Charlie Sheen’s struggles with drug addiction weren’t just a concern for his family and friends; they even caught the attention of a Mexican drug cartel. Imagine that for a minute.
Sheen, now 60 years old, shared this wild story during a recent episode of the Australian program 60 Minutes on Sunday, September 21. He recalled a time when the cartel actually "cut him off" because he was buying an unbelievable amount of cocaine. Interviewer Amelia Adams had to ask, "The cartel cut you off?" Sheen confirmed, "Yes, yes. They had never seen anyone acquiring that amount."
It turned out that the sheer volume of drugs Sheen requested set off major alarms. He explained that cartels only moved such quantities for actual dealers. "The only ones they delivered that much to were dealers," he added, "They thought I was dealing on my own." That’s quite a thought, isn’t it? That a cartel might mistake a celebrity for a rival drug trafficker.
To give you an idea of his past usage, Sheen was once asked if he ever smoked "seven-gram crack rocks." His immediate, grimly humorous response was, "I was going to need a bigger pipe." He clarified a bit more, adding, "Well, we never took one out and put it on the scale. But that was the amount cooked to get that shape."
Sheen has been much more open lately about his long battle with addiction. He’s shared his story in his memoir, The Book of Sheen, and in his eye-opening Netflix documentary, aka Charlie Sheen. The documentary features his former dealer, Marco, who revealed some desperate attempts to help Sheen. Marco told director Andrew Renzi about trying to get Sheen off crack by basically "cleaning" the drug.
Renzi explained this strange method to Deadline earlier this month. "Apparently, it’s just putting more baking soda in each time," Renzi said, without going into too much detail about how crack is made. "You mix baking soda and cocaine and create crack." Marco’s idea was to reverse that. Renzi continued, "[Marco] just kept making more and more with baking soda. Finally, there was no crack, no cocaine. Charlie was just smoking baking soda." It was a bizarre, last-ditch effort to get him to stop.
Naturally, Renzi was asked about Sheen’s current state. The director offered a thoughtful perspective on the star’s journey. "My perspective is that he is, possibly, at least from the point of view of a public figure, the greatest emblem of an addict who is still alive. He went as far as one can without dying," Renzi noted.
What makes Sheen’s story truly remarkable, according to Renzi, is his quiet dedication to recovery. For the last eight years, Sheen hasn’t just been trying to understand his addiction; he’s also made a conscious effort to avoid falling back into old patterns, like chasing public attention or new acting roles. "He really stepped away to resolve this. And that’s pretty rare," Renzi shared. "Eight years is a lot of time for anyone looking to reconcile with these things. So I would say yes. When I sat across from him, I always thought: this is an honest person, who perhaps won’t give everyone what they want, but he is here, he is present and tells his own truth. That, for me, is a very specific success story." It sounds like Charlie Sheen is finally finding his winning ways, but this time, it’s a win for himself.