What if Rush Had Gone to Jail for a Few Years Because of His Drug Addiction

Rush Limbaugh will grace the cover of this Sunday's New York Times Magazine looking as cocky and powerful as ever. With his recent $400 million radio deal and estimated 14 million listeners, Rush is one of the most powerful voices in America today.

Seeing him riding so "high" on the cover of the Times Magazine made me wonder: where would Rush be today if he had been sent to prison for a few years when he was busted in 2003 for illegally purchasing thousands of prescription painkillers, including OxyContin.

At the time of his arrest, the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) put together a controversial flash animation that asked viewers: Lock Rush Up Or Leave Him Alone For His Illegal Drug Buys? The fast-paced flash animation graphically explained both options by juxtaposing vintage Rush statements like, drug users "should be sent up the river" with the fact that since admitting his own addiction, he's championed rehab for himself. It concludes by asking whether viewers would like to give Rush a taste of his own harsh medicine, or leave him alone. Here's the clip:

DPA was of two minds regarding Rush's fate. On the one hand, DPA's guiding principle is that people should not be punished for what they put into their own bodies, but only for crimes committed against others. According to that logic, Rush--even Rush--should be allowed to deal with his drug dependency issues privately. On the other hand, Limbaugh is the man who scoffed at the idea that African Americans are disproportionately arrested on drug charges, and suggested that the solution should be to arrest more white people. Perhaps the only way draconian drug laws can change is for people like Limbaugh to join other nonviolent drug offenders behind bars.

At the time of Rush's arrest we put out a call to Rush, hoping that his experiences with addiction and the drug war would encourage him to join the movement to reform our nation's harmful drug prohibition and incarceration policies. It has been five years and we are still waiting!

Tony Newman is the director of media relations at the Drug Policy Alliance.

Comments

[ggirl]

rush limbaugh and cindy mccain are a few that can do the drugs and get away with it because money talk and the poor man will walk the walk, pay for your crimes and the rich will get by each and every time.

[s2s2s2]

Ask Martha Stewart. Her jail time was Drug related. Maybe insider trading is less of a problem than addictive prescription drugs.

[spankyee]

IF ONLY .... WHAT A PLEASURE NOT TO HEAR HIS VOICE AGAIN, and even the"GUYS' in jail would have rejected, him get my drift?

[Durango]

Imagine how he would have been treated if he was a Black man.Or some other minority

They would have torn his house to pieces looking for the drugs. And when they had found them he would have been sentenced to years in the Pen. Hard time with a mandatory minimum.

It is really quite remarkable isn't it?

What does it take to shame someone if they are a Republicans stooge? Why shouldn't the drug scandal have ruined him?

But if you are a Republican you have no shame.

[darthdarcy]

Rush being a junkie didn't matter he supports Bush and the neo cons and he isn't black..

[krocklin]

They say you can shear a sheep many times; but you can skin it only once.
That this bozo, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck have ANY credibility indicates how dumbed down Americans have become.
This morning CSPAN showed a Glen Greenwald YouTube video clip catching McCain in outright self-contradictions, if not lies, using his own words. They had just showed another video attacking Obama as a Muslim. Then they proceeded to equate the two as "differing opinions".
Had there been a Youtube in Nazi Germany when Hitler was rising to power, they would have presented Nazi videos representing their arguments against the Jews, and then those that portrayed Hitler's ideology as dangerous and one of lies. Goebbels would have had a popular talk radio platform. CSPAN and other media would then have asked objectively, in a "balanced" way , earnestly, which side represented the truth? All along maintaining neutrality according to their high journalistic standards.
That's the stage we are in now.

[Durango]

Goebbels didn't know the first thing about propaganda.

Compared to the modern American Corporate media he was a complete babe in the woods.

And just to show the great genius of the American Propaganda machine. They make the public pay for it!!!

Pay to listen to the lies.

[BARRISTER]

In America, high profile Republicans - Coulter, Limpbaugh, Bush et. al. - get free passes. Others get sent to prison.

[kingofscotts]

Jesus what LAW did Coulter break.

Being incredibly annoying is not a crime.

Unless of course you are against free speech.

[PrairieDog]

Inciting violence perhaps? People like her propose violence & even death against her political opponents and act like it's just a fun little thing to say. I really wonder if someone took the kind of swill she spouts & tossed it back into her face with her own self as the target if she would go bonkers with outrage. Bullies are usually cowards turned inside out.

[TexasDem0]

Fraudulent voter registration.
Advocating violence.
Advocating assassination.

[jfor]

Rush Limbaugh on the cover of Time magazine is a perfect example of the Liberal Media in action.

[serenegeezer]

jfor, please explain.

[jfor]

sarcasm. capiche? hehehe

[RabidRightRebel]

This is a useful base number for estimating that total number of rabid right fanatic out there. Rush's 14 million, low IQ, I refuse to think, listeners clearly fit the profile. It supppose the upper limit is anyone who still supports Bush which I understand is 28% of the electorate. That would put the rabid right range at between 14 to 60 million people. Scary numbers given that the facist in Germany represented less than 5% of the population on crystal night when they started to intimidate their countryman into giving them power.

[oldpotsmuggler]

Cool game. I'll play. "The world would be a better place."

Did I win?