Let's see. Rush was addicted. He admitted it. That is not an unusual result of intractable back pain being treated with narcotics. There is a strange thing with these drugs... if someone is not in pain takes these "pain killers" they will feel euphoria and be in a drugged up state, demonstrating slurring speech, lack of attention, and a tendency to fall asleep... but if a person is really in pain, the same or higher dosage merely relieves the pain and does not provide the euphoria, cause speech slurring or lack of attention, or create drowsiness.
During the period of Rush's addiction, he functioned for 3 hours or more per day on air handling conversations and carrying on complex conversations or speaking off the cuff for minutes on end in complete, well structured sentences and paragraphs, read copious newspaper articles, watched multiple television programs, doing research for his programs, AND traveled around the country speaking, making public appearances, or attending football games, ALL without demonstrating a "Drugged up" slur in his voice or showing a diminution of his powers of observation and repartee. That would indicate to me that the drugs were doing their job... blocking pain... and not providing euphoria.
In addition, Rush did not have a "handful of doctors"; he had THREE... two were partners in the clinic that was treating him for his back pain and both had access to his medical history and prescriptions each had written for him. The third was the California doctor who performed the surgery to place his cochlear implant. Rush took the prescriptions he received from all three doctors to the same pharmacy, hardly the act of a person intending to conceal his "multiple" prescriptions as the pharmacy would ALSO have a list of what they had filled for him. The prosecutor has subpoenaed the records of only that ONE pharmacy. In other words, they did not find another.
The 2000 pills in a six month period filled by the pharmacy is a mere 11 pills a day. I have a bad back. Occasionally, I have been prescribed some pretty heavy duty pain pills. Some of these prescribe that I take 1 or 2 pills every 4 hours as needed. If I were in extreme pain, I could take a total of 14 pills, perfectly legally, in each 24 hours. It would not have been unreasonable for my doctor to prescribe a total of 2,548 pills (14 X 182 days) for a six month period! If I had been in pain for that period (Thank God I was not), would I have become addicted? You bet your bippy i would have.
These are the facts of this "case".
Sword, thank you for an fine summary. It should also be noted that on at least one, perhaps more occaisions, Rush's primary physician was on vacation or otherwise unavailable. At those times, one of the partners would fill a 'scrip for Rush. THAT is what this idiot persecuter called "doctor shopping"...
Dittos for RUSH, hope he stays clean and pain free.
G
Of course anyone needing narcotics for pain will end up needing a larger dose for relief, and of course one can all too easily get "addicted" through no fault of one's own. When I said Rush knew it was wrong, it's really like when I speed at 80 mph on the 405. I know it's wrong. I did it before and I'll do it again. I was guessing that the addiction was sort of "talking through" Rush and he got his prescriptions from each doctor while omitting to tell them he was getting the same med from the other docs. I love Rush; he means the world to me even though I've never met him.
I believe this kind of addiction should not be put through the legal system but should be helped medically, since it is, after all, iatrogenic. Rush was not out there in the alley scoring crack. I know the libs wanted to bring Rush down with this charge, and they loved doing it, even though when one of their own ends up like this, they are all but canonized for bravery.
When Rush announced his addiction on the air, I remember exactly where I was standing. I was getting dressed upstairs. I was absolutely astounded that he was admitting to being addicted to opiates all the time that he had been delivering Broadcast Excellence three hours a day. He must not have needed that half a brain he had tied up back there.
The main thing for me is that he got well and will continue to get help to make sure this never happens again to him. He is a national treasure and I do not want to lose him. Until that time, and I include the deafness revelation as well, I had taken Rush for granted every morning at 9. Never since. If I were granted the wish of having dinner with one person on this planet, I would choose Rush.