Jeb Bush's daughter charged with prescription fraud
By Deborah Sharp, USA TODAY
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| Tallahassee police via Reuters | |
| Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's daughter, Noelle Bush, after her arrest early Tuesday. | |
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The daughter of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was arrested Tuesday in Tallahassee on charges of trying to fill a fake prescription for the popular tranquilizer Xanax.
Bush and his wife, Columba, issued a statement that they were "deeply saddened" by the incident involving their middle child and only daughter, Noelle, 24.
They asked the media and the public to respect their privacy "during this difficult time so that we can help our daughter."
A Walgreens pharmacist suspicious about a call-in prescription notified police at 1:15 a.m. when Noelle Bush showed up at the drugstore's drive-through in her white Volkswagen to pick it up.
She was charged with prescription fraud, a felony that carries a maximum penalty of five years in jail and a $5,000 fine. Noelle Bush has no known criminal record and was released without having to post bond.
Experts say punishment for a first offense is usually drug treatment or probation.
Noelle Bush has been cited for about a dozen traffic violations and was involved in three automobile crashes since 1995, according to The Associated Press.
Xanax is legally prescribed for stress and anxiety. Noelle Bush reportedly told police that she was panicked about starting a new job on Tuesday.
Jeb Bush had said previously that one of his three children used illegal drugs during his first failed campaign for Florida governor in 1994. That episode prompted Jeb and Columba Bush to get involved in several drug-prevention groups, and Jeb Bush appointed a state drug czar after he was elected governor in 1998.
Police believe Noelle Bush called the pharmacy's voice mail system to issue herself the prescription, posing as a "Dr. Noelle Scidmore."
Police impounded the phone messages. The pharmacist told police that Bush called twice as Scidmore and twice as herself asking if the prescription was ready. The calls initially made him suspicious because the first call from "Scidmore" failed to specify the quantity of pills. The pharmacist called a colleague of the real Dr. Scidmore, who told him the doctor no longer practiced in Tallahassee. He "said it was a fake and to bust her," pharmacist Carlos Zimmerman told police.
In addition, the telephone number originally left as a call-back number turned out to be a second line at Noelle Bush's home, according to the police report.
She lives in Tallahassee, where she attended Florida State University last year but is not currently enrolled. She studied art and graduated from Tallahassee Community College in 2000.
The arrest echoed similar high-profile family struggles, from the recent marijuana abuse by England's Prince Harry to underage drinking by President Bush's twin daughters. In May, Jenna Bush was charged with using a fake ID to try to buy a margarita, and her sister Barbara was charged with underage drinking.
The twins performed community service, attended alcohol-awareness classes and paid $100 fines. The charges were dropped. A second drinking episode for Jenna Bush brought a $500 fine and a license suspension.
Illegal use of the sedative Xanax is popular among some young people, particularly in combination with the party drug Ecstasy. It can help prolong an Ecstasy high or soften the crash that often follows. The practice is known as "parachuting" among users, says Joe Kilmer, spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Miami.
"I wouldn't say it's a 'hot drug,' but it is a drug we see with some regularity on the club scene," Kilmer says.
A survey by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found illicit use of Xanax-like drugs is more popular among young people than other groups: Only 2% of the general population reported misusing such prescription drugs, but 4% of those ages 18-25 did.