addFreeTextCondition() assumes environment field is visible to user performing the query

com.atlassian.jira.rpc.soap.service.SearchServiceImpl.addFreeTextCondition() line 223 adds the environment as a field to search. This assumes that the user performing the query has this field visible. The following error occurs if that is not the case:

com.atlassian.jira.rpc.exception.RemoteValidationException: Query validation failed: Field 'environment' does not exist.

The query should still work if the environment field is not visible to the user.

This is used by:
getIssuesFromTextSearch()
getIssuesFromTextSearchWithProject()

can we do the equivalent of a text ~ " " search?