cannabisnews.com: What Do You Do with a Problem Like Noelle





What Do You Do with a Problem Like Noelle
Posted by CN Staff on October 05, 2002 at 07:54:06 PT
By Doug Saunders
Source: Globe and Mail 
The great paradox at the centre of America's ruling dynasty was ripped open last month when a telephone rang at the Orlando police station. With this one call, the libertine, individualistic side of Bush's America was forced to stare in the face of its rigidly puritanical and moralistic alter ego.The call was from the Center for Drug-Free Living, a residential rehabilitation program for Floridians charged with drug offenses. 
"One of the women here was caught buying crack cocaine tonight," the caller complained. "And a lot of the women are upset because she's been caught about five times. And we want something done because our children are here, and they just keep letting it slip under the counter and carpet . . . They said, you know, because it's basically Noelle Bush . . . She does this all the time, and she gets out of it because she's the Governor's daughter."And, the caller didn't need to add, the niece of the president of the United States. Noelle Bush, 24, could not have picked a more significant moment to get busted. Only hours later, the polls would open in Florida's Democratic primaries, in which voters would decide which candidate would challenge Ms. Bush's father in his re-election bid. Jeb Bush was due to make a press appearance that morning, and he was effectively ambushed by the drug scandal involving his daughter, who had been arrested for possession in February.How could Jeb Bush respond? A devoutly ideological religious conservative, he had run for election in 1998 on an anti-drug platform, vowing to get tough and put people in jail. He was a central figure in a morally conservative movement, now headed by his father, whose central principle was that the moral decisions of individuals -- especially those involving sex and drugs -- deserved to be met with the harshest and least forgiving consequences.Now his principles were being tested. Ms. Bush is a deeply troubled woman with a long history of heavy drug use; when she was picked up in February with illegally prescribed Xanax (a tranquilizer popular with heavy cocaine users), she had an empty and beaten-up look. Over the summer, she was caught cheating on her rehabilitation, and spent three days in jail.Ms. Bush had seemed poised to begin a successful life, after following the old Bush family pattern of getting into youthful trouble. She had studied art and graduated from a Tallahassee community college in 2000, but was mostly known there as a party girl. Since 1995, according to state records, she has received seven speeding tickets and been involved in three automobile crashes.In January, she had dropped out of Florida State University to begin a promising job with a software firm. Then she was caught impersonating a local doctor in an effort to calm her cocaine-related anxieties with Xanax.After last month's relapse, Jeb Bush responded as most parents would. "This is a private issue, as it relates to my daughter and myself and my wife," he told reporters. "The road to recovery is a rocky one for a lot of people who have this kind of problem."From any other father, these would sound like compassionate and common-sense remarks. For Jeb Bush, the past few days have turned those words into political dynamite, smashing his electoral lead in this Republican-heavy state so he now teeters a few points from defeat. Why? Because those words contradict the values that he, like his brother George, had made part of his campaign: Drugs are not "a private issue." Drug users do not get a second, or third or fourth, chance. Drugs are a criminal matter, not a medical problem.Ms. Bush has become a Republican policy experiment. "Unfortunately," her lawyer, Peter Antonacci, said this week, "the policy debate of treatment versus incarceration is being worked out with a famous person in the middle."In the past few days, Floridians have been quick to notice that the Bush family's own policies differ from those it imposes on its constituents. "Noelle Bush and her parents, in their private capacity, have been let down by a system that Governor Bush, in his official capacity, also has let down," wrote Jac Wilder VerSteeg, a conservative writer with the Palm Beach Post.By this, he was referring to Jeb Bush's cutting of funds to the very rehab program his daughter is attending, and to the Governor's aggressive boosting of tough-on-crime programs that sent more drug offenders to jail, rather than to treatment. Democrats and their supporters leapt on the Governor, accusing him of hypocrisy. Arianna Huffington, a national columnist, wrote of "Jeb's wildly inconsistent attitude on the issue -- treatment and privacy for his daughter, incarceration and public humiliation for everyone else."The Los Angeles political writer Jake Tapper provided the ultimate Democrat gloat, comparing the Bush dynasty to the Democrats' own messed-up first family: "It's these Bushes with whom the current crop of Kennedys