DRUG REHABILITATION

If Rush Limbaugh is convicted of the drug law crimes he is alleged to have
committed, by law he should go to prison. But if he does, who will be
served? Not Rush; like all his predecessors, he'll do his time and come out
as addicted as he was the day he went in. And not the public; we'll have to
spend around $20,000 a year to keep him incarcerated, even though he's a
threat to no one except himself.

The obvious truth is that no one would gain by Rush's incarceration, and
everyone would lose. So instead, why don't we just send Rush to
rehabilitation? Everyone but the vindictive would win. Rush would return to
society free of his illness, and we taxpayers would save the $20,000-a-year
prison cost, remove another case from our burgeoning court dockets, and
create a spot in our overcrowded prisons for real criminals.

And if we should do it for Rush, why in the name of all that's logical and
right should we not do it for the other 2-1/2 million adults who are in the
correctional population right now for drug law violations that are not
nearly as serious as those Rush is accused of committing? Savings in prison
costs alone would total billions of dollars in the first year, and no one
would be endangered.

SKIP JOHNSON

1011 Lansing Drive

Mount Pleasant

Johnson is vice president and co-founder of South Carolinians for Drug Law
Reform.