' for a woman having a double Mastectomy.
She is frail, and over 90 years old. Use of pure Hypnosis was literally a Life or Death matter.
Something to think about.
Do you pick up your scripts in the Denny's parking lot? I didn't think so. He is a junkie plain and simple, The sooner he realizes it the better.
Give up these people are still in denial. They have the IQ of an orange.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.