# Rush & Drugs - FACTUAL question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 10, 2003, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-drugs-factual-question/206744 "2003-10-10T22:05:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-drugs-factual-question/206744/1 "2003-10-10T22:05:35Z")
I’m sure that GD and the Pit will be full of stuff about Rush Limbaugh’s admission that he is addicted to painkillers. [http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/10/10/limbaugh.statement/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/10/10/limbaugh.statement/index.html) Here’s my question: What (if any) position has Rush taken on drug abuse in the past? Has he taken any moral stance on addicts, pushed for better understanding, societal help, tougher sentencing, etc? ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-drugs-factual-question/206744/2 "2003-10-10T23:17:47Z")
He is against legalization saying that you don’t live your life in a vacuume, meaning that you are not just effectign your body by taking drugs. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-drugs-factual-question/206744/3 "2003-10-10T23:19:19Z")
I can’t find any site or quote where he belittled the use of drugs. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2003, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-drugs-factual-question/206744/4 "2003-10-11T00:36:31Z")
The ABC Evening News reported that he had criticized drug users in the past, naming Darryl Strawberry in particular. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2003, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-drugs-factual-question/206744/5 "2003-10-11T06:19:53Z")
Who didn’t critize Darryl Strawberry? The guy had a multi-million dollar baseball career which he kept messing up because he couldn’t stop shoving cocaine up his nose. ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2003, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-drugs-factual-question/206744/6 "2003-10-11T06:27:34Z")
[_Rush Limbaugh 1995_](http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/newyork/columnists/nyc-henn1003,0,5907810.column?coll=ny-ny-columnists) > [@](#): > > There’s nothing good about drug use, We know it. It destroys individuals. It destroys families. Drug use destroys societies. Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. And the laws are good because we know what happens to people in societies and neighborhoods which become consumed by them. And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up. > … > What this says to me, is that too many whites are getting away with drug use. Too many whites are getting away with drug sales. Too many whites are getting away with trafficking in this stuff. The answer to this disparity is not to start letting people out of jail because we’re not putting others in jail who are breaking the law. The answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them and send them up the river, too. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2003, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-drugs-factual-question/206744/7 "2003-10-11T07:32:00Z")
I didn’t much care for Rush’s explination. He said “After surgery failed, I chose to treat my condition thru drugs.” This clearly makes it sound like his doctor said “want another surgery or should we try drugs.” This didn’t happen. HE chose to treat his own condition. If you listen to him he constantly pushed the blame away from himself. HE chose to take the drugs. BTW Strawberry was just too funny when he was on the Simpsons. ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2003, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-drugs-factual-question/206744/8 "2003-10-11T08:55:32Z")
**Markxxx** , he had surgery and it failed to correct the problem which was causing him pain. The doctor knew that, because he had a second surgery. Presumably there were painkiller prescriptions before the first surgery and after the first one failed, and perhaps even after the second one failed. So I’m not sure that we can rule out his doctor saying “you should use painkillers so that this is tolerable to you, here’s a script.” And I’ve no idea how a man can say “I chose to take drugs” and “I’ve tried rehab twice before and failed” have that construed as pushing blame away from himself. I’m sure he’s got enough self-blame going to fill several books; his drug use is almost certainly the cause of his deafness which could’ve destroyed his career. He’s got one of the single most listened to radio shows in the country and all of that hangs in the brink now – despite the fact that his loyal audience will be back for him in five weeks time (or whenever he returns) he still runs the very high risk of losing audience share and sponsors during his absence. We’re not talking about a dumb person or some loser who started using for recreational kicks. He’s probably got self-blame right back to “I shouldn’t have played that game of touch football/picked up that heavy thing/gained so much weight/tried that weirdo sexual position that screwed up my back to begin with.” ---
**Author:** ![bare](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bare/32/471_2.png) [@bare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bare)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2003, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-drugs-factual-question/206744/9 "2003-10-11T10:27:51Z")
Another few quotes to join Guan9’s… “By legalizing drugs, all you’re going to do is define further deviancy downward. We have a duty to pass on values to our descendants, values that will maintain the standards of behavior and ensure the survivability of the American way of life. And drugs are no different. You end up destroying more than yourself.” – Rush Limbaugh Playboy interview, December 1993 "The problem with legalising drugs is it’s another abbhorrent example of human behavior that we’ve suddenly decided hey we can’t handle it, we’ve given up. We’re going to let you destroy your life. We’re going to make it easy and then all of us who accept the responsibilities of life and don’t destroy our lives on drugs, we’ll pay for whatever messes you get into." – Rush Limbaugh show, Dec. 9, 1993 “I’m appalled at people who simply want to look at all this abhorrent behavior and say people are going to do drugs anyway let’s legalize it. It’s a dumb idea. It’s a rotten idea and those who are for it are purely 100 percent selfish.” – Rush Limbaugh show, Dec 9, 1993 "If(Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders) wants to legalize drugs, send the people who want to do drugs to London and Zurich, and let’s be rid of them. – Rush Limbaugh show, Dec 9, 1993 ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2003, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-drugs-factual-question/206744/10 "2003-10-11T14:55:20Z")
The NY Times says: > [@](#): > > Mr. Limbaugh, who has regularly told his listeners that drug users should be jailed, said he began taking painkillers after spinal surgery in the 1990’s. > **[In Show, Limbaugh Tells of a Pill Habit; Plans to Enter Clinic (Published 2003)](https://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/11/us/in-show-limbaugh-tells-of-a-pill-habit-plans-to-enter-clinic.html)** > > Rush Limbaugh, nation's most popular radio talk-show host, announces that he is addicted to prescription pain killers and will check into rehabilitation center; as forefront of conservative talk radio, with 20 million listeners each week, he has...