#it is about this 12-13 year old girl who lives on an ex-hippie commune and who describes everything through a literary and fantastical lens

[tenapricots]

The Saskiad by Brian Hall is so slept on it makes me sad

Saskia White she is so darling. I have not read anything like her narrative voice before, but I love it so very much. She and Jane Sing(h) have my whole heart

[enthusiasticsobrietyabuse]

Bob Meehan - Times Advocate: Sunday, August 26, 1984

The story of a con man who helps kids kick drugs

Robert Meehan describes himself as a hippie, a rebel, a former heroin addict and a con man. There is no one better qualified, in his mind, to help teenagers get off drugs.

Meehan is the director of a Valley Center drug-rehabilitation program for young drug abusers called SLIC - Sober Live-In Center - Ranch. The former director of a major Houston-based drug rehabilitation program, Meehan has won high praise from clients and their parents, who have included comedians Carol Burnett and Tim Conway.

Despite that praise, however, Meehan's methods have attracted considerable controversy. He left the Houston Palmer Drug program in 1980, after television reports questioned the accuracy of the program's vaunted success rate and Meehan's possible conflict of interest in receiving a lucrative hospital consulting fee.

Meehan's problems did not end when he left Houston, however.

The county has declared SLIC Ranch to be in violation of zoning ordinances, and the state has threatened to close it down unless Meehan gets proper license to run a drug-treatment program. The county has also questioned SLIC's ties to a burgeoning self-help drug program called Freeway that has a satellite programs throughout San Diego County.

SLIC, which charges $4,000 a month and caters mainly to children of affluent parents, has also prompted concerns among drug-counseling professionals. Some worry that the cost of the program is excessive and that it relies heavily on non-professional counselors to provide treatment. They also express concern that Meehan could exert undue influence over his impressionable young charges.

Meehan established SLIC Ranch in 1981 as a privately-funded live-in center for young drug abusers requiring daily counseling to overcome their habits. Between 10 and 16 young people live in a rambling ranch-style house, supervised by Meehan and recovered drug-abusers who have gone through the SLIC program themselves.

While two professional psychologists are associated with the program, the emphasis is on former drug addicts and recovered alcoholics whose counseling approach is: "I've been there before." Meehan himself is a former heroin addict and recovered alcoholic.

Meehan, who wears his hair shoulder-length and sports tight designer jeans and a gold chain necklace, both dresses and acts hip - partly, he says, to gain the trust of his young clients.

"They say, 'Wow, look at this crazy old hippie,'" said Meehan, who does not care to modernize his image.

"I'm still a rebel. I'm still a hippie. I don't know how to change. I love the cause. I feel like I've got as righteous a cause as the Vietnam War."

Meehan said he can understand how parents bringing their kids to SLIC might be leery of him, given his appearance.

"I don't know if I'd trust me," he said, laughing. "But beneath this hair is a red neck. I'm a Republican. Voted for Reagan."

But when he talks about drugs, Meehan speaks in a voice that teenagers can understand.

"It's the Cheech-and-Chong generation," Meehan is fond of saying to his clients. "They're committing suicide on the installment plan."

Meehan often harps on the comedy team of Cheech and Chong, whose trademark is overindulgence in marijuana. In sharp contrast to some health professionals, Meehan regards marijuana as one of the most dangerous drugs used by teenagers.

"Marijuana is the most insidious chemical in society today," because it affects the mind, Meehan said. "I'd rather the kids were shooting heroin."

Meehan's message and his style often prompt adulation from the young people in his care.

"He has the answer to everything," said 16-year-old girl from La Jolla who said she was having trouble getting along with her mother, who had recently remarried. "He has love. It's like one big family. We work together and play together, and it's fun. And Bob's our big daddy."

Meehan, 41, the son of an Irish policeman, grew up in Baltimore. He said he started taking drugs at age 12.

He became an alcoholic and a heroin addict, spending four years in state and federal prisons for drug convictions. While in a Texas jail, Meehan was befriended by an Episcopalian priest. Upon his release he became the janitor for the Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in Houston.

