RICH, POOR ADDICTS FAR APART

Quentin S. - a young black man with little money -is a drug addict, like
most of the offenders who show up in the drug court of Fulton County
Superior Court Judge Doris "Dee'' Downs in Atlanta. When he was arrested
for possession of marijuana and cocaine, she sentenced him to a regimen of
drug treatment and random drug tests.

But, when Quentin repeatedly failed those tests, Downs sentenced him to a
year's incarceration in a state-run detention center, where he is receiving
drug treatment. After his release, his probation will require outpatient
treatment for a year, as well as intensive supervision.

Rush Limbaugh, on the other hand, is a wealthy, middle-aged white man. He,
too, is having trouble kicking a drug habit. By his own admission, he is
trying for the third time to break free of his addiction to painkillers.
But, unlike Quentin (whose last name is being withheld), Limbaugh is
unlikely to spend time behind bars. Nor is he likely to be required to take
random drug tests or report to a probation officer.

Limbaugh may or may not be guilty of hypocrisy. His public utterances have
been contradictory. In 1995, he told viewers of his now-defunct TV show
that drug users, as well as sellers, deserved long prison terms.

"We have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing
drugs,'' he ranted. "And the laws are good because we know what happens to
people in societies and neighborhoods which become consumed by them. And so
if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused
and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up ...''

In 1998, Limbaugh reversed himself:

"It seems to me that what is missing in the drug fight is legalization,''
he said. "If we want to go after drugs with the same fervor and intensity
with which we go after cigarettes, let's legalize drugs ... get control of
the price and generate tax revenue from it .''

Perhaps his own struggles with addiction over that three-year period had
softened his views. In admitting his addiction on his radio show, Limbaugh
also announced that he would be checking into a private rehabilitation
center, where his addiction would be treated as a medical problem rather
than a criminal matter. In the nation's war on drugs - largely a war on
poor men of color - that's not an option for men such as Quentin.

"Blacks are arrested and confined in numbers grossly out of line with their
use or sale of drugs,'' Michael Tonry, criminal justice expert and author
of "Malign Neglect: Race, Crime and Punishment in America,'' wrote in 1995.

Experts cite several reasons, including poverty. Poor drug addicts cannot
afford expensive drug treatment facilities or high-powered lawyers.

Limbaugh, of course, is far from poor. If his former housekeeper, Wilma
Cline, is to be believed (authorities have verified parts of her story),
Limbaugh paid her hundreds of thousands of dollars for illicit supplies of
hydrocodone, Lorcet and OxyContin over the last several years. Once the
news media caught wind of Limbaugh's drug use, he was able to check himself
in - again - to a private facility and to hire famed Florida defense
attorney Roy Black.

"A person like Rush Limbaugh is a valued employee or self-employed. He is
much less likely to have to sell drugs to support his habit, much less
likely to have to come in contact with the criminal justice system. .. He
has options, like insurance,'' Judge Downs noted.

By contrast, half the addicts who end up in Downs' courtroom are homeless,
having already lost jobs, apartments and family connections. Those who
repeatedly fail court-mandated treatment often go to jail.

Though Downs doubts that Limbaugh can break OxyContin's powerful grip in
just 30 days, she believes all drug addicts - no matter their class or
color - should be given multiple chances for a new start, just as Limbaugh
has had.

She is dedicated to the drug court, which offers those chances, despite the
long odds against short-term success.

Downs, of course, is among a compassionate few. Most of us seem to believe
that only the rich have the right to redemption.

Still, there is something wrong with a criminal justice system that tars
poor drug addicts with a criminal record, while wealthy ones get away
clean. Perhaps redemption - like so much else - is reserved for the rich.

Cynthia Tucker is a columnist of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.