NOW, A REAL DRUG CHALLENGE

Millions of "dittoheads" around the country will be in withdrawal this week,
with their drug of choice - conservative talk show king Rush Limbaugh - gone
from the airwaves for a 30-day stint in drug rehab. Limbaugh's announcement
that he is seeking treatment for an addiction to pain medication followed
claims by a former housekeeper that she spent years supplying him with
black-market prescription narcotics. Lots of narcotics - more than 30,000
hydrocodone, Lorcet and OxyContin tablets.

Limbaugh has not publicly responded to her allegations, but his admission of
addiction last week unleashed snickers among liberals and contortions among
conservatives, who were desperate to distinguish their hero's problem from
the moral failings of those celebrity addicts that Limbaugh took glee in
castigating.

Internet muckraker Matt Drudge even offered this silver lining: "Imagine how
good he did on the air on the medication. If we can get him off [drugs],
it'll be a real challenge to the liberals in this country."

Forget about the challenge to liberals. Breaking the stranglehold of
addiction will be challenge enough for Limbaugh. He's already been through
two recovery programs and relapsed. Even the most intense residential
programs offer only a 50% chance of recovery for prescription-drug addicts.
And unlike many of those abusers, Limbaugh probably won't have to manage his
recovery from jail. Although the allegations against him constitute a felony
in his home state of Florida, officials rarely prosecute users except as
leverage to bring in their dealers. Still, given the publicity in a state so
tough that the governor let his own addict-daughter go to jail, it could be
hard to justify giving Limbaugh a pass.

In fact, Limbaugh might insist on a little prison time, if he buys his own
rhetoric. People who violate the law by using drugs ought to be sent "up the
river," no matter their race or social class, Limbaugh has said. But is up
the river the place for him? So far, there's been no public push for that.

When Limbaugh emerges from treatment this time around, perhaps he'll
understand that he was no different from the addict on the street scrounging
for his next fix. Maybe he can contribute something better than macho
bluster to the debate over treatment of drug offenders - a group that
includes those offering medical marijuana to cancer patients and rich, white
radio hosts trying to score pills in the parking lot of Denny's.