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From: Kari
Date: 12/5/03
Time: 5:46:46 PM
Remote Name: 63.224.203.28
Limbaugh's medical records seized in ‘doctor shopping' probe
By Jon Burstein South Florida Sun-Sentinel
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Palm Beach County law enforcement task force seized Rush Limbaugh's medical records from three doctors as it investigates whether the conservative radio commentator illegally obtained prescription painkillers, according to search warrants made public Thursday.
Authorities are looking into whether Limbaugh violated the state's "doctor shopping" law by getting doctors to write him overlapping narcotic drug prescriptions and failing to tell them about each other. Records from one pharmacy near Limbaugh's Palm Beach mansion show that during a six-month period in 2003, the talk-show host picked up hundreds of addictive painkiller pills prescribed to him by four local doctors, court documents state.
From March to September, Limbaugh picked up 1,733 hydrocodone pills, 90 OxyContin pills, 50 Xanax tablets and 40 pills of Kadian — time-release morphine, search warrant records show. The court documents indicate that sometimes less than a week would lapse between him getting different doctors' prescriptions for the painkillers.
"Doctor shopping" is a third-degree felony under Florida law, punishable by up to five years in prison.
Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer said Thursday that Limbaugh still is under investigation and "is presumed innocent at this time."
The Nov. 25 searches of a West Palm Beach doctor's office and the Jupiter Outpatient Surgery Center happened a week after Limbaugh came back on the air following a stint in a drug-rehabilitation treatment program. Limbaugh admitted in early October he was addicted to painkillers, a week after media reports first surfaced that his former housekeeper and her husband had supplied him with OxyContin and other powerful prescription drugs