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News :: Right Wing |
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Rush Limbaugh Admits He Is A Doped Up Fool |
Current rating: -1 |
by Gorman
(No verified email address) |
11 Oct 2003
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LOS ANGELES - Shit-head broadcaster Rush Limbaugh, one of the most retardaed radio commentators in America, told his millions of stupid listeners on Friday he is an asshole that does lots of hardcore dope and is tring to worm his way out of a prison sentance. |
Limbaugh, beloved by the political right for his biting attacks on liberals, also acknowledged that "authorities are conducting an investigation" but said he was not at liberty to offer further details until the probe is complete.
The revelation was the latest controversy to engulf the nationally syndicated radio personality. On Oct. 1, he resigned as a football commentator on ESPN's "NFL Sunday Countdown" after less than a month amid a public uproar over his on-air comments suggesting Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated by the media because he is black.
Telling listeners he has "always tried to be honest with you and open about my life," Limbaugh said he began taking painkillers years ago when they were prescribed to him for pain he was suffering following spinal surgery.
"Unfortunately, the surgery was unsuccessful and I continued to have severe pain in my lower back and also in my neck due to herniated discs," Limbaugh said at the end of a live broadcast from his studio in New York City.
"I am still experiencing that pain. Rather than opt for additional surgery for these conditions, I chose to treat the pain with prescribed medication. This medication turned out to be highly addictive."
He did not specify the medication he was taking, but media reports have identified the painkillers as OxyContin, Lorcet and hydrocodone.
Limbaugh, 52, said he would check himself into a drug treatment center for the next 30 days immediately following his broadcast "to once and for all break the hold this highly addictive medication has on me." He said he had entered medical facilities for treatment twice before in recent years.
GUESTS TO HOST PROGRAM
Limbaugh said live, daily broadcasts of his program, which reaches about 20 million weekly listeners, would continue in his absence with "an array guest hosts you have come to know and respect."
The disclosure follows recent media reports, first surfacing in the supermarket tabloid the National Enquirer, that Limbaugh was under investigation by the state attorney's office in Palm Beach County, Florida., where he lives.
Limbaugh went into no detail about the probe, only saying he had been asked to limit his public comments for the time being. "So I will only say that the stories you have read and heard contain inaccuracies and distortions, which I will clear up when I am free to speak about them."
Limbaugh, who renewed his contract two years ago in a deal reportedly worth $285 million, has been a conservative darling and liberal nemesis since launching his show in 1985 amid the Republican revolution of Ronald Reagan, a man he has called "the greatest president of the 20th century."
Brash and colorful -- he coined the term "femi-Nazis" to disparage women's rights groups and once said the "difference between Los Angeles and yogurt is that yogurt comes with less fruit" -- he helped spawn a wave of right-wing commentators and moralists who proliferate on radio and television.
But Limbaugh was contrite in addressing his addiction.
"I am not making any excuses," he said, insisting he did not want to be counted among those celebrities who "have emerged from treatment centers to great fanfare and praise for conquering great demons."
"I am no role model," he said. "I am no victim and do not portray myself as such. I take full responsibility for my problem.
Limbaugh made headlines in the fall of 2001 when he revealed on air that he had gone virtually deaf as the result of a rare auto-immune disease of the inner ear, but cochlear implant surgery succeeded in restoring much of his hearing.
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Guess That's Where "hung Himself With His Own Rope" Comes From |
by 5
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
11 Oct 2003
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Via from www.takebackthemedia.com
RUSH LIMBAUGH TALKS ABOUT DRUGS.
SHOW: RUSH LIMBAUGH (9:00 PM ET)
October 5, 1995, Thursday 11:15 AM
LENGTH: 3252 words
HEADLINE: DISCUSSION OF NO BOUNDARIES TIES; THE NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY
BOOK LISTS; DRUG USE; MEDICARE; WAGES IN AMERICA
ANCHORS: Rush Limbaugh
BODY:
HOST: Rush Limbaugh
RUSH LIMBAUGH
Excerpt:
But this does have some data and I will guarantee you this is going to be--I'm going to assume that everything in it's true for this--just for the sake of discussion. And I will guarantee you that it's going to be mishandled, misreported and the wrong conclusions are going to be drawn from it. Basically, the thrust of the story is that black men in their 20s in this country--one-third of all black men in their 20s are either in jail or on parole. And that--that--that if this were the case in the white population, if one-third of the white male population in this country in its 20s were in jail, that we would stop everything, declare a national emergency and try to solve the problem. And I think in 1990 the--the number was one in four black men in their 20s were in jail. Now--there you see it--now in 1995 it's--it's one in three.