The priest urged Meehan to stay off drugs by counseling some of the local kids with drug problems of their own. Meehan said that at the time he was "a crazy kid with a 'hellatious' ego and visions of grandeur" and too flattered to turn down the offer.

The informal, self-help group began in 1972 with six members. It grew to become the Palmer Drug Abuse Program, which, according to Meehan, has had 30,000 participants. Meehan described it as "the most powerful drug program in the world."

It was closely modeled after the Alcoholics Anonymous program, with recovered abusers helping their peers.

Palmer garnered national publicity in the late 1970s, when actress Carol Burnett sent her daughter, Carrie Hamilton, there for treatment. Burnett was so impressed with her daughter's improvement that she and her husband accompanied Meehan on the "Phil Donahue Show" and other television shows to tout the program's success.

But Meehan's claims that his program had a cure rate of 75 percent to 80 percent attracted some sharp scrutiny.

In January 1980, CBS' "60 Minutes" TV program broadcast a piece on Palmer. According to a transcript of the broadcast, Meehan conceded under repeated questioning by Dan Rather that he did not have documentation to support his alleged success rate.

Rather also questioned Meehan's $50,000 annual consulting fee from a Houston hospital to which Palmer routinely sent young drug addicts for costly medical treatment. Meehan said during the interview that he saw no conflict of interest.

Meehan was also asked about his power to "persuade" some of the program's vulnerable young clients.

"I have that power," Meehan said. "I certainly do. I've been a con all my life. Just now I'm using it in a good way, see."

Following the "60 Minutes" piece, Meehan was asked to leave Palmer. In retrospect, Meehan now says, he could have prevented his firing by paying more attention to program details.

"I wasn't doing a damn thing wrong," he said. "I didn't mind the store. I was naive."

Meehan came to San Diego to work for Contemporary Health Inc., which was consulting with Center City Hospital, now Harborview Hospital, to establish a drug-abuse program. But his work for the hospital was short-lived.

"My methods are very unorthodox," Meehan said. "I was always fighting the staff."

While working for the hospital, however, Meehan helped establish a self-help counseling program called Freeway. It was modeled directly after Palmer and named after a rock music group formed at Palmer to entertain the kids in the program.

Freeway was started in 1982 by Jac Coupe, a former Palmer counselor, and by other Palmer employees who has left Texas after Meehan's departure. It now has centers in Coronado, Point Loma, Solana Beach and the newest one in Fallbrook.

The program, whose services are free, is funded in each community by local civic groups and churches. It is open to people 13 to 25 seeking help for drug and alcohol problems.

Participants are encouraged to attend weekly group-counseling sessions and to follow a 12-step program to achieve sobriety. Those who are severely addicted are referred for hospital treatment. In some cases, however, Freeway counselors conclude that a young person needs more intensive counseling - at SLIC Ranch.

Those who go to SLIC for a typical one-month stay range in age from 13 to 24, with the average age about 16. Most are psychologically - not physically - addicted to drugs. They have come to get free of dependence on marijuana, alcohol, speed and LSD.

Pat, a 19-year-old Rancho Santa Fe youth, realized he needed help when he mugged a woman to get money for his $600-a-week cocaine habit. John, a 21-year-old alcoholic from Clairemont, had tried a variety of alcohol treatment programs with no success.

SLIC participants live in a spacious ranch house, set among the oaks and hills of Valley Center, with a garden and pond-shaped swimming pool. They share bedrooms dormitory-style, with three or four to a room.

The participants are required to prepare their own meals to their own tastes, and there are no planned menus. Cereal and hot dogs are staples.

The rules prohibit drugs, alcohol, sex and violence. However, smoking, which is allowed, is prevalent.

"We don't care about cigarettes, diets and vitamin intake," Meehan said.

