Posted on 10/01/2003 10:41:34 PM PDT by lainie
Talk-radio titan Rush Limbaugh is being investigated for allegedly buying thousands of addictive painkillers from a black-market drug ring.
The moralizing motormouth was turned in by his former housekeeper - who says she was Limbaugh's pill supplier for four years.
Wilma Cline, 42, says Limbaugh was hooked on the potent prescription drugs OxyContin, Lorcet and hydrocodone - and went through detox twice.
"There were times when I worried," Cline told the National Enquirer, which broke the story in an edition being published today. "All these pills are enough to kill an elephant - never mind a man."
Cline could not be reached for further comment yesterday, but her lawyer, Ed Shohat of Miami, said his client "stands behind the story."
The Daily News independently confirmed that Limbaugh is under investigation.
His lawyers, Jerry Fox and Dan Zachary, refused to comment on the accusations and said any "medical information" about him was private and not newsworthy.
They said Limbaugh - who has a top-rated syndicated radio show but resigned early today from a weekly ESPN football segment amid criticism of racial comments about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb - was traveling and had no comment.
The Palm Beach County state attorney's office, which is running the probe, said it could not confirm or deny the allegations.
Scoring in parking lot
Cline told the Enquirer she went to prosecutors with information about Limbaugh and others after four years of drug deals that included clandestine handoffs in a Denny's parking lot.
She said she wore a wire during her last two deliveries to the conservative commentator and gave the tapes to authorities.
She also gave the Enquirer a ledger documenting how many pills she claimed to have bought for him - 4,350 in one 47-day period - and E-mails she claimed Limbaugh sent her.
In one missive, Limbaugh pushed Cline to get more "little blues" - code for OxyContin, the powerful narcotic nicknamed hillbilly heroin, she said.
"You know how this stuff works ... the more you get used to, the more it takes," the May 2002 E-mail reads. "But I will try and cut down to help out."
The account Cline gave the Enquirer is that she became Limbaugh's drug connection in 1998, nine months after taking a housekeeping job at his Palm Beach mansion.
It started after her husband, David, hurt himself in a fall, and Limbaugh asked how he was.
"He asked me casually, 'Is he getting any pain medication?' I said, 'Yes - he's had surgery, and the doctor gave him hydro-codone 750,'" Cline said. "To my astonishment, he said, 'Can you spare a couple of them?'"
Husband's pills
Cline said she gave Limbaugh 10 pills the next day and agreed to give him 30 of her husband's pills each month. When the doctor stopped renewing the prescription in early 1999, Limbaugh allegedly went ballistic.
"His tone was nasty and bullying. He said, 'I don't care how or what you do, but you'd better - better! - get me some more,'" Cline said.
The housekeeper said she found a new supplier and arranged to hide Limbaugh's stashes under his mattress so his wife, Marta, wouldn't find them.
After several months, Limbaugh told her he was going to New York for detox and didn't need any more pills, Cline said.
But a month later, he said his left ear was hurting and asked her for hydrocodone, followed by an order for OxyContin.
Limbaugh, 52, suffered from autoimmune ear disease, a condition that left him deaf and had to be corrected with cochlear implant surgery two years ago.
Cline said she continued to make deliveries to Limbaugh even after she quit as his housekeeper in July 2001 - but he became increasingly paranoid, even patting her down for recording devices, she said.
In June 2002, Limbaugh told her he was going to New York for detox a second time.
After he returned, "I went to talk to him, and he cried a little bit," she said. "He told me that if it ever got out, he would be ruined."
She claimed that a lawyer for Limbaugh gave her a payoff - $80,000 he owed her, plus another $120,000 - and asked her to destroy the computer that contained the E-mail records.
Soon after, Cline and her husband retained Shohat and contacted prosecutors.
How would you react taking 97 vicodin in a day?
I can see a scenario where that might work out for her.
Imagine if she dealt drugs to various people (although in this scenario, *not* Limbaugh), then got caught at it. To try to save her butt from jail, she says, "wait, what if I turn evidence against someone big, like... Rush Limbaugh?" Then she gets wired up and goes to talk to Limbaugh in a way calculated to make his responses *sound* possibly incriminating...
LOL! I needed a laugh. Tonight I had the first drink I've had in 3 years (not an alcoholic, just prefer diet pepsi). I'm sure this is bunk, but it is worrisome bunk nonetheless.
Oxycontin is in time-release form. If you take it as directed, you're right, you won't get any buzz from it, because only enough is in your bloodstream at any one time to take away the pain. However, if you crush up the pills and then take it (whether by swallowing or snorting), you get the full hit all at once because all the time-release coatings have been busted, and it is supposedly one of the ultimate buzzes out there ... as well as one of the most addictive.
I am currently recuperating from a massive spinal fusion (that's back surgery for those of you in Rio Linda!)...and I am taking about 10 pills a day.
I do not believe it is humanly possible to take 90 of these things a day. But I will confirm this with my sister, who is a pharmacologist (that's pharmacist for those of you in, ah nevermind...)
But having said that, even if Rush did have a problem with pain killers, I must say, that even though I have been able to stay at a consistent level with these things for a year and a half, I could not possibly pass judgment for anyone becoming addicted--it has happened to far too many of some of the finest people I know.
And shouldn't the liberals shower Rush with sympathy and understanding? Compassion, is the word I thought they liked to use in situations like this. I always thought that judgment, finger-pointing, ridicule and the like were off limits for the poor addicted souls. I thought we needed to accept their behavior because "they can't help it."
Yeah, there's no double standards here. And definitely no liberal bias.
I would cease reacting. The story doesn't say he actually took 97 a day. It just says he bought 4000 and some in a 47 day period.
And I think you probably react differently at different times. I had some vicodin for pain before I could schedule a root canal. Some times it worked, sometimes the same dosage laid me out. And you're right about pain zapping your energy. I didn't feel quite right for about 2 weeks, whether I was on the pills or not.
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