CAN'T RUSH DRUG REHAB

If Rush Limbaugh thinks he can predict the successful completion of
rehab, he's in trouble.

"Immediately following this broadcast, I'm checking myself into a
treatment center for the next 30 days to once and for all break the
hold this highly addictive medication has on me," he told his listeners.

That may sound good to some people. But to others, it just sounds like
politically correct talk. And remember, Limbaugh talks for a living.

But Limbaugh fans need to understand that he is oversimplifying
addiction. It is not like a bad haircut. Limbaugh is not going to be
able to hide out until it grows out.

At this point it sounds like he is in denial about his addiction and
what it will take to work at putting his drug abuse on the back
burner. It will never be completely behind him. It will always be
lurking in the background, waiting to be rekindled.

Limbaugh is probably well aware that checking into a rehab facility
and actually working the program are separate things. In fact, he told
listeners:

"Over the past several years, I have tried to break my dependence on
pain pills and, in fact, twice checked myself into medical facilities
in an attempt to do so."

Three times might even be the charm, if Limbaugh is sincere about
recovery. Like so many other rich/celebrity addicts, he doesn't appear
to have "hit rock bottom."

When addiction counselors talk about hitting rock bottom, they are
often referring to people who have sold their jewelry, emptied their
bank accounts, liquidated their assets, sold their furniture, and
borrowed and stolen from friends and family members. Sooner or later
the person turns to criminal activities to get the money to buy drugs.

The next step for them is incarceration. For some, the road to
recovery begins there.

But money is an addict's worst enemy, and Limbaugh still has plenty.
He has a highly rated syndicated radio program and lucrative
endorsements. So if he's not serious about rehab, he can afford to
continue to purchase OxyContin without a prescription.

"On the street it costs $50 to $160 per pill. If you are addicted, you
are going to be taking more than one pill a day -- at least two or
three," says Milton Abram, director of Rediscovery, an alcohol and
substance abuse treatment center with offices in Columbus and LaGrange.

"Rush doesn't know what he is up against," Abram says. "OxyContin is a
dangerous drug. It has been called heroin in a bottle. It's a
pharmaceutical, so every time a person gets it, it is always pure. And
every time a person takes it, they are lowering their tolerance.
Because it's time-released, some people overdose because they misjudge
the amount of OxyContin still in his or her system when they take
more. It is an opiate; so when a person overdoses, that person stops
breathing."

Rich addicts can literally afford to kill themselves. The media seem
to focus on celebrities checking into and out of rehab and overdosing.
We rarely hear that anyone has kicked the habit.