The slowness is caused by having a too complicated query with fulltext in it so its a good idea to split things up if thats the case (especially with group bys).

Mysql has a nifty temp table support which should make it easier and more efficient to get a unique column and separate out the fulltext results.

Try the following statements (if the distinct dont work you can also try a group by as the temp table will only be 50 rows max it will still be fast):

DROP TEMPORARY TABLE IF EXISTS DUPE_SEARCH;

CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE DUPE_SEARCH
(
bug_id long,
relevance double
);

insert into DUPE_SEARCH
select distinct bugs.bug_id, $fulltext_search
from blah where blah limit 50;

select distinct bugs.bug_id,
substr(thetext, 1, 5000) AS comment,
bug_status AS status,
resolution,
products.name AS product,
substr(short_desc, 1, 60) AS summary
From Blah, DUPE_SEARCH D… where D.bug_id = Blah.bug_id
Order by D.relevance;

Drop Temporary table if exists DUPE_SERACH;