JEB BUSH SOBS AS HE MENTIONS DAUGHTER, DRUGS

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush choked back tears Tuesday at an anti-drug
summit as he talked about his 24-year-old daughter's struggle with
drug addiction.

"I want to thank you on behalf of my wife for your prayers and for
your quiet counseling in the last few months about our daughter
Noelle," Bush said.

The governor was several minutes into a standard anti-drug speech when
he paused, looked down, turned red, put his hand over his lips and
choked back a quiet sob.

"I knew I was going to do this," Bush said softly, glancing at his
wife, Columba, sitting next to him. The crowd, which included police,
social-service agency officials and a few state legislators, applauded
in support.

"Bush men always cry, and I apologize," Bush added with a smile. "It's
a genetic problem I got from my dad. He cries a lot."

Bush's father, President George H. Bush, cried after being handed a
part of the Iron Curtain while visiting Hungary and later recalled in
a 1997 interview that he is "kind of an emotional sort of person
anyway. I cry too easily. I did then, and I do now."

Noelle Bush was arrested in January at a Walgreen's pharmacy a few
blocks from the Governor's Mansion after posing as a doctor to call in
a phony prescription for Xanax, a depressant meant to combat anxiety.
She later entered a drug-treatment program.

The governor said the experience has made him even more sensitive to
drug issues. Bush said wherever he goes, parents approach him to say
they know what it's like to have a family member battling drug addiction.

After the speech, the governor said his daughter's battle has been a
difficult strain.

"I just get emotional sometimes," Bush said. "It's not easy to always
be worried."

Bush revealed during his 1998 campaign that one of his three children,
never identified, had a short-term drug problem.

"As a dad, I love her very much," Bush said, "I want her to be able to
live a healthy, fulfilled life, and we've been struggling with this
for a long time. I don't even know why I brought it up, because I knew
I was going to cry. It was stupid of me to even talk about it."

Bush then abruptly changed course again, smiled and headed out the
door, proclaiming, "On to see what's going on in the special session."

For Florida's governor, who appointed the state's first drug czar, his
daughter's arrest was jarring. Noelle Bush has been in drug-treatment
and rehabilitation programs on and off for several years, both in
Florida and out-of-state.

Bush's appearance at the summit was meant to highlight his push in the
Legislature for laws to combat prescription-drug abuse.

The package of measures, sponsored by Sen. Locke Burt, R-Ormond Beach,
and introduced late last year, was approved by a Senate committee Monday.

"We estimate 30 percent of our drug problem in Florida is caused by
the diversion of otherwise illegal prescription drugs," Burt said.

The measures are aimed at stemming abuse of prescription drugs such as
OxyContin, which has been blamed for more deaths in the state than
cocaine. The bills would set up a computerized database to track
prescriptions to spot abuses, establish penalties for doctors who
illegally prescribe medication and create a public-records exemption
to shield the privacy of patients in the database.

"We have no way now of monitoring what's occurring," said Broward
County sheriff's Detective Lisa McElhaney, who noted Broward alone has
742 pharmacies. "We are being overwhelmed by the amount of legal drugs
hitting the streets."