My point is that whether a person became addicted to legally prescribed drugs and then acquires them illegally or becomes addicted under other circumstances is and ought to be irrelevant to the treatment under law for the crimes of illegally seeking drugs.
In any event, the probability that Rush Limbaugh accidentally got addicted to prescription painkillers when they were legitimately prescribed has a probability about the order of magnitude that Hillary Clinton is having an affair with George W. Bush.
Let's look at the evidence:
1) 2000 tablets in six months. That's a level at which even the acetominophen can be liver-toxic. Does not happen unless it's been going on for a long time.
2) His hearing loss, suggestive at least of really heavy use for a long time.
3) His bragging that he could play golf in the afternoons 365 days a year. Not something that any physician will say you can do with a lower back problem.
No, it's basically not possible to get addicted without abusing the drugs and knowing that you are abusing the drugs.
I have some experience with opiates. I had three bouts of acute pancreatitis and a cholycystectomy. When you go into the ER with pancreatitis, they run to get the morpheine. It's that bad. This is not a lower-back problem that doesn't even prevent you from playing golf. I think I had maybe 150 or 200 hydrocodones during that period, some of which, I'll admit, I bought online, because my physician was reluctant to give me more. Even that level might have been a bit excessive. But I had no problem whatsoever stopping.
No, you don't get addicted like that in the first place, unless you're doc-shopping for Dr. Feelgood, which is illegal in Florida. It does not happen.
It's a sop which worked, because he can afford good attorneys, and dittoheads will snarf it up for free, because that's what they do. And I'd rather have him in rehabilitation than costing the taxpayers money in jail. But the idea that poor widdwe Wimbaugh just accidentally got addicted and only then broke the law is such a steaming, stinking pile of dung that anyone who entertains the notion for 30 seconds automatically gives up the right to be taken seriously ever again.