Pubdate: Fri, 05 Dec 2003
Source: Newsday (NY)
Copyright: 2003 Newsday Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/308
Author: Jon Burstein

RAIDS ON RUSH ARE DETAILED

Warrants: He Broke Drug Laws

West Palm Beach, Fla. - A Palm Beach County law enforcement task force 
investigating whether Rush Limbaugh illegally obtained prescription 
painkillers seized the talk show host's medical records from three doctors, 
according to search warrants made public yesterday.

Authorities are looking into whether the conservative commentator violated 
the state's "doctor shopping" law by getting doctors to write him 
overlapping narcotic prescriptions and failing to tell them about each other.

Records from one pharmacy near Limbaugh's Palm Beach mansion show that 
during a six-month period in 2003, he picked up hundreds of addictive 
painkiller pills prescribed by four local doctors, court documents state.

 From March to September, Limbaugh picked up 1,733 hydrocodone pills, 90 
OxyContin pills, 50 Xanax tablets and 40 pills of Kadian (time-release 
morphine), search warrant records show. The court documents indicate that 
sometimes less than a week would lapse between him getting different 
doctors' prescriptions.

"Doctor shopping" is a third-degree felony under Florida law, punishable by 
up to 5 years in prison.

Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer said yesterday that 
Limbaugh still is under investigation and "is presumed innocent at this time."

The Nov. 25 searches - two at the Jupiter Outpatient Surgery Center and a 
third at a West Palm Beach doctor's office - happened a week after Limbaugh 
came back on the air following a stint in a drug-rehabilitation program. 
Limbaugh admitted in early October he was addicted to painkillers, a week 
after media reports first surfaced that his former housekeeper had supplied 
him with OxyContin and other powerful prescription drugs.

A few hours before the search warrants were filed yesterday, Limbaugh 
alerted his listeners that he had just learned his medical records had been 
seized. Limbaugh read a statement written by his attorney denying any 
wrongdoing and saying "what should be a responsible investigation is 
looking more and more like a fishing expedition.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman