Update on America's Hidden Epidemic

The ink was hardly dry on my mini opus on America's hidden drug epidemic -- the millions of "respectable" middle-aged and middle-class folks who are strung out on legal drugs like painkillers and antidepressants -- when news came that late great Supreme Court Chief Justice Donald Rehnquist was wacked out on Placidyl, a potent sedative-hypnotic, for several years.

Writes Jack Shafer in Slate:

"Obviously the lede of the chief's obituary should not have read, 'William H. Rehnquist, a man with a jones for Placidyl, died yesterday. He also served as chief justice of the United States for 19 years.' But the reluctance to explore this part of Rehnquist's life at any length illustrates a general rule of journalism: Most obituarists prefer the airbrush to the sharpened pen when it comes to the famous and powerful. In Rehnquist's case, reporters can't make the 'I was on deadline' excuse. The chief justice gave generous advance notice of his impending death for months, and novella-length pieces like the Greenhouse [New York Times] obit were hardly banged out over Labor Day weekend.

"Recounting Rehnquist's Placidyl story isn't just a bit of journalistic blood sport at the expense of a dead man. His unorthodox drug consumption first made headlines in 1982, when the Washington Post . . . broke the story, when he entered the hospital to get off the stuff. The Placidyl episode was also news in 1986, when President Ronald Reagan upgraded Rehnquist from associate justice by nominating him as chief. A confidential report on Rehnquist's medical history prepared for the Senate Judiciary Committee, which contained more details about his habit, was leaked to the press."

More here.

(Image from My Left Wing)