In A Taste of His Own Medicine (full column link below), here's John Tierney sounding like a liberal again in a column on the U.S. Government's War on its own people, aka the War on Drugs.
When faced with the choice of helping someone or punishing them, the Daddy Party chooses punishment everytime. Is there anyone who doesn't know someone whose life has been ruined by the U.S. Government's relentless abuse of its own people?
A Taste of His Own Medicine
By JOHN TIERNEY
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.
Like Limbaugh, Richard Paey suffers from back pain, which in his case is so severe that he's confined to a wheelchair. Also like Limbaugh, he was accused of illegally obtaining large quantities of painkillers. Although there was no evidence that either man sold drugs illegally, the authorities in Florida zealously pursued each of them for years.
Unlike Limbaugh, Paey went to prison. Now 47 years old, he's serving the third year of a 25-year term. His wife told me that when he heard how Limbaugh settled his case last week by agreeing to pay $30,000 and submit to drug tests, Paey offered a simple explanation: "The wealthy and influential go to rehab, while the poor and powerless go to prison."
[...]
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.
Read the whole thing at Peking Duck .
For a Tennessee related story, see Save Bernie's Farm.
John Tierney Rush Limbaugh War on Drugs OxyContin Tennessee Tierney Republican Narcs DEA Save Bernie's Farm