Pubdate: Mon, 30 Sep 2002
Source: Florida Today (FL)
Copyright: 2002 Florida Today
Contact: http://www.floridatoday.com/forms/services/letters.htm
Website: http://www.flatoday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/532

JUDGE MAY FORCE CENTER TO COOPERATE IN BUSH CASE

MIAMI -- An Orlando judge is expected to decide today whether staff members
at a rehab center can be forced to cooperate with police investigating
possible drug charges against Noelle Bush -- the daughter of Gov. Jeb Bush.

Because of its high profile -- Noelle, 25, is also the president's niece --
the case is being closely watched by about 14,000 drug treatment centers
nationwide, where 1.1million abusers sought help in 2001.

"The treatment community has a lot to lose if the judge rules these
employees have to testify," said Ronald Hunsicker of the National
Association of Addiction Treatment Providers. "All of this could have been
done privately. Instead, it's become a national debate."

The centers' biggest fear is that patients won't seek help if they can't be
guaranteed confidentiality. Nationwide, about 6.1?million Americans need
help kicking drugs, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration.

Policies vary, but experts say drug use by rehab patients is more commonly
treated as a relapse than a criminal matter. The consequence is generally
determined by a treatment team, which often includes a judge monitoring a
patient's progress through a drug court -- as in the Bush case.

Prosecutors in Florida argue cocaine possession is a felony and the law
protecting a patient's confidentiality allows for exceptions when a crime is
committed.

Bush's attorney says police are being tougher on her because they don't want
to be accused of coddling the governor's daughter. "We're not treating her
any differently," counters Jeff Ashton, an assistant state attorney in
Orlando. Catherine O'Neill, a lawyer with the Legal Action Center, a
non-profit organization that focuses on discrimination and privacy in drug
treatment, says the center's national hotline receives four to five calls a
week from treatment centers reporting police on their doorsteps with
subpoenas.

Only judges can order cooperation, O'Neill says, and court rulings on the
issue have been split. The federal law mandating confidentiality for those
undergoing drug or alcohol treatment has been in effect since the 1970s. In
deciding whether to waive confidentiality, courts weigh several factors,
including the severity of the crime being investigated and whether harm
might come to the person in treatment or to others. A graduate of
Tallahassee Community College and a former student at Florida State
University,Noelle Bush entered the Center for Drug-Free Living in Orlando in
February, a month after she was arrested and accused of trying to buy the
tranquilizer Xanax with a fake prescription.

Whispers of a drug problem had circulated in Florida's political circles for
years. It became public with her arrest at a pharmacy drive-through in
Tallahassee. In the past, Jeb Bush had often spoken of his family's personal
heartache with drug abuse, but he always refused to say which of his three
children struggled with the issue. Noelle, the second child, has two
brothers. In July, she spent 48 hours in jail after treatment center staff
members reported that she had taken prescription drugs from a medicine
cabinet. Her latest troubles began Sept. 10 when a staff member reportedly
found a small rock of cocaine -- 0.2 of a gram -- in Bush's shoe.

Another patient then called 911.

"She does this all the time, and she gets out of it because she's the
governor's daughter," the unidentified patient told police, according to a
police transcript. "But we're sick of it here, 'cause we have to do what's
right, and she gets treated like some kind of princess." Police said the
staffer who found the cocaine wrote a statement for them but tore it up and
stopped talking after a supervisor intervened. Without the statement, police
have no probable cause to arrest Bush. She remains in the treatment center.

For the most part, her difficulties have been hands-off in the battle for
the governor's seat. But critics have used the case to criticize her
father's drug policies. They said though his daughter receives treatment,
the governor embraces jail for those less privileged. Bush opposed a
controversial amendment to the state constitution that would have guaranteed
first-time offenders treatment without the threat of jail. A similar measure
passed in 2000 in California.

Supporters say they hope to get the issue back on the Florida ballot in
2004. Bush's drug czar says the criticism is unfair. "Jeb Bush understands
the need for treatment," says James McDonough, head of Florida's Office of
Drug Control. He points to several changes since Bush took office in 1998:
the number of young Florida addicts getting treatment jumped 77 percent, to
21,659 last year; and the number of drug courts has doubled to more than 70.
The courts monitor the treatment of 11,000 offenders like Noelle Bush.
Bush's office says the $247 million budget he proposed for drug abuse
prevention and treatment in 2002-03 is an increase of $95 million over
spending in 1998-99.

Calling it a private matter, the governor has refused interview requests
about his daughter's drug problems. But his wife, Columba, is the state
spokesperson on drug prevention. Questions about Noelle have brought him to
tears at campaign appearances. "This is tough enough when you're doing it in
private. It's excruciating when you're doing it in public," McDonough says.
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