www.robbieconal.com
— The big question to ask is how come the media never got on this story back in 1981 when the guy was flipping out?
A physician at the U.S. Capitol prescribed a powerful sleep aid for William Rehnquist for nearly a decade while he was an associate justice of the Supreme Court, according to newly released FBI records.
The records present a picture of a justice with chronic back pain who for many months took three times the recommended dosage of the drug Placidyl and then went into withdrawal in 1981 when he abruptly stopped taking it.
Rehnquist checked himself into George Washington University Hospital, where he tried to escape in his pajamas and imagined that the CIA was plotting against him, the records indicate.
The justice was weaned off Placidyl in early 1982 in a detoxification process that took a month, according to the records. The hospital doctor who treated Rehnquist said the Capitol Hill physician who prescribed Placidyl for Rehnquist was practicing bad medicine, bordering on malpractice. Both doctors’ names were deleted from the documents before they were released.
Don’t you love the compassionate way our society treats the powerful and moneyed. There always is a job for a junkie with the “Right” connections.
He …’imagined that the CIA was plotting against him’
Imagined?
Just ‘cos you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t plotting against you.
I love the compassionate way that the liberals among us want to crucify a guy that had chronic back pain and once he realized he had a problem with the med given him suffered though withdrawal to get off the damn things.
be fair – I may not like the guy, but if you have chronic ANYTHING pain – it is very easy to become dependent upon the painkillers that help it.
The fact that he recovered and didn’t completely destroy his life is actually a reason to cheer the man. Not vilify him. There are other reasons to do that.
Bad form Eideard, bad form.
“Don’t you love the compassionate way our society treats the powerful and moneyed. There always is a job for a junkie with the “Right” connections. ”
Is there no distinction to be made between developing a dependency on a doctor-prescribed medication for a real ailment and developing a dependency on drugs taken for strictly recreational purposes?
I call foul.
he tried to escape in his pajamas and imagined that the CIA was plotting against him, the records indicate.
Yeah, they said Bobby Fischer’s mother was paranoid too… then it turned out that the government had in fact been watching her….
This isn’t even news. If you read the article by The Guardian, you’ll see that:
“Although Rehnquist’s drug dependency was publicly known around the time he was hospitalized in 1981, the release of the FBI records provides new details.”
Please update the title to something not so asinine.
#4 Fusion, I’m not sure your premise is correct. Substance abuse is so common that it seems DAs need a specific reason to target a user for prosecution. For instance, an ex-con will be prosecuted, but a housewife addicted to meth will not.
One thing is for sure, however, if the DA ever takes an interest in you, you had better have the cash for a good lawyer. Public defenders are useless.
Sorry, I meant #7 Fusion.
#9, Not a problem. I joined it up anyway.
uhh…placidyl isn’t a pain killer, kids. It’s a hypnotic (sleep inducing med). Maybe he couldn’t sleep because of…guilt? On another random note, why aren’t the judges and all congressman forced to submit to random drug tests, like postal workers are? I mean c’mon, whose decisions are more important?
#11 “Whose decisions are more important?”
Judging from recent history of actual perfomance, have to go with Postal Workers.
Way to make an ass of yourself (again) Fusion. You forgot to mention the source of your information was the ever reliable National Enquirer for the maid story. Way wasn’t Rush charged with that if even you know it really happened? Way wasn’t he charged with doctor shopping either? You aren’t hiding evidence are you? After all you seem to know more than the DA does.