Jeb Bush's Daughter Arrested

Noe

lle Bush was supposed to start a new job at a Tallahassee software firm this morning, which could be one reason why she would have wanted something last night to help her sleep and lessen her anxiety. But whatever the case, say police, the 24-year-old daughter of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tried to get her pharmaceutical help illegally. Shortly after midnight, after she pulled up in her white Volkswagen Beetle at a drugstore drive-thru to get a tranquilizer called Xanax, Noelle was arrested for alleged prescription fraud, making her the latest daughter of the extended Bush family to have a brush with the law in the past year.

In a statement, however, Jeb Bush indicated that his daughter's case may be more worrisome than the underage drinking that got her cousins, the twin daughters of President George W. Bush, into trouble last summer in Texas. Calling Noelle's situation "a very serious problem," the president's brother referred to "substance abuse" and asked "the public and the media to respect our family's privacy during this difficult time." Bush's wife, Columba, heads Informed Families of Florida, which educates parents about the dangers of drug abuse.

Hours before Noelle Bush arrived at the Walgreens pharmacy near the Tallahassee Mall on the north side of the capital, the pharmacist there had received what he told police were suspicious messages from a doctor to fill a Xanax prescription. When the pharmacist discovered that the doctor was no longer practicing in Tallahassee, a colleague of that doctor instructed him to consider the call fraudulent. When Noelle Bush arrived at about 1 a.m., the pharmacist called the police.

Noelle Bush has no prior arrest record, and though her father referred to substance abuse, it was unclear today whether she has a drug use or addiction problem. Xanax, like Valium, is a common anti-anxiety medicine and sleep aid. But it has been used by celebrity addicts like former baseball star Darryl Strawberry, who was arrested a few years ago after a cocaine and Xanax binge.