SOME HIGHS JUST FOR RICH ADDICTS

Quentin S. --- a young black man with little money --- is a drug
addict, like most of the offenders who show up in the drug court of
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Doris "Dee" Downs. When he was
arrested for possession of marijuana and cocaine, she sentenced him to
a regimen of drug treatment and random drug tests.

But when Quentin repeatedly failed those tests, Downs sentenced him to
a year's incarceration in a state-run detention center, where he is
receiving drug treatment. After his release, his probation will
require outpatient treatment for a year, as well as intensive
supervision.

Rush Limbaugh, on the other hand, is a wealthy, middle-aged white man.
He, too, is having trouble kicking a drug habit. By his own admission,
he is trying for the third time to break free of his addiction to
painkillers. But unlike Quentin (whose last name is being withheld),
Limbaugh is unlikely to spend time behind bars. Nor is he likely to be
required to take random drug tests or report to a probation officer.

Limbaugh may --- or may not --- be guilty of hypocrisy. His public
utterances have been contradictory. In 1995, he told viewers of his
now-defunct TV show that drug users, as well as sellers, deserved long
prison terms.

"We have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs,
importing drugs," he ranted. "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 . . ."

In 1998, Limbaugh reversed himself:

"It seems to me that what is missing in the drug fight is
legalization," he said. "If we want to go after drugs with the same
fervor and intensity with which we go after cigarettes, let's legalize
drugs . . . get control of the price and generate tax revenue from it
. . ."

Perhaps his own struggles with addiction over that three-year period
had softened his views.

In admitting his addiction on his radio show, Limbaugh also announced
that he would be checking into a private rehabilitation center, where
his addiction would be treated as a medical problem rather than a
criminal matter. In the nation's war on drugs --- largely a war on
poor men of color --- that's not an option for men such as Quentin.

"Blacks are arrested and confined in numbers grossly out of line with their use
or sale of drugs," Michael Tonry, criminal justice expert and author of "Malign
Neglect: Race, Crime & Punishment in America," wrote in 1995.

Experts cite several reasons, including poverty. Poor drug addicts
cannot afford expensive drug treatment facilities or high-powered lawyers.

Limbaugh, of course, is far from poor. If his former housekeeper,
Wilma Cline, is to be believed (authorities have verified parts of her
story), Limbaugh paid her hundreds of thousands of dollars for illicit
supplies of hydrocodone, Lorcet and OxyContin over the last several
years. Once the news media caught wind of Limbaugh's drug use, he was
able to check himself in --- again --- to a private facility and to
hire famed Florida defense attorney Roy Black.

"A person like Rush Limbaugh is a valued employee or self-employed. He
is much less likely to have to sell drugs to support his habit, much
less likely to have to come in contact with the criminal justice
system . . . He has options, like insurance," says Judge Downs.

By contrast, half the addicts who end up in Downs' courtroom are
homeless, having already lost jobs, apartments and family connections.
Those who repeatedly fail court-mandated treatment often go to jail.

Though Downs doubts that Limbaugh can break OxyContin's powerful grip
in just 30 days, she believes all drug addicts --- no matter their
class or color --- should be given multiple chances for a new start,
just as Limbaugh has had. She is dedicated to the drug court, which
offers those chances, despite the long odds against short-term
success. Still, there is something wrong with a criminal justice
system that tars poor drug addicts with a criminal record, while
wealthy ones get away clean. Perhaps redemption --- like so much else
is reserved for the rich.
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