A follow up: As it turns out Noelle Bush could have gone to “SAFE” in Orlando, a drug rehab facility endorsed and personally supported by her father. But she was sent to another Orlando drug treatment facility instead.
Jeb Bush and his wife Columba both serve on the advisory board for the “Drug Free America Foundation,” the latest incarnation of “Straight,” a controversial drug treatment program founded by Mel and Betty Sembler.
Mrs. Sembler was once the Florida governor’s campaign co-chair and he subsequently declared a “Betty Sembler Day” in honor of her anti-drug work.
Despite that singular honor Sembler’s Straight was embroiled in scandal and lawsuits. Eventually its facility in Orlando was shut down. But the same day Straight closed its former executive director opened “SAFE.”
Governor Bush has since endorsed SAFE and visited it personally.
Two years ago SAFE, like its predecessor Straight, faced allegations of abuse. Those allegations became the focus of a Miami WAMI TV expose. But Jeb Bush still endorsed SAFE.
However, when it came time for the governor to confront drug problems within his family, his daughter didn’t go to SAFE in Orlando for her treatment. Instead, Noelle Bush was sent to Orlando’s “Center for Drug Free Living,” where she was later caught with crack cocaine.
What happened?
Did the court specifically order Ms. Bush to enter that facility, or did Governor Bush decide that despite his personal visit and previous endorsements, SAFE just wasn’t safe enough for his own daughter?
no comment untill now