But here is the real nuts and bolts of this that everybody's going to focus on and misread, I believe. Blacks make up 12 percent of the United States' population. They constitute 13 percent of all monthly drug users, according to this same report. However, black males in their 20s represent 35 percent of those arrested for drug possession, 55 percent of those convicted for drug possession and 74 percent of those sentenced to prison for drug possession.
Now people are going to sit there and say, This proves that America's racist. This proves that cops target blacks unfairly and put them in jail unfairly. They got to be falsely accused. They've got to be falsely convicted. They got to be falsely imprisoned'--and this is supposed to prove to everybody that this is terribly wrong.
Now I think the proper way to look at this is the exact opposite. Let's all admit something: 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.
If you're a black living in the inner city--and--and I firmly believe that, no matter what your race, if you have children--or even if you don't--you don't want to be surrounded by drug infestation. You don't want your kids running around being tempted by the quick profits of drug sales or the quick high of drug use. And if the cops are in these neighborhoods and ridding these neighborhoods of these people, then that's good and you ought to be happy about it.
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.
That's how you deal with this, ladies and gentlemen. And I guarantee you that everybody's going to look at this and draw the wrong conclusion. They're going to say, America's racist.
We're unfairly targeting blacks.' I think blacks ought to be dis--unhappy--whites ought to be unhappy about this. If--if white people are getting away with this stuff, they're tempting your kids, they're tempt--they're--they're in the process perhaps of getting into your neighborhoods. This stuff is des--is destructive.
So you--you mark my words, as this is reported all across the media, America's racist. America unfairly targets blacks,' and so forth, when, in fact, too many whites, apparently, are getting away with it.
It's kind of like sentencing. A lot of people say that we have a heavy sentence for this crime and a light sentence for another crime, and what we ought to do is reduce the heavy sentence so it's more in line with the other. Wrong.
In most cases we ought to increase the light sentence and make it compatible with the heavy sentence, and be serious about punishment because we are becoming too tolerant as a society, folks, especially of crime, in too many parts of the country.
I know all of us are tough on crime. None of us in this audience probably think that we personally are tolerant, but this country certainly appears to be tolerant, forgive and forget.
I mean, you know as well as I do, you go out and commit the worst murder in the world and you just say you're sorry, people go, Oh, OK. A little--little contrition.'
You know, I mean, how many times have you heard it? Guy kills four people, goes to jail, gets convicted and people get mad because he didn't show any remorse. So what if he shows remorse?
He still killed four people. You going to think less of him or more of him? People say, I feel better. He--he said he's sorry for it.' We're becoming too tolerant, folks. |
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Hydrocodone Abuse = Deafness |
by 5
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
11 Oct 2003
Modified: 10:55:14 PM |
Note that Rush's doctor diagnosed the cause of his deafness to a previously undiagnosed auto-immune disorder. Course, he probably didn't tell his he was abusing drugs.
Via the LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-091001vicodin.story
Misuse of Pain Drug Linked to Hearing Loss
Doctors in L.A. and elsewhere have identified at least 48 cases of deafness tied to prolonged misuse of Vicodin and other comparable prescription medicines.
By LINDA MARSA, TIMES HEALTH WRITER
A powerful and potentially addictive painkiller used by millions of Americans is causing rapid hearing loss, even deafness, in some patients who are misusing the drug, according to hearing researchers in Los Angeles and elsewhere.
So far, at least 48 patients have been identified by doctors at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles and several other medical centers who have treated patients with sudden hearing loss. The hearing problems appear to be limited to people who abuse Vicodin and other chemically comparable prescription drugs by taking exceptionally high dosages for several months or more, doctors said.
Vicodin, one of the most commonly prescribed painkillers, is frequently used improperly.
"This has become such a popular drug of abuse," says Dr. John W. House, president of the House Institute in Los Angeles, one of the nation's leading centers of hearing-related research.
Actress Melanie Griffith and Cindy McCain, wife of U.S. Sen John McCain, have acknowledged their struggle to overcome their addiction to Vicodin, which they both were prescribed for severe back pain.
But it's not just notables who are getting hooked.
Christina Jaeger of Sherman Oaks was prescribed Vicodin in 1993 after a back injury. Gradually, she got addicted. She would wean herself off Vicodin for brief periods, only to relapse when doctors continued to prescribe the drug for her recurring pain.
Then, earlier this year, the 36-year-old model and fitness trainer suddenly began to lose her hearing. When her doctors couldn't explain what was happening, she went to the House Institute, where specialists concluded that Vicodin was to blame. Jaeger immediately entered a treatment program to kick her Vicodin habit. But it was too late. By the time she completed the program, she was deaf.
"If I had only known, I would have tried anything to stop," Jaeger said. "The lack of information is what I'm most furious about. That, and the proclivity of doctors to write prescriptions for Vicodin like it's candy."