Participants spend most of their days in counseling. During their free time they are allowed to lounge by the pool and play rock music, much to the dismay of the neighbors. Occasional field trips are taken to Disneyland and other amusement centers.

SLIC residents are supervised by a staff of six, most former SLIC residents themselves. At least one staff person is on duty 24 hours a day.

One of the supervisors, Jackie Moors, 26 got off drugs a year ago after going through the SLIC program. Moors, who started doing drugs at age 10 and progressed until she was shooting up crystal methamphetamine, credits SLIC with turning her life around.

"The next stop would have been either jail or death" without SLIC, she said. The program worked, she said, because "people really cared about me." Her young son stays with her at the ranch.

Meehan said one goal of the center is to show residents "how to have more fun sober" than on drugs or alcohol.

Every weekday SLIC residents are transported by van to a rented house in Escondido, where they spend six hours in therapy and discussion.

The sessions are directed by Meehan and by Peter Sterman, a psychological assistant, who cannot practice without supervision of a licensed psychologist. His supervisor is Dr. Carl E. Morgan of San Diego.

In the evenings and on weekends, the residents are often taken to meetings of Freeway or Alcoholics Anonymous.

Last month the state notified Meehan that the center was operating without a license and threatened to close it down unless the center meets state standards required for a so-called residential-care license.

SLIC has been operating without a license because Meehan has successfully dodged the requirements, according to Tom Hersant, director of the San Diego office of the state's Community Care Licensing Division.

He told state officials that the ranch was operating not as a residential-care center providing therapy to live-in clients, but as a "boarding house," with the boarders receiving their counseling off the ranch in an Escondido house.

Meehan told the Times-Advocate that he attempted to avoid licensing to keep costs down.

Last month state investigators who has been suspicious of the arrangement finally confront SLIC officials.

"They told us, 'All right, already. We do provide therapy,'" Hersant said. "Suddenly now they're 'fessing up that they offer therapy."

State officials informed Meehan that a license would be needed.

To obtain a license the center would have to meet fire safety standards, provide a medical checkup for new clients to insure they are getting the appropriate treatment, and keep records evaluating the clients' progress. SLIC would no longer be allowed, as it does now, to mix clients younger than 18 with those older than 18.

Please see Ranch, page B2

Meehan has insisted that the licensing requirements are minor. He said he would comply, though he feels that the regulations would bring too much formality to the relaxed way he runs the program.

Not only must the ranch be licensed, but the counseling program run at the Escondido house must obtain a separate license to offer drug counseling. Once a facility is licensed, the state inspects it once a year to insure that standards are met.

Hersant said SLIC has agreed to apply for the two licenses. The licensing approval usually takes 90 days. If no licenses are obtained, he said, the state will move to shut SLIC down.

Meehan said he plans to meet the state requirements, but he dislikes the paperwork.

"I will comply to whatever extent I have to, to help young people," he said. "At the same time, I just want to do my thing."

Meehan said his problems with the state occurred because of negative publicity generated by the ranch's landlord, Clayton Blehm, an Escondido accountant. Blehm was sentenced in June to one year in jail for zoning violations at the Valley Center property that included adding illegal structures around the ranch. He is out on bail awaiting an appeal.

Blehm has also been cited by county zoning officials for allowing SLIC to move in without getting a major use permit - required to run a treatment center in a rural-residential area. The zoning investigations were prompted by complaints from neighbors, some of whom said that a drug treatment center did not belong in their quiet neighborhood and that they were repeatedly disturbed by loud music.

Last year SLIC and Freeway were the subject of an "informal investigation" by the county Division of Drug Programs. The investigation was prompted partly by complaints from a San Diego city schools official concerned that Freeway encouraged some young persons to stay away from school for one to three months to avoid their drug-using friends.

The report concluded that the complaint was the result of lack of communication between the school district and Freeway and that the two should work out an understanding.

The county investigation was also prompted by concerns about SLIC's relationship with Freeway.

