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Posted on 10/01/2002 4:37:57 AM PDT by Wolfie
Employees of Drug Center Can Remain Silent
Employees of the Orlando drug treatment center where the daughter of Gov. Jeb Bush is staying do not have to say anything to police about allegations she was in possession of crack cocaine, Circuit Judge Belvin Perry Jr. ruled Monday.
Perry cited federal law that maintains communications between drug patients under treatment and those treating them are confidential.
Noelle Bush, 25, has been at the Center for Drug-Free Living since February after her January arrest in Tallahassee for allegedly attempting to buy Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, with a fake prescription.
Another patient called Orlando Police Sept. 9 claiming Bush had crack cocaine in her shoe. When police arrived, a staff member initially responded to their questions until a supervisor told officers no information could be given because of client confidentiality. Police then subpoenaed four staff members in an attempt to compel them to testify about the allegations.
In a hearing Sept. 18, center attorney Carlos Burruezo argued that federal law prevented employees from talking to police.
He said without this confidentiality, no one would seek treatment out of fear that lapses into drug seeking behavior would be reported to police resulting in arrest. He said client information could only be disclosed to law enforcement without a court order in cases of murder, rape, child abuse or other serious crimes.
Assistant State Attorney Jeff Ashton said they had not requested patient records but only wanted to know what employees might have observed of a possible crime.
In siding with the center, Perry ruled that Congress intended to shield drug abusers from public scrutiny while they sought treatment by passing a confidentiality law.
A Florida law passed in 2001 set up a pre-trial intervention program through drug courts to enable alleged drug offenders to get treatment under court supervision with regular testing to determine whether they remained drug free.
Perry pointed out that since the Orlando-based drug court program receives federal money, it must comply with federal law as well. He ruled that Bush's case will remain in drug court and the center's staff should continue its confidentiality policy.
This is believed to be the first such ruling in the nation. Perry did not rule on a motion from the Orlando Sentinel requesting release of the transcripts of the Sept. 18 hearing, which he ordered closed to the public.
Bush was to have reported to Circuit Judge Reginald Whitehead for her regular drug court progress hearing on Sept. 13, but that was postponed until the confidentiality matter was resolved.
In July, Whitehead sentenced her to three days in jail for contempt of court for violating center rules. It is believed she had prescription drugs taken from a nurse's station.
The patient who reported the alleged crack possession said Bush is allowed to break rules regularly and is treated like a "princess" because she is the governor's daughter. Center officials deny this, saying all patients are treated the same.
She doesn't deserve any special considerations at all. She deserves jail and nothing short of it. Winning the War on Drugs is vital for America's future. We cannot let up or let down our guard at all.
This doesn't have anything to do with winning the War on Drugs?It seems that locking up a drug offender who's a member of the unprotected class has everything to do with winning the War on Drugs . . .
Why doesn't the same standard apply to a drug offender who's a member of the protected class?
If the War on Drugs is about winning the War on Drugs, and these are the strategies we've chosen to win it, I sure as hell do. If a brown-skinned recidivist cokehead and prescription drug abuser is languishing in the Federal pen somewhere after going through the system, then a white-skinned recidivist cokehead and prescription drug abuser should be as well. It should not matter one bit that the white-skinned one is a member of the perfumed, protected class.Either the War on Drugs is worth winning or it's not. Either the tactics we've used to prosecute the War on Drugs are effective or they're not. But it seems to me if they're to be affective, they should be applied uniformly, swiftly, and without prejudice. Didn't the Vietnam War teach us anything? You can't win a war by giving the enemy the benefit of the doubt, which was all those "don't shoot until shot at" strategies were. Similarly, you can't win a war on drugs by giving drugs the benefit of the doubt. Drugs and drug use are either bad and worth fighting or they are not.
The fact that War on Drug tactics are not being applied uniformly, swiftly, and without prejudice seems to betray that perhaps those who govern us aren't really interested in winning the War on Drugs after all, but merely interested in perpetuating a cash and power flow.
Perhaps he should go on down to Florida and spearhead the necessary actions to root out the druggie coddlers who are protecting Noelle. I wonder how many terrorist acts she has funded with her filthy habit.
Uhhhh,Noelle IS brown-skinned. She is half-Mexican. Look at the photos of her and her brothers. Bush-1 even refered to her and her brothers as "my little brown-skinned grandchildren.".
Well that seals the deal, then. She should be in the brig with the rest of them.
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