Rush Limbaugh, Morality, and Drug Addiction

There has been a lot of press coverage of Rush Limbaugh's admission to being addicted to prescription pain medication. What hasn't received as much attention, however, is the reaction from conservative and religious commentators who usually agree with Rush's politics but who often call for harsh penalties for drug abusers. How are they reacting now?

To a large extent, they seem to either be keeping quiet or arguing for leniency for Rush - they don't want to see him marched off to jail in the manner they advocate when the drug abuser is a poor minority. Why the difference? MSNBC briefly mentions one attempted argument:

Gary Bauer, president of the conservative organization American Values, drew a distinction between a crack addict and Limbaugh’s brand of addiction. “From a moral standpoint, there’s a difference between people who go out and seek a high and get addicted and the millions of Americans dealing with pain who inadvertently get addicted,” Bauer told NEWSWEEK.

Is there really a difference? I'm afraid that I don't quite see it. Bauer implies that only those addicted to pain medication get "inadvertently" addicted, but I'm not familiar with anyone who sets out to deliberately get addicted. Perhaps there are some, but they must be a rarity. Bauer implies that only those addicted to prescription medication are dealing with pain, but the physical pain resulting from injury isn't the only sort of pain that exists. Many of those addicted to illegal drugs are often dealing with emotional and psychological pain; the drugs are often taken in order to relieve that pain.

But some conservatives will hear none of that. Consider this from Ben Shapiro:

Unlike recreational drug addiction, prescription painkiller addiction belongs squarely in the medical arena. Recreational drug addiction is just that -- recreational. A junkie first picks up marijuana, cocaine or heroin in order to have a good time. ... It is despicable how the media have equated prescription painkiller addiction with recreational drug addiction. There is a moral difference between the two types of addicts. All drug addicts deserve sympathy, but prescription painkiller addicts clearly deserve more sympathy than recreational users.

Shaprio relates the experiences of his paternal grandfather who was also addicted to presecription painkillers; at no point, however, does he actually explain what this "moral difference" is. He simply assumes and asserts it, like Gary Bauer. Pehaps it lies in the fact that it may be initiated by a desire to have fun? That's hardly immoral - I'm sure that Bauer and Shapiro do all sorts of things for fun, never with an intention to get addicted or to suffer harm from it. Many of the people who get addicted to painkillers were injured due to efforts to have fun (skiing, anyone?) - does that mean that their addiction is less moral?

Bauer's and Shapiro's "compassionate conservatism" is suspiciously narrow in the sorts of people to whom they is willing to show it. They may be compassionate to those who happen to be similar to themselves and who are in a position they can imagine themselves; they seems much less compassionate and much more moralizing when it comes to people who are different from themselves and who are in positions they can't imagine themselves. That, however, isn't very compassionate.

Real compassion isn't easy and isn't achieved simply by looking at people like you. The real test of compassion comes from being able to feel sympathy for those in situations that seem alien to yourself - but you overcome that through the realization that, despite the obvious differences, we are all still much more alike that different. Bauer's and Shapiro's attempt to draw a moral distinction between different types of drug addiction isn't very convincing because it isn't very compassionate. The differences that exist don't make a real moral difference; they are, it seems, simply trying to rationalize their own lack of empathy and their own lack of moral imagination.

What happened to Rush Limbaugh is very unfortunate. A lot of people get addicted to pain medication for various reasons. First and foremost they need treatment, help, and compassion rather than punishment and jail time. But the same is true for others who are addicted to other substances as well. Just because they weren't first introduced to the substances through a doctor doesn't mean that their addiction is "less moral" or that they deserve less compassion from us.

Read More:

• Guide to Ethics and Morality
• Religious Right