"On the surface," the report said, "one might question the referral relationship, since both program directors hold a personal acquaintance that foes back to the Palmer Drug Abuse Program in Houston. However, DDP has no documentation information to suggest there is any impropriety or conflict of interest in the referral process."

Meehan said he has no break-down on where SLIC clients come from, but that many are referred by Freeway. He said SLIC and Freeway have no financial arrangements, because that would be unethical.

"There can't be," he said. "There's absolutely no financial arrangement either way."

Meehan urges all SLIC residents to attend Freeway counseling sessions after they leave the ranch. That is critical to staying sober, according to Meehan.

"If we can't hook a kid into Freeway," he said, "his chances are less than 60 percent of making it."

Some who go through the SLIC program are advised to live with "Freeway families" for several months, rather than with their own families. Meehan defended the practice for some clients, contending they would fall back into bad habits at home.

Asked whether continued reliance on Freeway would hurt a client's chances of becoming independent, Meehan said, "It's a very safe group of friends to have. I don't know if it's an unhealthy dependency."

According to Meehan, 90 percent of those who have gone through the SLIC program in the past 18 months have remained sober or off drugs after they left. He said that figure comes from undocumented reports from Freeway officials. "I hate statistics," he said.

Despite its concerns, the County Division of Drug programs concluded that there was "no documentable evidence" to prevent the county from recommending SLIC and Freeway as treatment centers.

At the time of the investigation, Meehan was serving the first year of a three-year term on the county's Advisory Committee on Drug Abuse. The 11-member volunteer committee helps county officials select drug-treatment programs to receive county money.

Freeway centers, which are privately funded, are generally located in affluent regions of the county.

"They're in the ones that can pay for it," Meehan said. "They have raised the money."

Parents in those communities can also afford to send their children to SLIC. The $4,000-a-month cost of attending SLIC has raised eyebrows among professional drug counselors.

By comparison, the county-funded McAllister Institute of Training and Education in El Cajon charges about $720 a month to treat women with drug problems.

Jessica Lewis, program director for Community Resources and Self-Help Inc., which has a county contract to treat drug abusers in San Diego, said the program has never referred anyone to SLIC. Lewis said her program's clients cannot afford Meehan's program.

"His target audience is kids from families that are financially successful," she said. "He's earning big bucks. More power to him. He has a mindset of big business and the heartset of helping people. I don't question his sincerity."

During his "60 Minutes" interview four years ago, Meehan said he was worth more than the $100,000 he was then making. He would not say in a recent interview how much he makes running SLIC.

Meehan, who lives in Rancho Bernardo, said that despite the $4,000-a-month per-person SLIC Ranch fee, he is not getting rich.

"Where that profit is, I haven't seen it yet," he said. "I make enough to pay my bills and save $100 a month."

Some health professionals were reluctant to speak candidly about Meehan's program. One noted that Meehan, because he sits on the county advisory committee, wields influence over the finances of many local treatment programs.

Nevertheless, some drug-treatment experts expressed reluctance to refer clients to SLIC because of its reliance on non-professional counselors. After sitting on a panel discussion with Meehan, Greg Baer, head nurse of the substance-abuse unit at Southwood Psychiatric Hospital in Chula Vista, he said he would not recommend Meehan's program for anyone.

"I just question his ability to be therapeutic," said Baer, whose program also treats adolescents for as much as $10,200 a month. "The people we deal with need a therapeutic approach from people who are knowledgeable... you need to have knowledge of what you're doing and not just go with a gut feeling."

Baer criticized SLIC's exclusion of the families of young drug abusers from its treatment program.

"If Johnny is going to return home, you have to discuss how this is going to be done... Otherwise you are doomed for failure," he said.

Some professional counselors said they worry about Meehan's influence over young people. Lewis said it is important for an organization such as SLIC, which treats emotionally-dependent people, to be accountable to a licensing or watchdog agency. Otherwise, she said, clients can be exploited.

"It's a pain in the neck," she said, "but I'm prepared to answer to those (licensing) people. There are enough people looking over our shoulder to make sure our clients are safe."

