Taylor Marsh – TaylorMarsh.com – News, Opinion and Weblog on Progressive Politics

Good for Kennedy. Joe Scarborough, who irritates me to no end, even said in an interview earlier that when he was
in Congress with Patrick
Kennedy he was a really nice guy. Scarborough also offered that if some
no name member of Congress had this happen it would have been only a blip on
the radar. The Kennedy name makes the headline scream. Kennedy has talked about
his depression and other challenges often. He is not above the law and will
have to deal with any fall out of the accident. But it's good news that he's
finally getting help. As for my right-wing friends whining about a
double standard when it comes to their right-wing radio king, don't make me
laugh.

After all, it's not like he was taking dozens of oxycontin and allegedly using
his maid to procure them around his doctor, which ended up in him being taken
to court, eventually arrested, finger printed, with a mug shot to show for it,
now is it? Oh, and Kennedy also never went after people who had addictions either.

I think the word to employ here is “compassion.”

“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.” “What this says to me is that too many whites are getting away with drug use, too many whites are getting away with drug sales, too many whites are getting away with trafficking in this stuff. The answer to this disparity is not to start letting people out of jail because we're not putting others in jail who are breaking the law. The answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them and send them up the river, too.” — Rush Limbaugh. October 5, 1995 show transcript.

So, after this was reported, I started doing a little looking into on Ambien
and what I found is interesting, especially since it's the most widely used
sleeping pill around. Frankly, I've known a lot of people who have been prescribed
sleep medication, all of whom never liked taking the stuff. Ambien and Phenergan
in combination got Patrick Kennedy in trouble.

AMBIEN: Ambien is prescribed for the short-term treatment of insomnia. Ambien and other similar sleep medicines, called hypnotics, should only be used for seven to 10 days. Ambien comes with a warning to patients that sleep medicines can cause confusion, strange behavior and hallucinations. Also, the drug is to be taken only when patients have time for a full eight hours of sleep to allow its effects to wear off. Side effects of Ambien include drowsiness, dizziness, lightheadedness and difficulty with coordination. Patients taking Ambien should never drink alcohol. — PHENERGAN: Phenergan is prescribed for a variety of reasons, including relief from allergy symptoms, nausea and vomiting, or motion sickness, and as a sedative. The drug can cause drowsiness, dizziness and occasional blurred vision. Patients taking Phenergan should not drive or operate heavy machinery. The drug can increase the effect of sedative or hypnotic drugs, as well as alcohol. A closer look: Ambien and Phenergan

Josh Marshall found a New
York Times article, which begins like this: With a tendency
to stare zombie-like and run into stationary objects, a new species of impaired
motorist is hitting the roads: the Ambien driver.

Fifty
to 70 million people have trouble sleeping. That's some number.

Patrick Kennedy is human and he deserves to get the help he needs.