Pubdate: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 Source: Newsday (NY) Copyright: 2003 Newsday Inc. Contact: http://www.newsday.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/308 Author: Clarence Page Note: Clarence Page is a Chicago Tribune syndicated columnist based in Washington. ALERT: Outspoken Rush Limbaugh Should Speak Out http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0279.html Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Rush+Limbaugh WE NEED STRAIGHT TALK FROM RUSH LIMBAUGH Memo to Rush Limbaugh: Hey, Rush. Were counting on you, pal. Now that you feel the hot breath of drug prosecutors on your neck, perhaps you might speak out now for enlightened treatment of nonviolent drug offenders. News reports say you face an investigation for allegedly buying thousands of tablets of the powerful painkiller OxyContin and other highly addictive prescription drugs from an illegal ring in Florida between 1998 and 2002. You issued a three sentence statement on your Web site saying that you were "unaware of any investigation by any authorities involving me" and you promised to cooperate fully "if my assistance is required in the future." Well, you certainly deserve the same presumption of innocence as anyone else, and I wish you the best. The news accounts have said that youre being investigated for the sort of nonviolent offense in which thousands of addicts are caught, sometimes by accident, getting hooked on painkillers they were taking for treatment of an ailment like that which almost cost you your hearing. Drug addiction is a disease. It respects no particular race, gender or political leaning. For those who have addiction problems and havent hurt anybody else as a result, I think treatment will do them and the rest of society a lot more good than throwing them into the slammer. And Im not alone. Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the nonprofit Drug Policy Alliance, said in a sympathetic news release regarding reports of your drug troubles that "drug misuse should be addressed in a doctors office, not a prison cell." The alliance, it is worth noting, showed the same sympathy to former Drug Czar William J. Bennett, when he announced in May that he was swearing off gambling, after having lost millions over the last decade, according to news reports. Bennett has always called for tough punitive measures, even against low-level marijuana users. But, as for his own favorite addiction, he points out rather meekly that he never said anything in public about gambling. The alliance also supported Florida Gov. Jeb Bushs call for respect and privacy regarding the arrest of his daughter, Noelle, for trying to buy Xanax without a prescription in 2002. Happily, the 26-year-old completed treatment in August this year and a judge allowed her to go home to her parents. Unhappily, the same cannot be said for a lot of nonviolent Florida drug offenders who have less money or political power. Instead, the governor has cut drug-treatment and drug-court budgets. Jeb Bush also flatly opposes a possible ballot initiative like one California passed a few years ago that diverts nonviolent drug offenders away from prison and into treatment programs. But, however your case turns out, I cant help but hope this experience has a chastening effect on your drug views. Your past commentaries offer a ray of hope. Online searches reveal a Limbaugh who seems, uncharacteristically, to have wavered on the drug issue between the libertarian and authoritarian wings of the conservative movement. Back on Oct. 5, 1995, you insisted on your now-defunct TV show that "theres nothing good about drug use" and how "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." You also said, with tongue at least partly in cheek, that the statistics that show blacks go to prison far more often than whites for the same drug offenses only show that "too many whites are getting away with drug use." "The answer to this disparity," you said, "is not to start letting people out of jail. . . . 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." Ah, yes. Those words may come back to haunt you. I guess I am doing my part. However, Newsday columnist Ellis Henican and the pro-drug-reform Media Awareness Projects Web site (MAPinc.org) cite a March 1998 radio show in which you advocated legalization of addictive drugs the way we regulate cigarettes and alcohol. "License the Cali cartel," you reportedly said. "Make them taxpayers and then sue them. Sue them left and right and then get control of the price and generate tax revenue from it. Raise the price sky-high and fund all sorts of other wonderful social programs." I remember when former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, a former drug prosecutor himself, advocated that very idea after seeing how much the war against drugs had become a war against drug victims. I dont remember hearing you say much about that at the time, Rush. If ever there was a time for you to speak out more (and I never thought I would ever be saying that about you!), this could be it. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake