REAL TALK ON DRUG TREATMENT

Radio talk giant Rush Limbaugh's admission of addiction to pain pills
ought to be an occasion for public discussion about the need and
availability of treatment options.

Like it or not, Limbaugh should know that he has the visibility that
might help others come forward to acknowledge their own demons. And,
whether he likes it or not, this nation is overdue for a discussion on
providing the treatment that so many need to overcome their addictions.

In announcing to his radio audience last week that he would be
entering a rehab center for his addiction, Limbaugh denigrated those
athletes and celebrities who have come forward with their own drug
problems. He said they'd been praised "to great fanfare" as "role
models" but added that he refused to be one.

To his credit and possible recovery, Limbaugh said he took full
responsibility for the addiction. But so do many of the celebrities
and others Limbaugh discredits.

For thousands of Americans addicted to alcohol, prescription or street
drugs, treatment isn't as easy as a monthlong hiatus from a lucrative
radio job.

For Limbaugh, the message has been to "convict them and send them up
the river" as he told People magazine eight years ago.

Americans would find nothing glamorous about the thousands who fight
addiction. Many addicts lose their jobs and have nothing to fall back
on while getting treatment can be expensive. Still others do commit
crimes for drugs.

What Americans must do is find more ways through private insurance to
address drug dependence in the early stages and create more options in
the justice system for treatment instead of just punishment. Those
developments would take more than the glib responses of talk radio.

It would be easy to say that Limbaugh got what he deserved, the kind
of I Told You So that he made the title of one of his books. But as
those who suffer from addiction know, there's nothing easy about the
problem. It's a tough fight that never ends. Limbaugh may not care to
discuss it, but others should.