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Originally posted by jamesnj
W126, this Limbaugh person would have had to obtain the drugs(oxycontin, being one of them) illegally because no doctor or doctors would have prescribed such a powerful morphine derivative(concentrated morphine) to one patient over so very many years and risk losing his medical license(unless the price was right). This drug is a highly controled substance and very strict records are kept, the only way to get enough of the drug to become an addict and remain loyal to the drug is to get it illegally.
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Not necessarily true. I had knee surgery last year and had a prescription for Oxycontin, and the stuff was outstanding - didn't make me groggy, but took the pain away. I've actually still got some, because I deliberately reduced the amount I was taking as quickly as I could to avoid just this situation.
One of my partners has a chronic condition with his ankle that is quite painful, but can't be "fixed" - he's stuck with it. He's gotten Oxycontin prescribed by his doctor, and probably will get it indefinitely for the chronic pain, as it lets him function. The doctor monitors his use pretty carefully, but there's no move to cut him off.
BTW, I don't think Limbaugh's doctor's been prescribing him Oxycontin for "so very many years". Oxycontin's a recent phenomenon, and is apparently popular in the "informal" market, where the pills are ground up and smoked (iirc). When I had a prescription filled, I was told that the going rate on the street for it was $1.00/mg, meaning I could have paid my rent that month if I'd sold my prescription (which cost me my $20 copay).
This will damage Limbaugh's credibility to some degree, but not much. There are a lot of Americans, especially those among his target audience of older folks, who take a lot of prescription meds every day for one thing or another. They'll let him slide, and there's no way the government's going after him for something like this.