DRUG POLICY DEBATE NEEDS HIGHER PRIORITY

Dear Editor,

Rush Limbaugh's tragic descent into drug addiction is no cause for glee to
this writer. It is cause for hope, however, that drug policy debate will
ascend to the top tier of national discussion where it belongs.

Despite all the recent criticism of Limbaugh for his hypocritical anti-drug
lecturing, it should be noted that in 15 years of daily broadcasts Rush has
only ever made a handful of statements regarding drug policy. He could have
banged the drug drum every day to the thrill of his listeners, but he
rarely even drummed his fingers on the subject.

Before his admission of drug addiction, it could have been assumed that
Rush's relative silence on drug policy was an acknowledgement of the
glaring contradiction between his small-government, free-market rhetoric
and the big-government, tax-and-spend drug war he supported. This is the
real hypocrisy that Rush and his "dittoheads" must address.

I sincerely hope Rush can avoid incarceration unless it turns out that he
actually wronged anybody but himself. Nobody deserves to be put behind bars
for what they put into their bodies.

Larry A. Stevens

Springfield