must be compared."When he first ran for office four years ago, Jeb Bush made it known that he was the most right-wing and inflexible of the Bush men, a strict conservative who would not give in. "I won't bend on my principles," he said. "Those principles come from moral beliefs. I'm not going up there to get along. I'm going there to shake things up."Now, thanks to Ms. Bush, Jeb Bush has found himself having to bend on his principles, to question his moral beliefs, to get along. In the midst of a tight election campaign, this has proven perilous.America's fundamental contradiction -- a deep intolerance of vice, combined with an obsession with vice like no other country -- had found its center in the ruling family. George W. Bush had managed to steer around this contradiction by converting to born-again Christianity in the 1980s, placing a wall of piety between his dissolute, booze-and-drugs years and his rigid politics. George's daughters, Barbara and Jenna, did not escape notice for their serial underage drinking. George's brother Neil drew little fire last week when he divorced his wife of 22 years (a no-no in many Republican circles). But Ms. Bush's indiscretions struck too close to basic Republican values to go unremarked.She is exactly the sort of drug user whom the Republicans have targeted. In 1980, 40,000 Americans were imprisoned for drug possession; by 1999, as a result of the new laws of Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr., that number had jumped to 453,000.Indeed, the George W. Bush administration has tried to demonize drug users, putting anti-drug advertisements on prime-time TV after Sept. 11 that made the preposterous claim that Americans who buy drugs are helping finance al Qaeda's terror attacks. Jeb Bush has not been asked whether he believes his daughter has lent support to terrorism.When the President's brother ran for governor in 1998, he talked endlessly and aggressively about drugs. "The drug problem is a quiet poison in our communities," he said in one debate, shortly before promising to triple anti-drug spending and to appoint a retired U.S. army colonel to the position of Florida drug czar. "We need to use the laws of the state and toughen them up so then when drug traffickers sell drugs and poison our young people, they're put in prison for a long time."After that debate, Jeb Bush answered a few questions from reporters. What, one asked, were his motives for the tough-on-drugs programs?"Most of the joy I've ever had, and almost all of the trauma, is related to being a father," he said, quietly. "And that is what this is all about."At the time, most people took this to be an empty platitude, a bit of campaign-trail sentimentality. This week, the people of Florida know what trauma he was speaking of, and they know that its name is Noelle.Note: Florida Governor Jeb Bush's tough stand against drugs suddenly isn't so tough when it comes to his 24-year-old coke-addicted daughter, reports Doug Saunders. Is there a different standard of justice for the First Family? Apparently, yes.Doug Saunders writes on foreign affairs. Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)Author: Doug SaundersPublished: Saturday, October 5, 2002 – Print Edition, Page F2Copyright: 2002 The Globe and Mail CompanyContact: letters globeandmail.caWebsite: http://www.globeandmail.ca/Related Articles:Judge Shuts Down Investigation of Noelle Bushhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14318.shtmlJudge Upholds Privacy for Jeb Bush's Daughterhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14317.shtmlA Crack House Divided - Arianna Huffingtonhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14127.shtml 
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Comment #4 posted by malleus on October 07, 2002 at 05:34:41 PT
The question is: will the Dems grab the ball
and run with it? I don't believe the Dems are any cleaner than the Reps, but this issue is tailor made for them. Will they wimp out again? Will they let this obvious sore spot go unpunctured?Or will they, out of faux concern and a desire to look more magnanimous with false charity, opt to not pursue this? This is very important for the reform movement because for Ms. Bush to receive such lenient treatment is to tacitly admit there's one set of rules for the rich and another for the rest of us. Admitting that during an election is a sure way to lose it, despite the truth of it.Jebbie Bush and his poorly restrained attack dog Mr. Fusarium-doesn't-kill-food-crops McDonough need to go. And this is the perfect way to get rid of them. A scandal that shows the utterly morally bankrupt Drug War as the class warfare that it truly is. Rich adddicts get cossetted; poor ones get incarcerated. Doesn't get any plainer than that. And for a state with as many minorities as Florida has, that's not a good way to run a Republican governorship. Not after the last national election and the trouble they are having with this one.
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Comment #3 posted by DANA on October 05, 2002 at 21:17:17 PT
Radio speech today.
