--- title: Jeb Bush Talks His Family's Struggle With Drug Addiction description: "I never expected to see my precious daughter in jail." canonical: https://time.com/4168727/jeb-bush-essay-drug-addiction/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-05T23:11:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:48:39.030Z article:section: Politics og:title: Jeb Bush Talks His Family's Struggle With Drug Addiction og:description: "I never expected to see my precious daughter in jail" og:url: https://time.com/4168727/jeb-bush-essay-drug-addiction/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19d3a21253564348/698877ba428a9e11dacd0cfe/jeb-bush.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: Jeb Bush at the Republican Party of Polk County annual Summer Sizzle in Ankeny, Iowa on Aug. 13, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jeb Bush Talks His Family's Struggle With Drug Addiction twitter:description: "I never expected to see my precious daughter in jail" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19d3a21253564348/698877ba428a9e11dacd0cfe/jeb-bush.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Jeb Bush Pens an Emotional Essay on His Family's Struggle With Drug Addiction > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Tierney McAffe / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Tierney McAffe / People Contributor Jan 5, 2016 11:11 PM UTC  Jeb Bush at the Republican Party of Polk County annual Summer Sizzle in Ankeny, Iowa on Aug. 13, 2015. Jeb Bush at the Republican Party of Polk County annual Summer Sizzle in Ankeny, Iowa on Aug. 13, 2015. Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg via Getty Images by [Tierney McAffe / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Tierney McAffe / People Contributor Jan 5, 2016 11:11 PM UTC Inspired by his own family’s “heartbreak” at the hands of addiction, [Jeb Bush](http://www.people.com/people/news/category/0,,personsTax:JebBush,00.html) is pledging to dramatically reduce drug abuse if elected president. In an emotional essay published Tuesday on the website [Medium](https://medium.com/@JebBush/addressing-the-heartbreak-of-addiction-53854d26f8d3#.33nmsykw1), the GOP hopeful shared about his daughter Noelle’s struggles with addiction during his time as governor of Florida. “I never expected to see my precious daughter in jail. It wasn’t easy, and it became very public when I was Governor of Florida, making things even more difficult for Noelle. She went through hell, so did her mom, and so did I,” he wrote. “It’s very debilitating when you have a loved one who is struggling, and you can’t control it. You have to love them, but you also have to make it clear you cannot enable the behavior that gets them in trouble.” Noelle, 38, who Bush said is now drug-free, was arrested in 2002 when she tried to use a fraudulent prescription to buy anti-anxiety pills. Later that year, she was found with crack cocaine at a rehabilitation center in Florida. Bush will further discuss his daughter’s battle with drug abuse on Tuesday afternoon at a forum on addiction and the heroin epidemic at Southern New Hampshire University in New Hampshire. There, he will also unveil a drug control strategy he plans to implement as president, [_The New York Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/01/05/jeb-bush-to-focus-on-daughters-struggles-with-drugs/)reports. Bush’s proposal calls for wider access to drug courts, improved treatment and recovery programs, better parenting and tightened security along the U.S.-Mexico border. “Some try to make the drug epidemic just a criminal justice issue, and some try to make it just a health care issue. These singular approaches oversimplify this complex challenge,” Bush’s campaign said in a [statement detailing the plan](https://jeb2016.com/drug-control/?lang=en). “Governor Jeb Bush believes we need a multi-faceted strategy that: prevents drug abuse and addiction; strengthens criminal justice; secures the border to stop the flow of illicit drugs; and improves treatment and recovery programs.” _This_ [_article_](http://www.people.com/article/jeb-bush-daughter-drug-abuse-essay) _originally appeared on_ [_People.com_](http://www.people.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4168727/jeb-bush-essay-drug-addiction/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4168727/jeb-bush-essay-drug-addiction/"},"headline":"Jeb Bush Pens an Emotional Essay on His Family's Struggle With Drug Addiction","datePublished":"2016-01-05T23:11:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:48:39.030Z","description":"\"I never expected to see my precious daughter in jail.\"","url":"https://time.com/4168727/jeb-bush-essay-drug-addiction/","keywords":["jeb bush"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19d3a21253564348/698877ba428a9e11dacd0cfe/jeb-bush.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tierney McAffe / People"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19d3a21253564348/698877ba428a9e11dacd0cfe/jeb-bush.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Jeb Bush at the Republican Party of Polk County annual Summer Sizzle in Ankeny, Iowa on Aug. 13, 2015.","caption":"Jeb Bush at the Republican Party of Polk County annual Summer Sizzle in Ankeny, Iowa on Aug. 13, 2015.","creditText":"Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/jeb-bush/","name":"jeb bush"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4168727/jeb-bush-essay-drug-addiction/","name":"Jeb Bush Pens an Emotional Essay on His Family's Struggle With Drug Addiction"}}]}] ```