Pubdate: Tue, 08 Aug 2000
Source: Times, The (UK)
Copyright: 2000 Times Newspapers Ltd
Contact:  PO Box 496, London E1 9XN, United Kingdom
Fax: +44-(0)171-782 5046
Website: http://www.the-times.co.uk/
Author: Grace Bradberry

SHEEN ATTACKS SOFTER SENTENCES FOR DRUGS

The actor Martin Sheen, whose son Charlie has a history of drug problems, is campaigning against a change in the law that would send Californians into drug treatment programmes rather than jail.

"Without accountability and consequences, drug abusers have little incentive to change or take treatment seriously," Sheen writes in the Los Angeles Times. "Decriminalising dangerous and addictive drugs won't help abusers."

Last autumn Charlie Sheen was released early from probation for a conviction stemming from a 1996 attack on a girlfriend. At one point in 1998, the probation was extended after Martin Sheen reported that his son had almost died of a drug overdose.

Charlie Sheen was ordered into a rehabilitation programme and said of his father: "He saved my life and I love him for that."
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