Limbaugh to enter rehab center

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Talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh announced on his radio program yesterday that he is addicted to painkillers and would enter a rehab center to remedy the situation.

"I have always tried to be honest with you and open about my life," Mr. Limbaugh told his audience, which numbers 22 million listeners a week. "So I need to tell you today that part of what you have heard and read is correct. I am addicted to prescription pain medication."

He continued, "Immediately following this broadcast, I am checking myself into a treatment center for the next 30 days to once and for all break the hold this highly addictive medication has on me."

The medication in question is said to be OxyContin, an opiate-based narcotic legally prescribed for moderate or severe pain, but nicknamed "hillbilly heroin" because it has been easily obtained and abused in rural areas.

Mr. Limbaugh posted a statement and a videotape of his broadcast on his Web site (www.rushlimbaugh.com) yesterday afternoon.

The revelation caps a difficult month for Mr. Limbaugh, 52, who resigned from a three-week stint as an ESPN sports analyst Oct. 1 after his remarks about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb caused an uproar among journalists, athletes and some politicians.

During a live telecast Sept. 28, Mr. Limbaugh contended that Mr. McNabb had been given undue credit for his team's success by journalists "very desirous that a black quarterback do well."

His remarks were later deemed "racist" by some members of the press and "absurd and offensive" by Howard Dean, a Democratic candidate for president. But that was just the beginning of Mr. Limbaugh's well-publicized troubles.

Rumors of his drug addiction appeared in the National Enquirer the day after he resigned from ESPN, based on the claims of a housemaid who said she helped him obtain powerful black-market painkillers for four years, including OxyContin and another codeine-based painkiller.