Freeway’s Meehan Operating Again, This Time for Profit

Embattled drug and alcohol counselor Bob Meehan, whose controversial Freeway sobriety program for teen-agers folded April 11 under pressure from critics, has established a new drop-in counseling center here for teen-agers.

But the new operation is already off on the wrong foot: It does not have the required business permit to operate, according to city officials.

Unlike its predecessor, Freeway, which operated several satellite counseling centers for free at churches around San Diego County and was under the direction of a community-based board of trustees, Meehan says his new program is for profit--his--and is under the control of just one person--him.

The program is based in a former restaurant on East Valley Parkway. City licensing officials said they knew nothing of it until asked by a reporter.

About 50 teen-agers have been at the center daily since it opened Monday, Meehan said. They pay $10 a day to attend the center, which he calls Good Company. It is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

He said he hired the nine former Freeway counselors to serve as counselors at the new center.

“It’s private, for profit,” he said. “If you don’t like what we’re doing, don’t come. If you like it, come and pay for it. It’s just like a Freeway satellite, but different in that you’ll have to pay for it and because we’ve upgraded the professionalism.”

Freeway crumbled after a handful of vocal former participants and staff members alleged that, while the program succeeded in getting teen-agers off drugs and alcohol--based on a hybrid of Alcoholics Anonymous’ 12-step program and Meehan’s own philosophy that “sobriety can be fun”--they in turn became psychologically dependent on Meehan, the counselors and their peers for support in staying sober, making the program cult-like.

Freeway’s directors said they were unable to solicit community and corporate donations to cover costs in the face of such criticism, so they were forced to end it.

Some critics alleged that Meehan and his counselors turned participants away from their families and their religious beliefs and took the “sobriety can be fun” philosophy to the extreme by encouraging antisocial behavior and vandalism, termed “fun felonies” by Meehan.

The former executive director of Freeway has charged that Freeway was little more than a front to funnel clients to Meehan’s private SLIC (Sober Live-In Center) Ranch, which costs $5,000 a month for more intense drug and alcohol counseling. That allegation is being studied by the San Diego County district attorney’s office, a spokesman said.

The SLIC Ranch program, operating from a ranch-style house on the southeastern edge of Escondido, also is under investigation by the state Department of Social Services for not being licensed as a care and supervision facility. Children as young as 12 live there for 30 days while receiving counseling at an “outpatient” office on West 8th Avenue in Escondido.

But many Meehan supporters counter that Freeway was the only program that succeeded in getting teen-agers off drugs and alcohol, and they said they resented self-appointed consumer advocate Captain Sticky (the real name of a man who claims to be “America’s only practicing caped crusader”) for rallying opposition to Meehan and focusing media attention on him.

Meehan calls Sticky’s dogged campaign against him “terrorism.” District attorney’s office spokesman Steve Casey said Meehan’s attorney has asked for an investigation into mailings by Sticky that have contained scathing attacks on Meehan, his wife and Meehan’s programs.

Meehan said Wednesday he won’t turn to community leaders to sit on a board of directors to oversee his programs.

“I learned that I cannot expect good people like the members of the Freeway board to stand up under the terrorism that is going to befall anybody who attempts to work with youth and their families,” he said.

“And I’m sorry that I have to turn away people who can’t afford the $10 a day. But it’s still cheaper than a baby sitter--or doing drugs.”

The object of Good Company is to give sober teen-agers a place “to hang out” for mutual support, he said. The members “sit around, play cards, talk, relax--sober socializing,” he said.

Many of the participants are school-age children who say they have dropped out of school to avoid the negative influence of drugs on campuses, and instead are pursuing their education through in-home study or private tutors.

David Bleu, 17, of San Diego, and Scott Greenleaf, 18, of San Carlos, said they drove to Escondido to be at Good Company because they seek peer support to help maintain their sobriety.

“This is where my friends are,” said Bleu, standing in the parking lot outside the center. “It used to be, if people had drugs, they were my friends, and if I had drugs, I was their friend. It’s nice to have friendships without having to rely on drugs, and to be clear-headed.”

Greenleaf said he was upset that Freeway supporters--including his own father, who was on the board of directors--were being criticized “for caring about their children by putting them in a drug program.”

“The secret of this program is that people care about each other,” he said. “You can’t find that on the streets.”

Whatever the value of Good Company, it will need to apply for a business permit since Meehan “is receiving money and doing business at that location,” said city business license inspector Vern Liljenquist.

Meehan disagreed, citing the advice of his attorney that “as long as we don’t take off-the-street walk-in business, a business license is not necessary. If the city says otherwise, I’ll get one.”

Meehan said he and his staff would hold peer-support meetings at no charge for both teen-agers and their parents at the 8th Avenue office used in conjunction with the SLIC Ranch operation. The first such meeting attracted about 150 people Tuesday night.

Liljenquist said Meehan is not licensed to conduct business at that location either; Meehan countered that he believed none was needed.

In yet another development indicative of the controversy surrounding Meehan and his programs, Meehan said Wednesday morning that an alcoholism expert from Santa Monica would visit SLIC Ranch today to evaluate the program and then offer his observations at a press conference on Monday.

Meehan said he invited Dr. Joseph Takamine, chairman of the American Medical Assn.’s task force on alcoholism, to evaluate SLIC’s operations “to help me find out why we are creating such animosity among those who don’t find what they are looking for at SLIC.”

But Takamine said Wednesday afternoon that he had second thoughts about making the evaluation and has backed out of the visit.

“I don’t want to involve myself in an issue with so many personal overtones and because I felt strongly that a proper evaluation of the program could not be done in one day,” he said. “It would have been grossly superficial.”