Sorry to go sorta "off topic",but here is a transcript of today radio address,,followed by my favorite prezudenchul qwoats.....Is there anyone out there who would like to defend the appointed president?Am I being too critical,or harsh?WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Following is a transcript
of President Bush's weekly radio address to the nation today:THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This week leaders of the Congress
agreed on a strong bipartisan resolution authorizing the use of
force if necessary to disarm Saddam Hussein and to defend the
peace. Now both the House and the Senate will have an important
debate and an historic vote. Speaker Hastert and Leader Gephardt
and Leader Lott did tremendous work in building bipartisan support
on this vital issue.The danger to America from the Iraqi regime is grave and
growing. The regime is guilty of beginning two wars. It has a
horrible history of striking without warning. In defiance of
pledges to the United Nations, Iraq has stockpiled biological and
chemical weapons, and is rebuilding the facilities used to make
more of those weapons. Saddam Hussein has used these weapons of
death against innocent Iraqi people, and we have every reason to
believe he will use them again.Iraq has longstanding ties to terrorist groups, which are
capable of and willing to deliver weapons of mass death. And Iraq
is ruled by perhaps the world's most brutal dictator who has
already committed genocide with chemical weapons, ordered the
torture of children, and instituted the systematic rape of the
wives and daughters of his political opponents.We cannot leave the future of peace and the security of America
in the hands of this cruel and dangerous man. This dictator must
be disarmed. And all the United Nations resolutions against his
brutality and support for terrorism must be enforced.The United States does not desire military conflict, because we
know the awful nature of war. Our country values life, and we will
never seek war unless it is essential to security and justice. We
hope that Iraq complies with the world's demands. If, however, the
Iraqi regime persists in its defiance, the use of force may become
unavoidable. Delay, indecision, and inaction are not options for
America, because they could lead to massive and sudden horror.Should force be required to bring Saddam to account, the
United States will work with other nations to help the Iraqi people
rebuild and form a just government. We have no quarrel with the
Iraqi people. They are the daily victims of Saddam Hussein's
oppression, and they will be the first to benefit when the world's
demands are met.American security, the safety of our friends, and the values of
our country lead us to confront this gathering threat. By
supporting the resolution now before them, members of Congress will
send a clear message to Saddam: His only choice is to fully comply
with the demands of the world. And the time for that choice is
limited. Supporting this resolution will also show the resolve of
the United States, and will help spur the United Nations to act.I urge Americans to call their members of Congress to make sure
your voice is heard. The decision before Congress cannot be more
consequential. I'm confident that members of both political parties
will choose wisely.Thank you for listening.END"There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says: Fool me once, shame on . . . shame on you. . . Fool me . . . you can't get fooled again." - Bush at East Literature 
  Magnet School in Nashville."Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?" "My [tax cut] plan is realistic because it avoids meaningless 15-year projections.""The fundamental question is: 'Will I be a successful president when it comes to foreign policy?' I will be, but until I'm the president, it's going to be hard for me to verify that I think I'll be more effective."I don't remember debates. I don't think we spent a lot of time debating [Vietnam]. Maybe we did, but I don't remember.""Drug therapies are replacing a lot of medicines as we used to know it." "The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country." "People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history."
 
 "I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future." "I don't think we need to be subliminable about the differences between our views on prescription drugs."
 
"I'm hopeful. I know there is a lot of ambition in Washington, obviously. But I hope the ambitious realize that they are more likely to succeed with success as
        opposed to failure." "This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses." "If I'm the president, we're going to have emergency-room care, we're going to have gag orders." "The legislature's job is to write law. It's the executive branch's job to interpret law." 
