WILL LIMBAUGH RETHINK STANCE ON DRUG LAWS?

Memo to Rush Limbaugh: Hey, Rush. Were counting on you, pal. Now that you
feel the hot breath of drug prosecutors on your neck, perhaps you might
speak out now for enlightened treatment of nonviolent drug offenders.

News reports say you face an investigation for allegedly buying
thousands of tablets of the powerful painkiller OxyContin and other
highly addictive prescription drugs from an illegal ring in Florida
between 1998 and 2002.

You issued a three sentence statement on your Web site saying that you
were "unaware of any investigation by any authorities involving me"
and you promised to cooperate fully "if my assistance is required in
the future."

Well, you certainly deserve the same presumption of innocence as
anyone else, and I wish you the best. The news accounts have said that
youre being investigated for the sort of nonviolent offense in which
thousands of addicts are caught, sometimes by accident, getting hooked
on painkillers they were taking for treatment of an ailment like that
which almost cost you your hearing.

Drug addiction is a disease. It respects no particular race, gender or
political leaning. For those who have addiction problems and havent
hurt anybody else as a result, I think treatment will do them and the
rest of society a lot more good than throwing them into the slammer.

And Im not alone. Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the nonprofit
Drug Policy Alliance, said in a sympathetic news release regarding
reports of your drug troubles that "drug misuse should be addressed in
a doctors office, not a prison cell."

The alliance, it is worth noting, showed the same sympathy to former
Drug Czar William J. Bennett, when he announced in May that he was
swearing off gambling, after having lost millions over the last
decade, according to news reports. Bennett has always called for tough
punitive measures, even against low-level marijuana users. But, as for
his own favorite addiction, he points out rather meekly that he never
said anything in public about gambling.

The alliance also supported Florida Gov. Jeb Bushs call for respect
and privacy regarding the arrest of his daughter, Noelle, for trying
to buy Xanax without a prescription in 2002.

Happily, the 26-year-old completed treatment in August this year and a
judge allowed her to go home to her parents. Unhappily, the same
cannot be said for a lot of nonviolent Florida drug offenders who have
less money or political power. Instead, the governor has cut
drug-treatment and drug-court budgets. Jeb Bush also flatly opposes a
possible ballot initiative like one California passed a few years ago
that diverts nonviolent drug offenders away from prison and into
treatment programs.

But, however your case turns out, I cant help but hope this experience
has a chastening effect on your drug views. Your past commentaries
offer a ray of hope. Online searches reveal a Limbaugh who seems,
uncharacteristically, to have wavered on the drug issue between the
libertarian and authoritarian wings of the conservative movement.

Back on Oct. 5, 1995, you insisted on your now-defunct TV show that
"theres nothing good about drug use" and how "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."

You also said, with tongue at least partly in cheek, that the
statistics that show blacks go to prison far more often than whites
for the same drug offenses only show that "too many whites are getting
away with drug use."

"The answer to this disparity," you said, "is not to start letting
people out of jail. . . . 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."

Ah, yes. Those words may come back to haunt you. I guess I am doing my
part.

However, Newsday columnist Ellis Henican and the pro-drug-reform Media
Awareness Projects Web site (MAPinc.org) cite a March 1998 radio show
in which you advocated legalization of addictive drugs the way we
regulate cigarettes and alcohol. "License the Cali cartel," you
reportedly said. "Make them taxpayers and then sue them. Sue them left
and right and then get control of the price and generate tax revenue
from it. Raise the price sky-high and fund all sorts of other
wonderful social programs."

I remember when former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, a former drug
prosecutor himself, advocated that very idea after seeing how much the
war against drugs had become a war against drug victims. I dont
remember hearing you say much about that at the time, Rush. If ever
there was a time for you to speak out more (and I never thought I
would ever be saying that about you!), this could be it.