Gov. Jeb Bush has moral obligation to pardon every drug offender, Libertarians say

Rehab centers monitor Bush case
By Deborah Sharp
USA TODAY


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 1.1 million abusers sought help in 2001.

''The treatment community has a lot to lose if the judge rules these employees have to testify,'' says 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 that cocaine possession is a felony and that 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 say 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%, 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.


http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20020930/4492033s.htm

 

Noelle Bush gets rehab, the poor and black get hard time
Fed up with draconian drug penalties, a coalition led by angry mothers is threatening to overturn some of the country's harshest laws.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Michelle Goldberg



Aug. 5, 2002 | NEW YORK -- White-haired, patrician, well-dressed, John Dunne is a former Republican state senator who sponsored New York's draconian drug laws almost 30 years ago. So it's a bit of a shock to see him starring in a television commercial with Mary Mortimore, an ailing African-American grandmother from upstate New York whose son is in jail for selling cocaine. But these days, the two are on the same mission: to convince New York to reform its so-called Rockefeller drug laws, named after the governor who presided over their passage in 1973, laws that have destroyed the family of one and weighed on the conscience of the other.

"I haven't seen my son in 10 years," Mortimore tells the camera. She's a lovely, fine-boned woman with desolate eyes and a choked voice. She recently had a stroke. "In 1992 he was convicted of a low-level drug offense and sent to prison. 15 to 30 years on a low-level drug offense. That's more time than they give convicted murderers and sex offenders."


Then Dunne appears. "In 1973, I sponsored the Rockefeller drug laws, which have been a well-documented failure," he says solemnly. Dunne goes on to urge Gov. George Pataki to ease the laws and redirect resources from prison to rehabilitation.

No one is sure exactly what Pataki will do, but it's clear he's having to listen to Dunne and Mortimer. They're part of a growing grass-roots movement to reform New York's drug laws, which are among the nation's harshest. In New York state, first-time, nonviolent drug offenders routinely receive higher sentences than rapists and murderers. Robert Chambers, the so-called preppie murderer, was given five to 15 years for killing Jennifer Levin in 1988. Joel Steinberg, who beat his 6-year-old daughter Lisa to death in 1987, was sentenced to eight to 25 years. Yet last year Darryl Best, a 46-year-old father of four with no criminal history, was locked up in maximum security for 15 years to life after he signed for a Fed-Ex package delivered to his uncle's house that turned out to contain cocaine.

That's not because the judge was a monster. At Best's sentencing hearing, Judge Michael Gross said the punishment was "clearly out of line for the offense that Mr. Best committed."

But he had no choice. Under the Rockefeller drug laws, passed at the height of public panic over drugs and street crime, anyone convicted of selling 2 ounces or possessing 4 ounces of cocaine or heroin, an A-1 felony, has to serve at least 15 years in prison before being eligible for parole. People convicted of possessing half an ounce of narcotics, or of any sale at all -- B felonies -- can get up to 25 years in prison.

There are roughly 21,000 people now serving drug sentences in New York state prisons, constituting about a third of the state's inmate population. Though studies show that most drug users and drug sellers are white, 94 percent of New York's drug inmates are black and Latino.

"Noelle Bush forges a prescription and goes to rehab," says Teresa Aviles, a 54-year-old Bronx police clerk whose son, Isidro, died of an untreated, undiagnosed illness after serving eight years of a 27-year federal prison term. "If that was my daughter, she would have gotten a mandatory five-year sentence."

Federal mandatory minimums are separate from the Rockefeller laws, but Aviles has joined the crusade against New York's statutes out of a need to give some meaning to her eldest's death. "Everybody knows there's a double standard of justice," she says. "It's not black-and-white, it's dollars and cents."

Now, for the first time in three decades, almost everyone involved in New York politics -- except, crucially, the powerful District Attorneys Association and a few upstate senators -- seems to be coming around to Aviles' view. Even Pataki calls 15-to-life sentences "egregious." He's in negotiations with the Democrat-controlled State Assembly, which supports broader reform than Pataki does, and the two sides claim to be moving closer to an agreement. "It is something everybody thinks ought to be done," says Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Chauncey Parker, Pataki's director of criminal justice, says that drug-law reform is the governor's "No. 1 priority for criminal justice."

And, of course, there's Dunne, who is now working for repeal side by side with the relatives of people his legislation has put away.

