From: Randall Parker 

Judy,

If a person doesn't set out to have fun with drugs and takes them initially
at the instruction of a physician but has to take them long enough to get
addicted then that's a tragedy and not hypocrisy. You agree his pain drove
him to addiction? Then do you also agree that addiction is a very powerful
urge that is hard to control?

Look, a person who sets out to take coke daily to be cool for the fun of it
has made a very different choice for a very different reason than someone
who starts out taking a prescription painkiller because they are suffering
from severe back pains (which, btw, are mind-boggling in their intensity if
you have never had the misfortune to suffer them). I there is a moral and
practical difference for different paths to addiction and abuse.

I don't care whether you listen to Rush. It sounds like you know as little
about his previous statements on drugs as I do (and I've never heard him on
the topic since I never listen to him and he has absolutely no appeal to me
as a commentator).

I think recreational drugs should be against the law precisely because a
  significant portion of the population is capable of being addicted to
them. There are real limits to our ability to exercise free will. The drugs
we can't handle should not be easily available.

As for his previous marijuana use: when? Lots of people did stupid things
in their teens or early twenties but eventually came to understand that
they should not do those things. If he was smoking pot while in his 30s or
40s (or whenever he became a national figure) and was condemning drug users
then I'd say he was a hypocrite.

But someone who opposes drug legalization who becomes addicted to a
prescription pain medication because they suffer from chronic pain is not a
hypocrite. I someone who is really sincerely against drug legalization who
has become addicted due to the need to treat chronic pain.

Again, the definition from Random House:

Hypocrisy: a pretence of having desirable or publically approved attitudes,
beliefs, principles, etc, that one does not actually possess.


Judy Folkenberg wrote:


> I don't have to "think the worst of his motives."  He's dug
his own grave.  I
agree he did not
> set out to have fun with drugs.  I agree his pain drove him to his
addicition.  But the point
> you won't see is that he condemned all drug abusers as morally inferior and
deserving to be
> jailed.  He made no distinctions.  (Oh, and by the way, he used to smoke pot
so there goes your
> theory that he never used drugs recreational.)
>
> I'm talking about hypocracy.  I could care less if Rush was right or left of
spectrum or smack
> dab in the middle.  I don't listen to Rush so I don't know what he says on
his radio shows.  Nor
> do I listen to NPR (I was anticipating your next question!), although I went
through a phase
> where I listen to "Car Talk," for about 6 mos.  Hardly a
political show by
any stretch of the
> imagination.  The car radio is only tuned into music stations.
>
> BTW, he illegally bought approximately 30 painkillers a day.  You can do the
math as to how much
> this adds up on an annual basis.
>
> Judy
>

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