Sheen sends the wrong message on drug abuse

Cathy Werden isn't laughing. There's nothing comic or glamorous about drug abuse, not to her.

As a regional manager of chemical dependency services for Catholic Community Services of Western Washington, she sees way too much.

Pot smokers, pill poppers, heroin addicts, teens and adults, all kinds of people make their way to the agency's Behavioral Health Center in downtown Everett. There, the Catholic Community Services Recovery Center provides chemical dependency treatment. The Everett center is one of several in the region run by the nonprofit organization.

People there to change their lives, hundreds of them each month, haven't always come willingly. Some do seek help for themselves. Werden said others have been through the court system, or are sent by their employers or by the state's Child Protective Services.

Werden said she is "seeing it all -- alcohol, prescription drugs, heroin and marijuana mostly. It's very scary."

I called the center to talk about a subject we're all sick of: Charlie Sheen. Who could have guessed the actor would bring his act, evolving from a shattered career and littered personal life, here to Everett? Like it or not, Sheen is temporarily a local story, folks.

Fired from the hit CBS comedy "Two and a Half Men," he is scheduled to perform his "My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat is Not an Option Show" at Comcast Arena on May 3.

Do I really need to recap his recent history? After multiple arrests involving domestic violence and drugs, Sheen has recently been on a publicity tirade. In a Feb. 28 interview, CNN's Piers Morgan asked Sheen, "You wouldn't deny taking a lot of cocaine, would you?" Sheen's reply was "Well, no. Duh."

Werden has strong feelings about the Comcast show. "I look at it as people stopping to look at a train wreck or a car wreck, and as possible exploitation," she said.

A marketing coordinator at Comcast Arena did not return my call Tuesday. I can't say how ticket sales are going for the show advertised "for mature audiences" 18 and older. Sheen's shows early next month in Detroit and Chicago are sold out. The Everett event is the last on a 20-date tour.

I have no idea what Sheen will tell crowds. In a perfect world, he would go away for a long time, stop using drugs, then come back and tell audiences that substance abuse is a dead end.

There's no money in that, though.

"It's about money, and about people not seeing the damage that these drugs are doing every day," said Pat Slack, commander of the Snohomish Regional Drug and Gang Task Force. "I don't see anything positive coming out of this.

"It's all about money. That's all anybody cares about anymore. They don't care about our youth, they just care about lining their pockets," Slack said. He recently testified in Olympia against House Bill 1550, a plan to legalize marijuana and allow it to be sold in state liquor stores.

Slack said that in his work he sees "secondary victims" of drug abuse, "moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas, husbands and wives."

"The whole family thing, it's so devastating. And people seem to have blinders on," Slack said.

In small-town Snohomish County, we have seen a drug tragedy devastate an entire community. The cocaine-overdose death of Myra Lewis, a Darrington School District employee, left her family in grief. And the incident led to the Feb. 9 firing of Larry Johnson, the district's superintendent. Lewis was at Johnson's home the night she died.

Herald reporter Diana Hefley wrote on March 5 about John Gahagan. The Mukilteo man has devoted his time to addiction prevention since his 17-year-old son Sean Gahagan's 2008 death from an overdose.

Funny? Ask any of these people if there is anything funny about drug abuse.

I don't blame Charlie Sheen for trying to turn pain into cash. He is obviously a troubled man. I do blame others connected with his "Torpedo of Truth" tour.

I also don't see much chance of Sheen traveling the country to tell kids the real truth about drugs.

"Here's the sad thing," Slack said. "People who are promoting Charlie Sheen, if they did what you think he should do, they would not make any money. And I don't think they give a damn about Charlie Sheen."

Werner knows the truth.

"This is a very sad disease -- that is treatable," she said.

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.