John Adam, a licensed psychologist in Coronado who has monitored SLIC Ranch and Freeway for more than a year, said he is concerned about the unorthodox nature of the counseling. Adam said the adulation that SLIC participants feel toward Meehan resembles hero worship.

"Any time you depend on the charisma of a leader, you fear that results will fade with time or distance from the guru," he said.

Meehan said he knows that he has tremendous influence on this young charges, but he tries to use that to good purposes.

"I'd like to think I'd become one of their local heroes instead of Cheech and Chong," he said.

But he acknowledged that his relationship with the clients could lead to problems.

"Yeah, it scares me," he said. "You get into a real guru (situation). This is where cults can begin."

"I have an advantage, though, because they're here only 30 days. I cut them loose emotionally when they leave here."

[kiskatime]

2017 Reads, Ranked

22. Girl Interrupted (Susanna Kaysen): Rare instance where the movie is way way WAY better than the book. The most poignant moment was the anorexic girl cooking sweet potatoes in her pressure cooker (given the graphic suicide scene, that’s saying something). In the movie, the suicide scene and Angelina Jolie getting her nails painted at the end take the cake. Tbh, Angelina Jolie brought the story to life and earned every bit of that Oscar. Worst book I read this year by far, the rest are more evenly spaced in terms of each other. This one is a SHARP drop.

21. The Girl on the Train (Paula Hawkins): #1 New York Times bestseller, on Obama’s summer reading list, just doesn’t stand up to the hype. It was OK, I just read so much good shit this year that it doesn’t measure up. This was at the tail end of a thriller kick, what can I say, Gillian Flynn is queen and life is a series of comparisons.

20. Dark Places (Gillian Flynn): Didn’t grip me the way Gone Girl and Sharp Objects did.

19. The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing (Melissa Bank): Light read, enjoyable, chick-lit. 

18. How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease (Michael Greger): Really good, made an impact on my life, thought provoking etc., albeit cherry-picked to support an argument. Don’t get too caught up in it, eat your vegetables. Should this even be on this list? Unfortunately, I read too much fiction- the merit of this book isn’t judged by the same metrics as everything else on the list. I liked it because it’s about something I’m interested in, and it taught me that I should eat a serving of greens and cruciferous vegetables a day- one of my current metrics for daily sanity so I salute it.

17. Less Than Zero (Bret Easton Ellis): Taught me that LA is a disgusting place I don’t want to live in. Impactful read though, I guess books are supposed to make you feel things. People in Los Angeles are afraid to merge. 

Liked it enough to pick up American Psycho, which I couldn’t finish because of the weirdly Gossip Girl-like descriptions Patrick Bateman’s things and outfits. And then he picks up his artisanal persimmon and cuts it in half with his Hermes knife, pausing to admire his Eames chair that was so so expensive (not an actual quote, that was really bad, I just can’t be bothered to find one). I get that he’s a sociopath who fixates on image and that’s the lens through which he sees the world, it just gets old really fast.

16. How to Murder Your Life (Cat Marnell): I adore her, but her journalism (I stand by my calling her writing journalism) is way way better. Amphetamine Logic on Vice? Incredible! I got this the day it was released. It was OK- but OK enough for me to re-read when I was feeling like a lonely weirdo who floats through life in an underwater haze. Enjoyed on a purely visceral level, not by the merit of the writing or content. Isn't charisma Cat Marnell’s entire appeal though? I mean how else do you manipulate your way into the highest amount of amphetamines consumed by any human alive (just a guess)?

Also, she recommends Jean Stein’s biography of Edie Sedgwick in this book. She worships Edie but calls her “practically retarded”. Lololololol. She really does see things for what they are.

15. A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1) (George R.R. Martin): In stark contrast to the book above, contains no emotional merit in and of itself. Carried entirely by the richness of the plot, and brought to life by the show. Most immersive world we’ve seen in a long time. 

