DON'T RUSH TO CONDEMN

We refuse to join the chorus of detractors taking inordinate
pleasure in the misfortune of nationally syndicated talk radio host
Rush Limbaugh, who confessed on the air last Friday that he's addicted
to painkillers.

This is not the time for schadenfreude, no matter how great the
temptation to point out Limbaugh's usual take-no-prisoners,
starboard-leaning positions on law-and-order issues. Indeed, Limbaugh
in the past has called for prison sentences for drug users as well as
drug dealers, urging that addicts also be "sent up the river."

Such a black-and-white worldview resonated with his 20 million devoted
"ditto-heads," and it's a safe bet that the words "mercy" and
"compassion" don't come easy to the lips of his fans. Funny, though,
how his admirers suddenly have experienced a miraculous infusion of
conservative compassion, with many fans arguing fervently that
Limbaugh's addiction doesn't dilute the validity of his message. Maybe
not. Judge not lest ye also be judged.

Limbaugh's drug problem was unearthed by the National Enquirer, which
ran an article alleging that the talk-show host was addicted to the
powerful painkiller OxyContin, known on the street as "hillbilly
heroin," and other prescription drugs after back surgery in the late
1990s. He and several others are being investigated by Florida
authorities probing the illegal sales of prescription painkillers. A
former housekeeper who claims he got her to obtain 30,000 pills in a
very short period, allegedly reported Limbaugh to the law.

We have to wonder how Limbaugh could have become addicted to the
powerful drugs and kept it secret from physicians who treated him.
Indeed, the doctor or doctors who prescribed the painkillers in the
first place could have done a better job of making sure he didn't
become addicted.

At this point, it's uncertain whether Limbaugh will be prosecuted,
although Florida law provides for a possible five-year prison term for
illegally using prescription drugs.

Al Franken, author of "Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot," longs to see
the radio host's "perp walk" and to watch his head being shoved down
as he's put into a police cruiser, but we don't. Drug addiction is an
illness that should be treated medically - not by the penal system.
It's clear to us the war on drugs isn't being won - the only thing
it's succeeded in doing is increasing the prison population from about
50,000 drug offenders behind bars in 1980 to more than half a million
currently.

Limbaugh announced on the air he was going into drug rehab, and we
hope he succeeds. As a multimillionaire, Limbaugh can afford to pay
for the very best treatment, unlike the poor and the desperate, who,
sad to say, often end up behind bars and with no drug
rehabilitation.

We hope Limbaugh's fans now realize the world isn't a place of
absolutes and that they offer some of the same kind of understanding
to those unfortunates they scorn as they do to those they admire.