Some experts believe that doctors' willingness to liberally prescribe potent narcotic painkillers may be contributing to the rise in abuse.
A government survey found that more than 1.6 million Americans began using painkillers like Vicodin in 1998 for nonmedical reasons, up from fewer than 500,000 in 1990. A new U.S. survey on drug use due out in a few weeks will likely find "an upswing" in improper use of prescription pain drugs, said Frank J. Vocci, director of treatment research and development at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Vicodin, a synthetic opiate that is a chemical cousin of heroin and morphine, has long been known to doctors as a potentially addictive medication. "As soon as Vicodin hit the market, there was a steady stream of addicts," said Dr. Drew Pinsky, medical director for the chemical dependency program at Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena. "It's such a huge problem already that I don't know how much bigger it could be."
Researchers at the House Institute were among the first to connect Vicodin use with sudden hearing loss. They now have identified 29 people who heavily abused the painkiller and who subsequently suffered a sudden hearing loss; 16 of those were diagnosed in the last two years. UCLA scientists said they have seen an additional 14 patients with opiate-inducing hearing loss, mostly from overuse of Vicodin, and other ear experts around the country report seeing at least five more of these cases.
Dr. Richard Wiet, a professor of otology at Northwestern University, said he began noticing cases of hearing loss tied to Vicodin use after learning of the findings of House Institute researchers. "Then I started watching for it and found two patients. There's definitely something to this."
But researchers at a dozen other medical institutions said in interviews that they were unaware of similar cases. "It's an interesting observation, but there's really no way to prove as yet that Vicodin caused this problem," said Dr. Steven D. Rauch, an associate professor of otolaryngology at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Mass.
Doctors at the House Institute reported the hearing loss incidents to the Food and Drug Administration in 1999, and then again last month. Last year, Knoll Pharmaceutical Co., the firm that makes Vicodin, added a warning about the potential for hearing loss to the drug's label. But the label change appears to have gone largely unnoticed, even among some top hearing specialists. Knoll is now owned by Abbott Laboratories.
Susan Cruzan, an FDA spokeswoman in Rockville, Md., said the agency worked with the manufacturer on the wording of the label. No further action is planned, Cruzan said, because the FDA considers the hearing loss problem to be "a very rare side effect that is associated with using the drug in an inappropriate manner."
The 48 cases identified so far may seem small considering that 36 million prescriptions for Vicodin-type products were written in 2000, according to IMS Health, a health information company in Westport, Conn. (Vicodin is a combination of acetaminophen and hydrocodone and is also sold under the brand names Lorcet, Lortab and Hydrocet.)
But the hearing loss problem may be "much more prevalent than we think," said Dr. Akira Ishiyama, an assistant professor of otolaryngology at UCLA Medical School who has treated nearly a dozen cases. Some doctors, he said, may not have drawn a connection between Vicodin use and sudden hearing loss in patients because they "haven't been looking for it."
When doctors see isolated cases of sudden hearing loss, they may believe it's just a chance occurrence. At the same time, patients may not realize--or admit--their addiction to painkillers. Vicodin is typically prescribed for short-term use of two to three weeks at most, with patients taking one pill every six hours. But many of the patients who have suffered hearing loss were taking 20 pills or more a day for at least two months, doctors said.
"This seems to be a relatively new phenomenon," House said. "Because we see thousands of hearing impaired patients a year, we can spot trends faster than the average ear, nose and throat doctor." The House Institute pioneered the development of cochlear implants, which are tiny electronic devices that aid in processing sounds for people who are deaf. Consequently, the research center sees a high number of people with sudden hearing loss.
House Institute researchers believe they saw their first patient with Vicodin-induced hearing loss in 1993, although they didn't realize then what caused the patient's condition. Until then, there had been no reports linking hearing deficits to this painkiller, which has been on the market since 1982.
Generally, if an adult with normal hearing experiences a sudden and rapidly progressing hearing loss, the cause is either certain medications, like antibiotics or diuretics, or the onset of an autoimmune disease. Usually, when a patient stops taking the antibiotics or diuretics, his or her hearing returns. Similarly, people stricken with autoimmune-related hearing loss respond to treatment with steroids.
That first patient at the House Institute, however, didn't fit the usual pattern. He wasn't taking antibiotics or diuretics, nor was he suffering from an autoimmune disorder. He ran a successful construction company in the west San Fernando Valley, owned a home and had a wife and kids--but also a secret vice: Vicodin.
He initially began taking the painkiller after two knee surgeries. He developed a tolerance and the drug lost its effect. Soon he was taking 20 to 30 pills a day. "I didn't even realize I was addicted," he said. "After all, this was a prescription drug. It took the pain away, and I functioned normally."
