A TASTE OF HIS OWN MEDICINE

Now that Rush Limbaugh has managed to keep himself out of prison, the
punishment he once advocated for drug abusers, let me suggest a new
cause for him: speaking out for people who can handle their OxyContin.

Like Limbaugh, Richard Paey suffers from back pain, which in his case
is so severe that he's confined to a wheelchair. Also like Limbaugh,
he was accused of illegally obtaining large quantities of painkillers.
Although there was no evidence that either man sold drugs illegally,
the authorities in Florida zealously pursued each of them for years.

Unlike Limbaugh, Paey went to prison. Now 47 years old, he's serving
the third year of a 25-year term. His wife told me that when he heard
how Limbaugh settled his case last week-by agreeing to pay $30,000 and
submit to drug tests-Paey offered a simple explanation : "The wealthy
and influential go to rehab, while the poor and powerless go to
prison." He has a point, although I don't think that's the crucial
distinction between the cases. Paey stood up for his belief that
patients in pain should be able to get the medicine they need.

Limbaugh so far hasn't stood up for any consistent principle except
his right to stay out of jail. He has portrayed himself as the victim
of a politically opportunistic prosecutor determined to bag a
high-profile trophy, which is probably true. But that's standard
operating procedure in the drug war supported by Limbaugh and his
fellow conservatives. Drug agents and prosecutors are desperate for
headlines because they have so little else to show for their work. The
drug war costs $35 billion per year and has yet to demonstrate any
clear long-term benefits-precisely the kind of government boondoggle
that conservatives like Limbaugh ought to view skeptically.

Yet conservatives go on giving more money and more power to the drug cops.
When critics complained about threats to civil liberties in the
Patriot Act, President Bush defended it by noting that the government
was already using some of these powers against drug dealers. Why worry
about snooping on foreign terrorists when we've already been doing it
to Americans? Limbaugh objected when prosecutors, unable to come up
with enough evidence against him, demanded to be allowed to go through
his medical records in the hope of finding something. He managed to
stop them in court, but other defendants can't afford long legal
battles to protect their privacy. Drug agents and prosecutors go on
fishing expeditions to seize doctors' records and force pharmacists to
divulge what they're selling to whom. With the help of new federal
funds, states are compiling databases of the prescriptions being
filled at pharmacies. Once their trolling finds something they deem
suspicious, the authorities can threaten doctors, pharmacists and
patients with financially crippling investigations and long jail
sentences unless they cooperate by testifying against others or
copping a plea.

Paey was the rare patient who refused to turn on his
doctor or plead guilty to a problem he didn't have. He insisted that
he'd been taking large quantities of painkillers because he needed
them. He wanted to protect his own right to keep taking them, and
others' rights as well. "They say I was stubborn," he told me last
year. "I consider it a matter of principle." Limbaugh got off partly
because he could afford the legal bills (which he says ran into
millions of dollars) and partly because he cooperated with
prosecutors. He confessed to being an addict, went into rehab, and
swore to remain clean. Perhaps he really was one of the small
minority of pain patients who hurt themselves by compulsively using
drugs like OxyContin for emotional, not physical, relief. But most
pain patients can become physically dependent on large doses of
opioids without being what doctors consider an addict. They take the
drugs not to escape reality, but to function normally.

Even if Limbaugh believes that drugs like OxyContin are a menace to himself,
he ought to recognize that most patients are in Richard Paey's
category. Their problem isn't abusing painkillers, but finding doctors
to prescribe enough of them. It has been said that a liberal is a
conservative who's been arrested. I wouldn't wish such a conversion on
Limbaugh. But a two-year investigation by drug prosecutors should be
enough to turn a conservative into a libertarian.