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Comment #2 posted by DdC on October 05, 2002 at 11:55:19 PT
Bush Says Drugs are OK if You're Rich or Connected
"In a civilised society, it is the duty of all citizens to obey just laws. But at the same time it is the duty of all citizens to disobey unjust laws." - Martin Luther King Jr."The dogmatic heartlessness of the war on drugs was on flaming display Monday in Flagler and Volusia counties as national drug 'czar' John Walters brought a message high on zero tolerance and dubious facts to a high school and a drug treatment center. Walters' sophomoric claims and punishing solutions illustrate exactly why a record 74 percent of Americans believe the war on drugs is a failure and why claims like Walters' cannot be trusted: They are irresponsibly blind to reality."From "Behind Czarist 'Truths' - Deception No Way To Wage Drug War," an editorial published by Daytona Beach News-Journal. http://www.n-jcenter.com/2002/Sep/26/OPN2.htm for the complete editorial.Law Enforcement & Prisons COMMENT: (9-13)
Police in a small Ohio town shot and killed a young man during a raid last week. Police found only a small amount of drugs in the raid, and roommates of the deceased said he held only a plastic cup when he was shot, not a gun as police claim. The family of a California man killed in a drug raid where no drugs were found got a large settlement and an apology from police this week.And while the narcs are out shooting the unarmed, some can't seem to keep tabs on their own drug evidence. In two separate incidents reported last week, substantial amounts of drugs were stolen from police evidence rooms.And parolees in Illinois should be ready for surprise drug tests at their door step. Local police are helping parole officers to arrive unannounced at the residences of parolees for urine samples. Some test failures mean a return to lockup.GOVERNOR JEB BUSH AND TOUGH DRUG LAW POLICIES
For the past three years Governor Jeb Bush and his mouthpiece, Florida Drug Czar Jim McDonough have been criticized for the state's aggressive policy against drug users, which focuses on incarceration in the prisons and county jails. They have deflected these complaints by telling us how important they believe drug treatment is and its being a better approach to dealing with drug abuse and the associated crimes that often go with it.Jesus v Fla Nark
http://www.cannabinoid.com/wwwboard/politics/binaries/26/26252.gifNoelle Bush Needs Help, As All Addicts Do
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread11892.shtml
I knew Noelle Bush had a drug problem before she was arrested. The state editor told me. He knew because most of the reporters in Tallahassee who cover the governor knew about it.We are not the mudslingers we are portrayed to be. This was Jeb's family affair and had no bearing on his job, so it was off-limits. But when Noelle was arrested, the family matter became a criminal matter and therefore a story. Jeb Bush Urged To Reconsider Drug Law View
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread11893.shtmlThe Drug Policy Alliance
http://www.lindesmith.org/Perhaps Daughters Arrest Will Trigger New Thinking
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11885.shtmlGovernors Daughter Charged with Prescription Fraud
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11872.shtml US FL: Florida Slashing Care for Drug Addicts
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n144/a02.htmlBush admits 'neglect' in prisons
The governor says the system ""erred'' by not providing adequate health care to a St. Petersburg woman.
TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush said the prison system suffers from "years of neglect" and admitted that the Department of Corrections "erred" in failing to provide adequate health care to a St. Petersburg woman who died of liver problems in a prison last year.Versions of the Noelle Bush arrest ran nationwide. A general sample of this news story can be seen from the article which ran in the Orlando Sentinel:US FL: Drug Charge Filed Against Governor's Daughter
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n155/a04.htmlJeb Bush on Drugs
http://www.issues2000.org/Governor/Jeb_Bush_Drugs.htm
Create mandatory prison sentences for persons convicted of drug trafficking. Mandatory minimum prison sentences of 3, 7, 15, 25 years, life or death will be imposed depending on the type and amount of the controlled substance.JEB BUSH CAUGHT IN ILLEGAL DRUG COVER-UP SCANDAL JEB'S DAUGHTER, NOELLE 
Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the President's brother, is caught in an illegal drug cover-up scandal involving his 24-year-old daughter Noelle.  A week before Noelle's recent arrest for prescription fraud, she tried to illegally acquire prescription medications THREE more times at THREE different pharmacies. But pharmacists were told to keep the police out of it. In an ENQUIRER exclusive, the issue that is on sale now contains a copy of Noelle's forged prescription, reveals how she tried to score the dangerous narcotic OxyContin … and more.
http://www.nationalenquirer.com/stories/feature.cfm?instanceid=20585From Counter Punch by Alexander Cockburn Bush and Cocaine...
