DOUBLE STANDARD IN 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.