Fla. Treatment Staff Can Maintain Bush's Privacy October 3, 2002
News Summary
A Florida judge ruled that the staff at the Center for Drug-Free Living in Orlando is not required to answer police questions in a cocaine-possession investigation of Noelle Bush, the Washington Post reported Sept. 30.Bush, the daughter of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and niece of President Bush, was ordered into a treatment program after being arrested for trying to buy the anti-anxiety drug Xanax with a false prescription. In September, a staff member at the Center for Drug-Free Living caught Bush with a small amount of crack cocaine.
Because possession of cocaine is a crime, prosecutors had asked the court to require workers to provide police with information about the incident.
In his 11-page ruling, Orange County Chief Circuit Judge Belvin Perry Jr., said, "If the court were to grant the state's motion in this case, then all patients who suffer relapses could be hauled out of treatment programs and into criminal courts on the whim of a state prosecutor or police officer."
Perry also referred to a confidentiality law passed by the U.S Congress in 1970 that restricts the disclosure of records for patients in addiction-treatment centers as a means of encouraging people to seek treatment.
Assistant State Attorney Jeff Ashton, the prosecutor assigned to the investigation, plans to appeal the court's ruling. "The ruling essentially says that for drug crimes committed on the premises of a drug-treatment center, the state can't prosecute them," Ashton said. "We do not agree that that is the intent of the law."
The case gained nationwide attention, with drug-rehabilitation centers concerned that the court would view drug possession by treatment patients as a crime, rather than a relapse. In addition, a ruling requiring treatment personnel to answer police inquiries would damage the privacy rights of those who seek treatment, advocates feared.
Ronald J. Hunsicker, president of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers, said the ruling "reaffirms that addiction treatment is protected and there are procedures to go through regarding confidentiality issues."
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