Six months ago a CounterPuncher in whom we have absolute confidence relayed to us a conversation he had just had with someone who had attended Yale at the same time as George W. Bush. The Yale man told our CounterPuncher of his direct knowledge of young Bush selling cocaine in his college years. The Yale man adamantly refused to go on the record, on the grounds that he had no desire to authenticate a story that could only damage Bush's chances in the race for the presidency this year.Bush's Cocaine Question and the Drug War! This Is Two-Tiered Justice - 8/24/99
 http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread2607.shtml
AT LAST, A CAMPAIGN ISSUE everyone agrees on -- George W. blew it. And, no, we're not talking about some long-gone Peruvian powder he may or may not have inhaled in his youth. We're referring to his woeful mishandling of the cocaine question. It's not just what he wouldn't say, but the way he wouldn't say it.The War on Youth by Ryan Pintado-Vertner & Jeff Chang
http://www.igc.org/datacenter/ir/prison.htmlWhen the Kid's in Cuffs, What's a Parent to Do?
http://www.washingtonpost.comStudents Debate Controversial Pot Legislation
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11617.shtmlDrug Bust Can Smash Student Loan
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10597.shtmlFederal Crackdown on Students
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10449.shtmlGovernors Daughter Charged with Prescription Fraud Source: St. Petersburg Times 
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread11872.shtml
Gov. Jeb Bush's daughter was charged with prescription fraud in Tallahassee, police said today. Bush and his wife, Columba, issued a statement but did not provide details of the incident.Jenna Bush underage drinking
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/897336Daughter Turns in Energy Official Friday, 3 Sepember 1999 W A S H I N G T O N (AP)
A SENIOR policy adviser at the Energy Department and his wife, a well known anti-nuclear activist and lawyer, have been charged with growing and possessing marijuana after their 16-year-old daughter turned them in. Robert Alvarez and his wife, Kathleen Tucker, turned themselves in to Takoma Park, Md. police on Monday, 11 days after their daughter, Kerry Tucker, told police the couple had drugs in their basement. They were released on their own recognizance.Dear Governor Locke: To David Miles' young daughter your representative wrote: "The Governor regrets the hardship this man's family faces. It is never easy to lose possessions we have worked hard to obtain or for families to be split apart. However, the violation of state and federal drug laws resulted in these unfortunate consequences. Governor Locke is sworn to uphold these laws just as our law enforcement teams and courts are sworn to do. You may want to contact your legislators if you feel changes to our current state laws are needed, or your congressional delegation to convey your thoughts about federal laws." What an outrage. The hardship this man's family faces? What about this man? 3 and 1/2 years and the theft of the family's $350,000 home for a measley 1/2 pound of pot?FLORIDA: PLEA BARGAIN FOR PROSECUTOR'S SON 
The son of Miami-Dade County's top prosecutor accepted a deal to avoid jail on a drug possession charge that was filed whenhe was caught carrying marijuana as he tried to board a flight to Puerto Rico with his mother. A judge agreed on Monday to allow Justin Robert Rundle, 18, to enter a program under which the misdemeanor possession charge will be dropped if he completes classes and community service. He is the son of the state attorney, Katherine Fernandez Rundle. (AP)Bush's Double Standard
http://www.salon.com/The Devil Inside Jenna and George
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9941.shtmlThree Strikes and She's Out?
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9942.shtmlBush Crime Family
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionprohibitionistwodjunkies.showMessage?topicID=29.topicBush Family Values; They Should Be In Prison!
http://www.ariannaonline.com/discus/messages/4/424.html?FridayDecember1719991057
pmTHE BUSH-CHENEY DRUG EMPIRE
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessa
ge?topicID=178.topicBush Dismisses Questions Over Military Service
http://news.excite.com/news/r/991112/02/politics-politics-bush
http://www.turnpike.net/~jnr/bushwar.htmBushDrugUpdate.com
http://www.bushdrugupdate.com/GWBush Cocaine Cowboy 1 year gap in Bush's Guard
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessa
ge?topicID=176.topicWhy Does George W. Bush Fly in Drug Smuggler Barry Seal's Airplane?
http://www.copvcia.com/W_plane.htmGeorge Bush: Crack Kingpin of the 1980s
http://www.ariannaonline.com/discus/messages/4/559.html?FridayFebruary420001100pmBush. Religious drug treatment in Texas
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionprohibitionistwodjunkies.showMessage?topicID=13.topicBush Cocaine links galore! 
http://www.cannabis.com/linkscgi/#researchAnd here are some letters to the editor 
http://www.seattletimes.com/news/editorial/html98/lett_19990825.html
Cokemon
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Comment #1 posted by canaman on October 05, 2002 at 10:21:03 PT
Noelle Bush
Poster Child for "America's War on Americans" or maybe a Xanax commerical?Poster Girl http://www.jacksonville.com/images/013002/met_jeb_bush_dau_1_163.jpg
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