His life changed, however, in November 1993, when he started experiencing ringing in his ears. Then sounds became muffled, first in one ear, then the other, like an electrical short circuit in an amplifier. Alarmed, he went to see his doctor, who referred him to the House Institute. Doctors prescribed steroids, but the drugs didn't help. Four weeks after his first symptoms, he was completely deaf.
The construction manager blames his addiction and deafness for the loss of his business and the demise of his marriage. "I lost everything," he said. "All because of a stinking little pill."
Soon, other patients with the same symptoms began showing up at the House Institute. All admitted abusing drugs containing the hydrocodone-acetaminophen mix. Researchers began tracking these cases and, in April 1999--after identifying 13 patients--shared their findings with hearing specialists at a professional meeting in Palm Springs. At the time, House scientists considered the handful of cases an anomaly. Soon, however, 16 more people showed up with the same problem.
Hearing researchers are still trying to find out how these painkillers cause deafness. They know the delicate hair cells inside the inner ear are permanently damaged in people with opiate-induced hearing loss. These hair cells are like tiny microphones, picking up sound vibrations and transforming them into nerve impulses that are transmitted to the brain. Once they're destroyed, people lose the ability to sense sounds.
Researchers also suspect that the inner ear contains opioid receptors, or nerve endings that are highly sensitive to stimulation by drugs like morphine, heroin or hydrocodone. They believe that there is a connection between these two phenomena. "But we're still unclear as to the exact mechanism of damage," said Dr. Robert W. Baloh, a professor of neurology and head and neck surgery at UCLA Medical School.
It's unclear whether the damage can be reversed once patients start experiencing symptoms. "Some patients have retained some hearing if they stop using the painkillers immediately," House said. "But for most, the damage is already done. Once the process starts, it seems irreversible." |
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Yet Another Take On Rush's Predicament |
by 5
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
11 Oct 2003
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Via www.alternet.org
Hero or Big Fat Idiot, Rush Limbaugh Should Not Face Prison
By Matthew Briggs, Drug Policy Alliance
October 8, 2003
Rush Limbaugh is a hero to some and a big fat idiot to others. But when it comes to his criminal investigation for allegedly buying thousands of prescription painkillers, his politics are irrelevant. As long as no one else was harmed as a consequence of his drug use, Rush Limbaugh should not face incarceration or otherwise be punished for what he chose to put into his own body. Neither should any other American, regardless of class, age or race.
Limbaugh is not the first well-known Floridian to land in hot water over prescription drug abuse. Governor Jeb Bush's daughter, Noelle, was arrested in 2002 for trying to buy Xanax with a fraudulent prescription. At the time, the Drug Policy Alliance called for respect and privacy for the Bush family, but also pointed out the sharp discrepancy in Florida's treatment of drug abuse among people with less political power and financial means. For the past ten years more inmates have been admitted to Florida state prisons for drug offenses than for any other offense.
The sad cases of Noelle Bush – and now Rush Limbaugh – remind us that substance abuse problems do not discriminate. Unfortunately, thanks to Jeb Bush, Florida's drug policies still do.
Despite this personal encounter with drug abuse in the family and repeated calls for reform, Gov. Bush has cut drug treatment and drug court budgets in the state. He also staunchly opposed a possible ballot initiative which would have diverted nonviolent drug offenders away from prison. Treat others as you would want your own son or daughter treated, we said. It's a good principle in life, and a sound basis for drug policy. Gov. Bush didn't listen.
It is unclear where Mr. Limbaugh stands on drug policy. In 1995 he told listeners, "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 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." Mr. Limbaugh went on to deny that African Americans are over-incarcerated compared to whites as a result of the war on drugs. The answer to any such disparity, he said, was to catch more white drug users, "convict them and send them up the river, too."
In 1998, Mr. Limbaugh had a dramatically different message. "What is missing in the drug fight," he told a call-in listener, "is legalization. If we want to go after drugs with the same fervor and intensity with which we go after cigarettes, let's legalize drugs. Legalize the manufacture of drugs. License the Cali cartel."
Sarcasm? Perhaps, but I hope not. I hope, in fact, that this experience further opens Mr. Limbaugh's eyes to the plight of the hundreds of thousands of nonviolent drug offenders behind bars in this country. I would be happy to welcome him to the growing national movement for drug policy reform. We need all the help we can get.
But first and foremost, I hope Mr. Limbaugh's life isn't destroyed by unjust, unscientific and uncompassionate drug laws. No one deserves that, friend or foe.
Matthew Briggs is the director of publications at the Drug Policy Alliance, the nation's leading organization promoting alternatives to the war on drugs, based on science, compassion, health and human rights. |
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