DOUBLE STANDARD BEHIND DRUG WAR

Rush Limbaugh has gone into rehab, promising that he'll be free of his
addiction to painkillers and back on the radio in 30 days. We wish him
success, but addiction specialists warn that OxyContin, one of the
drugs Limbaugh is accused of abusing, is tougher to kick than heroin.

Off the air, Limbaugh must be aware of how hard it is to beat a drug
habit. After all, this is reportedly his third trip to rehab.

Limbaugh's stay in some pricey rehab center may be interrupted,
however, by that scourge of drug users, the police. Buying bulk
quantities of illegal prescription drugs with cigar boxes stuffed with
cash can land him some serious time, if prosecutors decide to indict.

That's fine for others, Limbaugh told his 20 million listeners before
his own drug use became public. His prescription for drug abuse: "The
answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it,
convict them and send them up the river, too."

Limbaugh has a high-priced lawyer, who will no doubt argue that his
client is a sick man, not a criminal. He needs treatment, not
incarceration. Like such repeat rehab customers as Darryl Strawberry
and Robert Downey Jr., he'll probably get away with it, at least the
first couple of times.

But in the course of this difficult time, Limbaugh may learn something
that it obvious to others who see the reality behind the drug war
rhetoric: In America, wealthy drug addicts go into rehab. Poor drug
addicts go to jail.

That double standard persists in large part because people like Rush
Limbaugh, one of the nation's most powerful opinion-molders, say one
thing for political effect while their lives say something else
entirely. We hope his rehabilitation is successful, and that he learns
that treatment makes more sense than prison for all drug addicts, not
just wealthy celebrities.