Every time John Tierney writes about the DEA’s war on prescription painkillers, the blogosphere’s left concocts some conspiracy-driven scheme where Tierney has only adopted the issue because his “buddy” Rush Limbaugh got ensnarled in the net. Today’s column, in which Tierney compares Limbaugh’s case to that of Richard Paey, ought to set them straight:

Now that Rush Limbaugh has managed to keep himself out of prison, the punishment he once advocated for drug abusers, let me suggest a new cause for him: speaking out for people who can handle their OxyContin.

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He has portrayed himself as the victim of a politically opportunistic prosecutor determined to bag a high-profile trophy, which is probably true. But that’s standard operating procedure in the drug war supported by Limbaugh and his fellow conservatives.

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Even if Limbaugh believes that drugs like OxyContin are a menace to himself, he ought to recognize that most patients are in Richard Paey’s category. Their problem isn’t abusing painkillers, but finding doctors to prescribe enough of them. And that gets harder every year because of the drug war promoted by conservatives like Limbaugh.

It has been said that a liberal is a conservative who’s been arrested. I wouldn’t wish such a conversion on Limbaugh. But a two-year investigation by drug prosecutors should be enough to turn a conservative into a libertarian.

Given Limbaugh’s childish comments on medical marijuana last month, he doesn’t seem to have learned much of anything from the Florida prosecutors’ exuberant persecution of him.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 6th, 2006 at 8:07 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Pain Treatment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.