Wednesday, July 5, 2006

Palm Beach: Viagra Rush Legal

Prosecutors in Palm Beach County said today that Rush Limbaugh will not be criminally charged for his possession of a bottle of Viagra that was in the name of Dr. Steve Strumwasser, his psychiatrist. On June 26, Rush was detained by customs after the discovery of the Viagra in his bag upon his return from holiday in the Domincan Republic on his private jet. According to Dr. Strumwasser, he agreed to have the prescription put in his name to avoid any embarrassing publicity for the popular conservative radio talk show host. The Palm Beach County state attorney's spokesman, Mike Edmondson, said that it is generally lawful for a doctor to prescribe medication in the name of a third party if all of the parties are cognizant thereof and the physician properly documents it. Nevertheless, the case was forwarded to Miami-Dade prosecutors for review since the prescription was written there. Had Limbaugh been charged, the "doctor shopping" charge deferal deal could have been scrapped which required Limbaugh to not get arrested within 18 months of the deal. On his radio show today, Rush discussed the Viagra incident and said that he was cancelling an August trip to Spain and would not be making any trips anytime soon because he didn't want to place himself in a "position of being framed."

Cf. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-75limbaugh,0,7753259.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines and http://themediacrunch.com/2006/07/05/rush-frame.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Too bad Rush has to wait to go to Spain.  That will be hard waiting, so to speak.

Anonymous said...

I love Rush but it's hard to feel sorry for someone that has to suspend his international travel for a brief period. Maybe, he'll just enjoy America and its territories in the meantime: not so bad a resolution the day after the Fourth.