Limbaugh on Drugs: Darryl Strawberry and Kurt Cobain

This is from Limbaugh's radio show, April 11, 1994. Source: Nexis

LIMBAUGH: It really does--because you know, he's--he lives and work in--live and--lives and works in baseball where--where this is the--the--the--the basic rule of thought is that this is a sickness and we've got to bend over backwards to help these people and so forth. Darryl Strawberry has everything life could ever want, and he's earned it. He's got riches and so forth. People say, Well, you know, he just can't handle the pressures and the fame and the performance expectations.' Well, I know a lot of people who are successful. I know a lot of people who are rich and rose to fame rather quickly and have to deal with performance pressures. They don't turn to drugs. On the other hand, you've got people over there, Well, you know, poverty is causing crime and poverty is causing people to look into drugs and--and--and--and all of these other things. It's just--America is just a terrible place.

It is--this Kurt Cobain stuff and this is all symptomatic of what we in this country are doing. We're trying to make a victim out of everybody, absolve anybody of responsibility, and that's just absolutely wrong because the people who play by the rules are the ones on whose backs the burden of supporting these losers falls. And it's about time it came to a screeching halt.

Now Lasorda is exactly right about this. I've only heard one other guy in sports dare to make this kind of statement, Jerry Colangelo who owns the Phoenix Suns, who has said the very same thing. And it is nothing but pure logic. If you make the choice to grab a substance, put it in your nose or in your veins, that's going to cause you trouble--maybe kill you. That's not society doing it to you. That's not the rigors and pressures doing it to you. That's you doing it. Whether it's a weakness or whatever else, it still is a personal choice that those people--and we lionize these people. They get cured and everyb--Oh, what a great person he is! Look at the strength he used to overcome all this.' We're just creating role models out of the wrong people in this society and here are two examples to prove it.

We'll be back with more after this.


This is from Limbaugh's radio show, October 5, 1995

But here is the real nuts and bolts of this that everybody's going to focus on and misread, I believe. Blacks make up 12 percent of the United States' population. They constitute 13 percent of all monthly drug users, according to this same report. However, black males in their 20s represent 35 percent of those arrested for drug possession, 55 percent of those convicted for drug possession and 74 percent of those sentenced to prison for drug possession.

Now people are going to sit there and say, This proves that America's racist. This proves that cops target blacks unfairly and put them in jail unfairly. They got to be falsely accused. They've got to be falsely convicted. They got to be falsely imprisoned'--and this is supposed to prove to everybody that this is terribly wrong.

Now I think the proper way to look at this is the exact opposite. Let's all admit something: There's nothing good about drug use. We know it. It destroys individuals. It destroys families. Drug use destroys societies. Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. And the laws are good because we know what happens to people in societies and neighborhoods which become consumed by them. And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up.

If you're a black living in the inner city--and--and I firmly believe that, no matter what your race, if you have children--or even if you don't--you don't want to be surrounded by drug infestation. You don't want your kids running around being tempted by the quick profits of drug sales or the quick high of drug use. And if the cops are in these neighborhoods and ridding these neighborhoods of these people, then that's good and you ought to be happy about it.

Rush Limbaugh also called Jerry Garcia "another dead drug addict."

Never mind that Cobain had major stomach pain problems, it's going to be represented as totally different: someone who gets accidentally hooked to prescription drugs, compared to others who were strictly recreational users who "chose" to do drugs.

Just wait.

Consider it done.

He'll be the prodigal scum.

E-mail these passages everywhere! Especially the Washington Post and the New York Times, as they are most likely to cover it. This needs to be made well known. Also, emphasize this passage:

"And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up."

I think Howard Kurtz should definitely be made aware of these statements: kurtzh@washpost.com

What do you suppose hateboy would have to say if this sort of thing happened to say... Al Franken.

On the other hand, what would he have to say if it happened to coulter?

Pfff...

Please discuss here:

(Limbaugh Quotes Thread)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=513499

or here:

(Darryl Strawberry Thread)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=514851