Those relatives are getting more numerous, more powerful and more savvy. Perhaps the most important grass-roots reform group is the Mothers of the Disappeared, a coalition of drug inmates' family members. The core of the group is about 25 women, including Wanda Best, Darryl Best's wife of 22 years; Regina Stevens, whose wheelchair-bound son was granted clemency partly through the Mothers' lobbying; and Elaine Bartlett, a former inmate who was sentenced under the Rockefeller laws and whose husband, Nathan Brooks, is 19 years into a 25-to-life sentence. Bartlett and Brooks have never spent a night together as man and wife; they had their judge marry them right before they were sentenced so they could stay connected.

Working with them are Anthony Papa, an intense 46-year-old paralegal who earned three degrees and became a noted painter while serving a sentence of 15 years to life for making a drug delivery, and Randy Credico, an abrasive 47-year-old former stand-up comic whose manic energy has given the movement much of its momentum.

Thanks largely to the Mothers of the Disappeared group, New York is closer to reform than it's ever been, but advocates for change aren't celebrating yet. There's some optimism in the air, but the sad possibility remains that despite the near-unanimous sentiment that it's futile to keep thousands of nonviolent people imprisoned, they might remain hostage to politics.

Activists say that if change doesn't come before November, it might not come at all. Right now, Pataki is searching for black and Latino support in the upcoming election, and Rockefeller reform is a hot-button issue in those communities. After the fall, the Mothers group fears, it will be easy for politicians to forget all about their families.



http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2002/08/05/drug_reform/

 

DUI, Drunk Driving Arrest Consequences
Canada Would Ban Bush — But There Are Loopholes By Rebecca Cooper (ABC News)


W A S H I N G T O N, Nov. 3 — Even if George W. Bush is elected president, he may need special permission to get into Canada because of his arrest for drunken driving.
The Republican candidate for president acknowledged for the first time on Thursday that he was arrested for driving under the influence on Labor Day weekend in 1976, near his family home in Kennebunkport, Maine.
According to Canada’s Criminal Code, Bush is deemed an “inadmissible” person, in violation of Section 19 (2) (a.1) of the Immigration Act of Canada.
In other words, he has committed a crime considered an indictable offense in Canada, and, because of that he is banned.

Alternative Entry Points
Luckily for Bush, if he is elected president of the United States Nov. 7 and is invited to any gatherings of heads of state in Canada, since his offense is more than five years old, there are ways for him to gain entry without breaking federal law.
“He is going to have to go through what’s called the rehabilitation process. The rehab takes a while and it would be somewhat demeaning for a president of the United States. He would have to go through a series of steps, including getting letters from friends saying he has cleaned up his act. If he wanted to come to Canada before completing the lengthy rehab process, he would need the permission of a senior immigration official,” immigration lawyer Colin R. Singer tells ABCNEWS.

Has He Reformed?
According to a “rehab check list” compiled by the Canadian law firm of Larson, Bryson & Boulton, the Canadian government considers several factors when determining whether a person wanting entry to Canada has truly rehabilitated themselves from their criminal offense and deserves entry, including: acceptance of responsibility for the offense; evidence of remorse; evidence of a change in lifestyle; and, evidence of stability in employment and family life.
If Bush wants to avoid any appearance of favoritism and skip the special waiver from a senior official, it is possible to speed up the rehab process by just paying a hefty “processing fee” at the border.
And a lot of Americans with DUIs on their records manage to get in to Canada without border computers catching their previous offense and without admitting to their criminal records.
Of course Singer doesn’t recommend that approach for Bush.
“If Bush comes to Canada or has ever been to Canada since his conviction and hides the fact that he has a prior conviction — no matter how far back — he could be excluded from Canada permanently and never allowed to return.”

An Influential Law
Canadian immigration experts say the law affects numerous Americans seeking entry to Canada every month, usually when computer checks do catch the old offense.
There’s even information on a Canadian fishing Web site explaining to visiting anglers how to cross into Canada with an old DUI charge. And according to Singer, “This affects professionals in the sports and entertainment industries more often than people think.”

