Apparently the facts are now that Rush had five doctors... but that begs the question of whether they all prescribed oxycontin for him... I find it hard to believe that the ear, nose and throat specialist would be prescribing pain pills for a back problem. On the other hand, between my cardiologist (with an office with 5 doctors) and my orthopedic specialist (2 doctors), and my Primary Care Physician, I could be said to have 8 doctors... and about 4 of them have renewed or written prescriptions for me for various problems. Not to mention that the HMO approach sends me to specialists for other issues... so my health is not maintained by just one doctor.
I have had a doctor increase the dosage of a pain killer prescribed by another doctor and write a new prescription covering the increased number of pills required... does that make me guilty of "doctor shopping"?
I assure you that had Rush wanted more pills, I could have sent him a bunch of the spam emails that I receive every day offering oxycontin and other pain relieving drugs from Canadian, Mexican, and other mail order pharmacies that, if you don't have a doctor, offer to have one of their "on call" or staff doctors write you a prescription after a phone "examination" for a small fee (or not so small). I have no doubt that Rush's Junk email box is as full of similar offers. Rush could easily have used one or more of these... and there is no evidence that he did.
"Apparently the facts are now that Rush had five doctors... but that begs the question of whether they all prescribed oxycontin for him... I find it hard to believe that the ear, nose and throat specialist would be prescribing pain pills for a back problem. ..." ~ Swordmaker
Roy Black stated that two of Rush's doctors prescribed over 90% of the pain medication for him. You'll find that fact, and the possible answer to the so-called "5 doctors" assertion in my post here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1623836/posts?page=69#69