How is this my problem?
Sheen To Brief Congress on Drug Courts
Monday, March 28, 2011
By
Nicholas Ballasy
Martin Sheen (AP Photo)
(CNSNews.com) -- Golden Globe and Emmy award-winning actor Martin Sheen, the father of former “Two and a Half Men” star Charlie Sheen, is heading to Capitol Hill on Thursday to participate in a congressional briefing on the importance of drug courts.
The National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP) is sponsoring the briefing, “Drug Courts: A Proven Budget Solution,” in conjunction with the Addiction, Treatment and Recovery Caucus.
Sheen, whose son Charlie Sheen has fought a public battle with
addiction, has supported increased federal funding for drug courts in the past.
“I saw someone near and very dear to us self-destructing in the grip of drug and alcohol abuse,” Martin Sheen said in 2007. “At a critical point, I had to decide who would speak at the funeral, who should carry the casket.”
“That's where you go, and you have to be prepared to say, ‘I did everything that I possibly could,’”
said Sheen. “Well, I had not yet. I had one more option, and that was drug court. That's what saved his life and mine.”
Charlie Sheen (AP Photo)
According to the NADCP, drug courts are “this nation’s most effective justice intervention for seriously drug-addicted offenders. By using the leverage of the court, drug courts supervise participants closely while keeping them in treatment long enough to transform them into sober, employed, tax-paying members of their community.”
A spokesperson for the NADCP confirmed Sheen’s attendance at the upcoming briefing.
Other speakers scheduled for the briefing include Rep. John Sullivan (R-Okla.), co-chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Addiction, Treatment and Recovery Caucus; former Congressman Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.), co-founder of the Addiction, Treatment and Recovery Caucus; Douglas B. Marlowe, J.D., Ph.D., chief of Science, Law and Policy at NADCP; Rebecca Nightingale, the district judge overseeing the drug court system in Tulsa, Okla., and Earl Hightower, an NADCP board member.
Sheen to Brief Congress
