PROTECT STATE DRUG COURT

An Orange County circuit judge ruled last week that prosecutors can't force
workers at Noelle Bush's Orlando drug treatment center to provide evidence
about crack cocaine allegedly found in her shoe. The ruling properly
protects Ms. Bush. But does it improperly protect whoever provided the crack?

Tallahassee police arrested Gov. Bush's daughter in January for
fraudulently trying to buy the prescription drug Xanax. To avoid facing
that charge, she went to drug court, which offers treatment rather than
jail. Leon County transferred her treatment to the Center for Drug-Free
Living in Orange County, where Circuit Judge Reginald Whitehead supervises
her case.

In July, Judge Whitehead sent Ms. Bush to jail for three days after center
workers found her with prescription pills. The judge did not expel her from
the program. Last month, a patient at the center called police to say Ms.
Bush had been caught with crack. When police arrived, workers cited
confidentiality laws and refused to cooperate.

Prosecutors challenged the claim and asked a different judge, Belvin Perry,
to make the workers provide evidence. Judge Perry refused. Barring a
serious crime or immediate danger, he said, a patient's confidentiality is
more important than prosecutors' attempt to bring a new drug charge.
Addicts often have relapses, the judge said. If each infraction brought a
new charge, treatment wouldn't work. Prosecutors, who plan an appeal, say
that if treatment centers, which receive public money, become police-free
zones, it would undermine the intent of the state's drug-court program.

Nelson Bailey, the judge who runs Palm Beach County's drug court, said he
could not comment on Judge Perry's ruling or on Noelle Bush's case. But he
noted that a drug court judge has more leeway because patients waive
confidentiality when they voluntarily enter the program. In his ruling,
Judge Perry made the same distinction between his regular criminal court
and the drug court in which Judge Whitehead supervises Ms. Bush's case.
There, the issue isn't whether she should be charged with a new crime.
Instead, Judge Whitehead has authority to decide how the drug treatment
stemming from the original charge is working.

Judge Whitehead can and should ask Noelle Bush and the center workers about
the crack cocaine and where it came from. If that happens, and if they
cooperate, the needs of patient, prosecutors and the public will be met.