Gore and Clinton Illegal Too
Canadian attorney Darryl Larson maintains Bush has some notable company in the “inadmissible” category, contending that Canadian law bans both President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.
“If you admit to having smoked marijuana,” Larson explains, “You have admitted to an unlawful act. That would allow reasonable grounds for our immigration officers to determine that you have broken a law that, if committed in Canada, would be subject to prosecution and therefore falls under this law. So this would apply to both Clinton and Gore.”
Larson and Singer say a president of the United States can expect to bypass the rehab process and be given special permission to enter fairly quickly.
But a special waiver is good for only 30 days.
“If George W. Bush wants to come to Canada for more than 30 days to vacation here, like President Roosevelt used to do, or if he decides he wants to live or work here,” Larson contends, “He’s going to have to go through the Canadian rehabilitation process.
It’s the law.”



http://www.drunkdrivingdefense.com/consequences/bush-dui.htm

 

bung, why dont you PM Jeb with your ehh public mandate?

i would be most interested in his reply.

your no pussy are you?

 

I didn't even know about the 'RAVE act' because I detest crowds, and am physically immune to MDMA (ecstasy).

...but this is just sick sick sick. Freedom & prosperity tend to strongly correlate everywhere in the world. It is shit like this which can bring the US economy lower than Europe. The EU makes their own mistakes, of course- but nothing like these anti-freedom drug laws.

http://www.lindesmith.org/communities/raveact/

The War on Drugs has often been used to suppress music and lifestyles disliked by the political establishment. Local, state, and federal drug laws give the government enormous power and this power has been used to exert control over emerging subcultures. Jazz in the 1940s. Rock and roll in the 1960s. Heavy metal and rap in the 1980s. Electronic music and Hip Hop today.

The RAVE Act which threatens to squash live music and free speech was passed earlier this year when it was tacked onto an unrelated child protection bill. Now there are two additional pieces of legislation being considered - the CLEAN-UP Act and the Ecstasy Awareness Act - that threaten to widen the laws to prosecute anyone who holds an event and fails to prevent illicit drug use.

Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) forced the controversial legislation, commonly known as the "RAVE" Act, through both houses of Congress as an attachment to an unrelated child abduction bill. The "RAVE" Act, also referred to as the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act of 2003, was introduced as an addition to the Child Abduction Protect Act of 2003, widely recognized as the AMBER Alert bill (S151). The "RAVE" Act had not passed a single committee this year. In addition, it was so controversial when it was introduced during the 107th Congress that two Senators withdrew their sponsorship.

The "RAVE" Act makes it easier for the federal government to prosecute innocent business owners for the drug offenses of their customers - even if they take steps to stop such activity. This is a threat to free speech and musical expression while placing at risk any hotel/motel owner, concert promoter, event organizer, nightclub owner or arena/stadium owner for the drug violations of 3rd parties - real or alleged - regardless of whether or not the promoter and/or property owner made a good-faith effort to keep their event drug-free. It applies not only to electronic-music parties, but any type of public gathering: theatrical productions, rock concerts, DJ Nights at your local club or tavern, and political rallies. Moreover, it gives heightened powers and discretion to prosecutors who may use it to target events they personally don’t like, such as Hip-Hop events and gay and lesbian fundraisers.

The "RAVE" Act was passed despite the fact it did not have a public hearing, debate or vote in Congress this year. It is important to note that because of overwhelming opposition to the "RAVE" Act, legislators were forced to remove some of the most egregious language before it passed. For example, the word "rave" was removed from the version of the bill attached to the AMBER Alert. Eliminating such blatant discrimination is a victory for our continued freedom of speech. Also, the original bill suggested that prosecutors should view the sale of water and the presence of glow-sticks or massage oil as evidence of drug use. These ludicrous "findings" were completely removed due in large part to activists who sent nearly 30,000 faxes this year alone to their Senators urging them not to support the dangerous legislation. The AMBER Alert bill with the "RAVE" Act attachment must be singed by President Bush before becoming law.

When it was first introduced there was widespread belief that the "RAVE" Act would move through the legislative channels quickly with no revision. Instead, it took 10 months, a change of power in the United States Senate, backroom policymaking, and substantial changes to the bill before it was passed - and even then it did not pass via "normal" legislative procedures.

The "RAVE" Act gives the government even more power to harass and arrest innocent musicians, promoters, venue owners, and fans - all in the name of the War on Drugs. Law-enforcement agencies already target certain types of musical and cultural events and the nightclubs that host them. The Drug Enforcement Administration is prosecuting nightclub owners and promoters that organize electronic dance music events and the military is using drugs as a pre-text to close down gay nightclubs. In Wisconsin, local officials recently raided a popular nightclub and fined every customer - simply for being in proximity to a drug arrest on the premises. In addition, drug laws are often enforced unevenly against African Americans and Latinos. Hip Hop could easily become a target.