I’m stuck on the second book, it just doesn’t carry you consistently the way you want it to. There’s moments of brilliance and you get excited and ahead of yourself, but the valleys are too low to climb out of. What can I say, it’s good. So good he can’t seem to write himself out of it. What a ride.

14. IQ84 (Haruki Murakami): Obviously it’s good, obviously it’s dreamy-Murakami wrote it. Not as good as Kafka on the Shore. Slightly overrated, and one volume too long.

13. Arcadia (Lauren Groff): Not as good as Fates and Furies, but still incredibly immersive and beautifully written. Read it in the summer on a lazy camping trip, the exact right place to read a book about a hippie commune cult situation. This book IS summer.

12. The Secret History (Donna Tartt): Not as good as The Goldfinch, but I love the creepy private school vibes and compelling narrative. The narrator himself is underwhelming, but maybe that’s the point because everyone around him is so much more interesting. To be read by the pool.

11. In Watermelon Sugar (Richard Brautigan): The most whimsical thing I have ever read.

The higher up on the list, the narrower the margins. The harder it is to choose. Consider spots 1-5 first place, that’s how close it is. Spots 6-10 are 1.5th place. 

10. Pastoralia (George Saunders): Last book of 2017. Incredible, took me a second to get used to his style? I guess it took me a while to “get it”. Will definitely re-read, and seek out his work in the future. Funny and whimsical, completely original, blah blah. It’s hard to be original though, so mad props.

9. Self-Help (Lorrie Moore): Yes she is good! There’s such a circle jerk around this though. Even David Sedaris did a shout out at his show. Very emotional, as far as short story collections go, I liked it better than Pastoralia. Even bigger circle jerk around George Saunders tbh.

8. Fates and Furies (Lauren Groff): Thanks Obama! For this amazing book recommendation. She writes beautifully, she writes love beautifully. Stephen King actually discovered her.

7. Edie (Jean Stein): Vitamin shots (actual shots full of vitamins, minerals, cocaine, and amphetamines)- administered by actual doctors! Jim Morrison jumping on stage to give Jimi Hendrix a blowjob because he was so caught up in his performance. Starts really slow, the first two chapters are about boring old people nobody really cares about.

6. Misery (Stephen King): The GOAT strikes again.

5. Tortilla Flat (John Steinbeck): FUNNY!!!! Made my dad read it, tortured my boyfriend with excerpts read out loud. Will re-read.

4. Travels With Charley: In Search of America (John Steinbeck): Popped my Steinbeck cherry with this. He is smart. He is funny. He is good and sees things for what they are. He is seriously SO good. Actually under-hyped if that's even possible given his Pulitzer. 

3. The Goldfinch (Donna Tartt): Haven’t been so engaged in a narrative since Harry Potter. Beautiful, modern. She won a Pulitzer in Fiction for this. I gave it to my best friend, would recommend to anyone. I don’t think it caters to a narrow audience the way other things on this list might (we call that universal if we’re trying to be fancy). 

2. Thinking, Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman): He deserves his Nobel Prize in Economics. Actually shifted the way I think and see the world. There’s not a person in the world who wouldn't benefit from reading this. It should be mandatory. 

1. Meditations (Marcus Aurelius): Powerful introduction to stoicism. Pulled me out of a shallow depression. It’s the kind of thing I will re-read my entire life, to the point where I memorize it (if I’m being optimistic). Marcus Aurelius is such a boss, he could probably hold a plank forever.

~Honorable mentions~

Letters to a Young Poet (Rainer Maria Rilke): This is something that I will re-read for the rest of my life, not included in the rankings because it has reached Holy Grail status (along with Meditations). It’s short but effective.

Fun fact- his mom wanted him to be a girl so badly she named him Maria and made him wear dresses. Spooky. 

We Should All Be Feminists (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie): Not counting it because it’s a TED talk, but it’s powerful, relevant and well done. I made my ex-boyfriend watch it on International Women’s Day (lol) and it made him realize feminism isn’t about hating men.