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Let's hope Rush will see that the Right is wrong on the drug war

Limbaugh drug controversy should remind us of the failed War on Drugs.

Date published: 10/15/2003

By RICK MERCIER

SO THE NATIONAL Enquirer was right--Rush Limbaugh does have a drug problem. As you probably know by now, the archconservative radio personality has admitted having a painkiller addiction.

Though it may take a bit of self-discipline for some of us, we should resist any temptation to revel in Limbaugh's misfortune--or vilify him for his apparently illegal behavior (it seems inconceivable that he could have fed his habit without illegally obtaining the drugs). Like millions of Americans, Limbaugh has a serious health problem--a debilitating dependency on addictive substances.

Limbaugh's admission should be greeted as an opportunity to acknowledge a few truths: 1) drug abuse is primarily a public health problem; 2) the get-tough criminal-justice approach to the problem causes more harm than good; and 3) the war on drugs disproportionately targets those who don't fall into the same demographic as Limbaugh.

For years, while our prisons have filled to the point of overflowing with nonviolent drug offenders who tend to be poor and nonwhite, the right wing has gotten gobs of political mileage out of pushing a lock-'em-up-and-throw-away-the-key agenda.

Not surprisingly, Limbaugh has given (loud) voice to this zealotry. In the mid-1990s, he said: "There's nothing good about drug use. 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."

Limbaugh went on to question the claim that too many people of color were being locked up on drug charges, but concluded that if that were the case, it simply meant that more white drug offenders had to be put behind bars, too.

Maybe now Limbaugh will want to reconsider his position. If so, he could start by digesting this information:

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Date published: 10/15/2003